This conference offers a reflection on the value of the Italian language today as a language of culture, thanks to its rich literary, artistic and musical tradition, as well as its ability to adapt to contemporary changes.
As a vehicle for cultural expression and production, the Italian language represents a bridge to the international humanistic heritage, keeping alive a connection between the past and innovation. This synthesis is reflected, among other things, in the growing number of foreign students studying Italian, demonstrating that Italian remains, throughout the world, a language of beauty, identity and shared knowledge.
It is from this awareness that the idea arose to celebrate the centenary of the University for Foreigners of Perugia with the publication, by Treccani, of the volume L’Università per Stranieri di Perugia. Storia di un ateneo aperto al mondo. The book celebrates the important role that the university in Perugia has played, and continues to play, in promoting and spreading the value of the Italian language and culture throughout the world.
Wednesday, October 21st at 6 p.m.
Free admission
Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal
1200 Dr Penfield Avenue
The conference will be held in Italian.
Valerio De Cesaris (Rome, 1974) is a Professor of Contemporary History. His research focuses primarily on political and religious history, with particular attention to twentieth-century Italy, relations between Catholics and Jews, antisemitism and racism, and migration.
His most recent books include: Vaticano, fascismo e questione razziale (Milan, 2010), Spiritualmente semiti. La risposta cattolica all’antisemitismo (Milan, 2017), Il grande sbarco. L’Italia e la scoperta dell’immigrazione (Milan, 2018), Seduzione fascista. La Chiesa cattolica e Mussolini 1919-1923 (Cinisello Balsamo, 2020), La battaglia per le coscienze. Chiesa cattolica e fascismo 1924-1938 (Cinisello Balsamo, 2022), and Nella bufera della guerra. La Chiesa cattolica tra fascismo e democrazia 1939-1945 (Cinisello Balsamo, 2024).
He has recently edited the following volumes: Il confine mediterraneo. L’Europa di fronte agli sbarchi dei migranti (with E. Diodato, Rome, 2018), L’immigrazione in Italia da Jerry Masslo a oggi (with M. Impagliazzo, Milan, 2020), L’Università per Stranieri di Perugia. Storia di un ateneo aperto al mondo (with S. Cingari, G. Rigano and R. Vetrugno, Rome, 2024), and Pensare Francesco. Storia, memoria e uso politico (with D. Menozzi, A. Possieri and A. Roccucci, Bologna, 2025).
He is a full member of the Istituto Sturzo in Rome and a member of the Italian Society for the Study of Contemporary History (SISSCO), where he served on the Board of Directors from 2019 to 2022.
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