Co-hosted by the Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies (CHAS), this event offered a rare look at the innovative methods used to investigate and preserve ancient heritage increasingly affected by rising groundwater.

The lecture鈥檚 success reflects the vibrant scholarly environment of MSU鈥檚 Department of Classics and General Humanities, where students and faculty continue to engage with the forefront of archaeological research and public heritage. Together, AIA and CHAS are putting our campus at the heart of global discovery!

The lecture鈥檚 success reflects the vibrant scholarly environment fostered by CHAS and the Department of Classics and General Humanities, which serve as a vital bridge for archaeological research and public heritage on campus. AIA and CHAS are leading the conversation on the future of archaeological science and public engagement.

Pearce Paul Creasman, Ph.D. | Amman, Jordan

Lecture – DIVING THE PYRAMIDS: Underwater Tombs and Excavation at the Royal Cemetery of Nuri, Sudan | March 31, 2026 | Dickson Hall, 糖心vlog

Blending excerpts from audiovisual archival material, literary sources, and original video-interviews with direct witnesses of the 1943 Allied Landing in Sicily, the presentation read a largely forgotten pivotal historical event of WWII through the lens of foodways. In Fiore’s approach, as a memory and narrative device, food allows for an alternate history of the liberation campaign through complicating both the myth of the Land of Abundance incarnated by the U.S. military forces and the image of a destitute Sicily that the Americans embraced.

Included in the Jerre Mangione Lecture Series and sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies, the lecture fostered a lively debate among graduate students and faculty alike with a mix of touching family recollections, intellectual curiosity towards the subject, and careful inquiry about the research methodology.

March 10, 2026 marked the launch of , a book co-translated from Italian by Dr. Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, WLC Department). Written by Nikolai Prestia in Italian, this autofiction work was published by Rutgers University Press in the OVOI series (Other Voices in Italian). Enriched by a preface by Loredana Polezzi, a translator鈥檚 note by Teresa Fiore, and the cover photo by Lilia Pino Blouin created specifically for the book, the publication is part of a collaboration between the author and a mother-daughter translator duo, Teresa Fiore and Daniela Chaudhary Fiore.

Largely based on Prestia’s early life, the novel portrays the experience of the protagonist Kola growing up in 1990s Russia in a family marked by poverty, substance abuse, and neglect, which is the reason why Kola and his sister are eventually admitted into the orphanage system. Here, Kola comes face to face with a different but equally daunting challenge: navigating an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile world haunted by the absence of his mother. The ensuing journey, which eventually culminates in the adoption by an Italian family, alternates moments of both trauma and deliverance, while asking fundamental questions about our ability to reconcile ourselves with unfathomable loss.

Harrowing yet lyrical, Nikolai Prestia鈥檚 prize-winning 2021 novel is a testament to the duality of memory in its ability to both hurt and heal, and to the transformative power of those figures, adults and peers alike, who contribute to a child鈥檚 development. A rarity even in the realm of books on adoption, the novel serves up a wrenching glimpse into the back stories that often precede the adoption of an older child.

In Italy, the book was the winner of the Massarosa Literary Prize for Debut Novel, was long listed for the Comisso Prize, and short listed for the Premio Zocca Giovani. Originally published in 2022 by Marislio, it was reprinted in the prestigious Economica Feltrinelli series after several reprints. See some early .

Special thanks to Alessandro Vettori for embracing the proposal in 2022, Sandra Waters and Eilis Kierans for their wordsmithing as editors, Carah Nasseem, and the whole team at Rutgers University Press, for bringing the project into harbor. This project was also made possible through the support of presentations, workshops, and services by the Inserra Chair at 糖心vlog over the years.

Presentations of the book in Italian:
1. Online conversation with Nikolai Prestia at 糖心vlog (2022)
2. In-person presentation in Sicily (2024)

Part of the broader project launched by Dr. Fiore, titled Adoption Studies.

