This year's IASA conference, Italian American Identity Politics (New Orleans Marriott, October 3-5, 2013) examines the politics of the identifying term "Italian American" from multiple perspectives and in different time periods. The evocation of "Italian American" for political purposes and agendas has a varied history, e.g., to combat anti-Italian American discrimination, to rally allegiance to Mussolini's Fascist regime, or to support feminism.

In addition to various ideological positions, the structures for conjuring and maintaining ethnic identity have also been myriad, including newspapers, the Catholic Church, commercial marketing, voluntary associations, and social media sites.

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Source: http://www.italianamericanstudies.net/