This ever-expanding site available in both and , and configured in mobile-friendly mode accessible via cell phone, is an aggregator of pre-existing forms of knowledge as well as new textual, video, and audio material, gathered in collaboration with professors of the University of Palermo (including the Agrigento branch, Polo Territoriale), environmentalist guides, chefs, photographers, architects, local residents, etc., and co-implemented with Ph.D. students Giacomo Frazzetta and Do臒a Tekin. The project was co-sponsored by the Agrigento 2025 Foundation, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Region of Sicily, the Municipality of Agrigento, the Inserra Chair (糖心vlog), and UCLA, with the logistical support of the Municipality of Realmonte.

The project has already been covered in other media: , , and .

Short link:

The drive was organized by Wendy C. Nielsen (English Department), in collaboration with Jennifer Dudeck鈥慙enis (Social Work and Child Advocacy) and Jeff Gonzalez (English), who delivered the donations to Bridge of Books in Monmouth County. Contributors included but are not limited to the Child Advocacy Club (President Jaclyn Alicea and Secretary Ashley Rahill, mentored by Nydia Monagas and Jennifer Dudeck鈥慙enis), the English Club (advised by Jeffrey Gonzalez), Steffi Dippold (History and English), Laura Nicosia (English and ISST), Wendy Nielsen, their students, and English alumna Chloe Driscoll.

Access to books is access to possibility. This collaboration showed what our community can accomplish together鈥攆rom student leaders and alumni to staff and faculty鈥攕o more New Jersey kids can become addicted to reading and the world of imagination.
鈥� Wendy C. Nielsen, faculty organizer

About Bridge of Books Foundation
Founded in New Jersey in 2003, Bridge of Books has grown from a volunteer鈥憀ed effort into a statewide partner that collects and distributes books through drives, individual donations, publishers, and community events鈥攁lways with the goal of getting as many books as possible into the hands of kids who need them.

Through an experimental narrative, the film tells the journey to the United States of the protagonist, a Sicilian woman forced to emigrate to the USA with an imposed arranged marriage, leaving behind a partner and her children. As such, the woman becomes “other” both with respect to the world she comes from and that of Lawrence, Massachusetts, in which she finds herself living after crossing the ocean. The theme of the video is highly relevant to the Agrigento 2025 dossier, entitled “The Self, the Other and Nature: Cultural Relations and Transformations” and places emphasis on the gender issue, in a province characterized by strong emigration, including female emigration, both in the past and today.

Maria Rapicavoli’s video work is an adaptation of the real story of a relative of hers, whose micro-history as “other” is intertwined with the US macro-history at the time of the Spanish flu epidemic and the great strikes that redefined the concept of work in the 20th century. From a philosophical point of view, Rapicavoli’s work is inspired by the words of Simone de Beauvoir in the essay “Woman as Other” which serves as the introduction to The Second Sex, a revolutionary book published in 1949: “It is not the Other who, by defining itself as Other, defines the One; the Other is posited as Other by the One positing itself as One. But in order for the Other not to turn into the One, the Other has to submit to this foreign point of view.鈥�

Created in 2020, the two-channel version of the video had an extremely limited audience due to the impact of COVID on the art world, although it was screened in prestigious spaces. This installation in Agrigento therefore has a key role in making the video in the original version accessible to a wide and varied audience, for the first time in Italy and in particular in Sicily, which is one of the two locations of the story.

The opening of the installation takes place only a week after the in November 2025, a day at the General Assembly at the United Nations in 1999.

THE OTHER: A FAMILIAR STORY is a video installation included in the project called , as part of , with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Fondazione Agrigento Capitale, the Sicilian Region, the Municipality of Agrigento, and the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at 糖心vlog.

听 听

The work was initially commissioned by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, exhibited in collaboration with Westf盲lischer Kunstverein, and supported by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (now MIC) within the Italian Council Program.

Resources
Further information on this
Maria Rapicavoli’s
Maria Rapicavoli’s
project

Maria D. Rapicavoli was born in Catania and lives and works in New York. She obtained a Master’s degree in Art from Goldsmiths University in London (2005) and a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania (2001). She participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in 2012. In 2024 she was an Artist Fellow at the Swiss Institute of Rome. In 2023/24 she taught as an artist at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York.

She has exhibited in several group exhibitions (The High Line, New York; ICAMilano; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; Westf盲lischer Kunstverein, M眉nster; Magazzino Arte Italiana, Cold Spring, NY; Whitechapel Gallery, London; The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York; Villa Croce Museum, Genoa; Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin; Villa Croce Museum, Genoa; Palazzo Reale, Milan; Riso, Museum of Contemporary Art, Palermo; Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, Florence; Italian Cultural Institute in London and New York). She has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the Italian Council Award VI edition (2019); New York Award – The Italian Institute and the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, New York (2021). For years she has been an associate artist at the prestigious Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York. For more information, see

Teresa Fiore holds the Inserra Chair of Italian Studies and Italo-American Studies at 糖心vlog (New Jersey, USA). She has also taught at Harvard, Yale and NYU. She is the author of the book Pre-occupied Spaces: A remapping of transnational migrations and Italian colonial legacies (Mondadori/Le Monnier 2021), which also addresses the topics of the Italian diaspora and gender, and of numerous articles on migration to and from Italy. In 2019 she was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy for her work in cultural diplomacy between Italy and the USA through a regular calendar of events(). She is currently working on a project on food practices during the Allied landing in Sicily in 1943 (Food, Hunger and Migration) and a project on the cultural representation of adoption (Adoption Studies Project). For Agrigento Capital of Culture 2025, she coordinated four programs within the project (a program on the SBARCO/Landing of the Allies in Sicily in 1943, a project of digital research on the Scala dei Turchi, an exhibit about the Italian citizenship law e videoinstallation about emigration and gender)

The event represented a powerful convergence of educational philosophies. Melenciano, who attended the gathering and spoke with the educators, later reflected on the unexpected resonance between Afrotectopia’s approach and Reggio Emilia principles: “A shared belief in pedagogy that begins as play 鈥� a rigorous yet porous method for imagination and inquiry,” she wrote. “Reggio Emilia centers the design of environments, forms of participation, and professional growth through organic, student-centered approaches. Values that deeply resonate with Afrotectopia. The creation of Black Metal, and much of Afrotectopia’s ethos overall, has been about designing the ‘container’ for imagination to thrive without a preset destination. Black Metal emerged from four aligned artists mind-melding and simply asking, ‘What’s possible?'”

Following the gallery experience, several participants who had traveled to Italy as part of an innovative Reggio Emilia immersion program (2024, 2025) at Montclair State shared reflections on how their international study informs their teaching practices. Through this program, designed and taught by Dr. Miele and Dr. Elizabeth Erwin (CEEL), two cohorts of MSU undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students have studied at the Loris Malaguzzi International Center in Reggio Emilia.

Miele has been engaged with progressive approaches to education, and Reggio Emilia in particular, since 2010. In 2016, she organized a widely attended panel on “The Reggio Emilia Approach: The U.S. School System’s Responses to an Italian Educational Philosophy” that drew educators from across New Jersey, covered extensively in La Voce di New York (, ). Saturday’s event attracted a similarly robust turnout, reflecting continued enthusiasm for child-centered pedagogy.

For more information about NJEEPRE, visit . The Age of Black Metal is on view at the George Segal Gallery through December 14.

The group heard from experts about human trafficking as a national and international crime (Francesca LaGuardia, Department of Justice Studies and Debra Jones, International Organization for Adolescents), they met with survivors of trafficking and connected with Jasmine Ostrow, Atlantic County Prosecutor鈥檚 Office and Joseph Remy, National White-Collar Crime Center. Detective Sergeant Richard Hershey from the New Jersey State Police highlighted experiences and challenges with human trafficking cases. To illustrate the differences between the American and Austrian criminal justice system, the group also completed two field trips to the Essex Co. Criminal Court and Northern State Prison.

Group with judge Marysol Rosero, Criminal Trial Judge

International student travel, such as this annual program with the University of Graz is important because it fosters personal growth, global awareness, and career readiness鈥攁ll while enriching academic learning through real-world experience.

Funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Job Mobility program, the visit brought Vittoria Zingaro and Adriana Gallo to campus to observe English for Business instruction and explore pedagogical approaches that bridge language learning with professional competencies. The partnership continues to evolve, with Prof. Enza Antenos, Director of the Language, Business & Culture BA program and the Department of World Languages and Literatures, scheduled to travel to the Dell’Acqua campus during Spring 2026 to consult on their English business program鈥攁lso funded under the Erasmus+ grant.

Zingaro and Gallo participated in a comprehensive observation program spanning multiple business disciplines. Their week included courses addressing marketing creativity and strategy, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, international business operations, intercultural communication in professional contexts, and the capstone course that activates language competencies with business acumen in tangible ways.

“It was a pleasure to have Vittoria and Adriana visit my creative marketing class,” shared marketing professor Manveer Mann. “It’s inspiring to connect with educators from around the world who are passionate about effective instruction. I appreciated their engagement and interest in my pedagogical approach and the opportunity to discuss it with them and learn about the Italian cultural perspectives. I look forward to future opportunities for collaboration.”

The program extended beyond academic observation to include strategic professional engagements. Highlights included a faculty and administration luncheon that fostered cross-institutional dialogue, a meeting with Education Director Daniele Castellani at the Italian Consulate in New York to explore broader collaboration opportunities, and a corporate visit to Bindi North America Inc. in Kearny, New Jersey. At Bindi, the educators gained insights into Italian business operations in the American market, with the visit facilitated by Francesca Oliveri, a communications specialist at Bindi and an Italian alumna, further reinforcing the international connections that make such partnerships meaningful.

The Erasmus+ program is the European Union’s flagship initiative supporting education and training across Europe and beyond, facilitating professional development opportunities for educators and promoting cross-cultural understanding.

“The Erasmus+ program exemplifies the kind of meaningful international partnerships that enrich both our faculty and students,” noted Antenos. “By sharing pedagogical practices and building networks across the Atlantic, we’re preparing students for the truly global nature of contemporary business.”
The collaboration represents the growing internationalization of Montclair’s Language, Business & Culture program and its commitment to fostering educational exchanges that benefit students, faculty, and institutions locally and abroad.

The World Language and Culture programs at Montclair State build on this, standing out as some of the best in the country. A few examples:

• 惭辞苍迟肠濒补颈谤鈥檚 French Program was in 2025 the sole university to be named as an by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF).
• In 2025, German and French Professor Pascale LaFountain was awarded 惭辞苍迟肠濒补颈谤鈥檚 first Presidential Excellence in Teaching Award as well as the national AATG award for Outstanding Post-Secondary Educator.
• Italian faculty member Enza Antenos has been named national Educator of the Year by the Italian Language Foundation, and the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) has recognized Dr. Antenos with its national Distinguished Service Award in 2023.
• 惭辞苍迟肠濒补颈谤鈥檚 German Program in 2020 became one of a very selective group of by the American Association of Teachers of German.
• Italian faculty members Marisa Trubiano and Teresa Fiore have both been named to the prestigious .

With the faculty frequently publishing on their teaching and cultural scholarship, and being invited to share their expertise around the country and the world, each faculty member is also fully committed to teaching and advising at all levels.

Italian Professor Marisa Trubiano notes, 鈥淚n my twenty-five years of teaching here at 糖心vlog, every new semester has brought together an exciting, challenging, inquisitive new group of young people into a community of inquiry that it has been a privilege to teach. These students鈥� intellectual and professional development is always first and foremost on our minds as we all find innovative ways to facilitate and support their growth and readiness for our rapidly changing world.鈥�

Many students choose to double major in Arabic, Asian Languages, French, German, or Italian alongside majors in business, sciences, humanities, education and the arts. While participating in World Language and Culture programs, students engage in collaborative and community-building projects such as the Haitian Poetry Project, Teaching German in the SPARK for German Teaching Lab, performing theater in Italy, and capstone courses in Language, Business & Culture featuring conversations with business leaders applying their language skills for career success.

After graduation, many students take on positions in international companies, win international Fulbright grants after graduation, or pursue advanced degrees.

With its standout programs in World Languages and Cultures, Montclair significantly contributes to preparing the next generation of globally ready diplomats, entrepreneurs, teachers, and innovators.