© 2025 Beatrice Sica.

Beatrice Sica

I am regularly invited to speak at academic conferences and university seminars. Below you find the list of all the talks and papers I have given since 2002 in the United States and in Europe (including the United Kingdom).

Talks, papers at conferences, and seminars
 by invitation
 (in reversed chronological order)

 

  1. “Sono nata il 21 a primavera. Laura Morante legge Alda Merini.” The Italian Library #4. Italian Cultural Institute, London, 20 March 2025.
  2. “Who's on that pedestal? Equestrian monuments through the eyes of French Surrealists and Italian Cartooninsts in the 1930s.” Keynote speech at the international conference on Fonctions du surréalisme / The Functions of Surrealism / Funzioni del surrealismo, organised by the University of Turin in collaboration with the University of Padua, Rome-3 University, Arizona State University, and Centro Studi Arti della Modernità – CSAM. Turin, 4-6 December 2024.
  3. “Una serata con Gianni Rodari, Vanessa Roghi e Beatrice Sica.” The Italian Library #16. Italian Cultural Institute, London, 23 October 2024.
  4. “Laughing at equestrian statues in Mussolini’s Italy.” Class for MA students at the University of Bologna. 16 September 2024 
  5. “Italo Calvino lettore, spettatore, scrittore: i principi del piacere”, London Library, 25 June 2024.
  6. “Il ménage à trois di Calvino e Ariosto nella trilogia I nostri antenati”, class for PhD students, Università di Bologna, 30 May 2024.
  7. “La seduzione estetica del tiranno / 1: Mussolini.” Fantasmi della tirannide. La rappresentazione letteraria del tiranno conference at University of Parma, 24 May 2024.
  8. “Scendere dal piedistallo, disarcionare i cavalieri. Umoristi, scrittori, illustratori, registi italiani del Novecento contro l’idolatria.” Class for MA and PhD students of the IUAV University, Venice, 8 May 2024
  9. “Tra unicorni e draghi: i libri per bambini sulla malattia." Pathographies et autopathographies italiennes au XXIème siècle. Réflexions interdisciplinaires sur l’écriture de la maladie, international study day, Université Paris Nanterre, 2 February 2024.
  10. "Sette finestre di Enrico Palandri.” Book presentation with writer Enrico Palandri, Italian Cultural Institute in London, 14 December 2023. 
  11. “Stevenson and the others: the pleasure principle.” Italo Calvino and Anglo-American culture, international conference, Italian Cultural Institute in London, 6 December 2023.
  12. “Calvino e Ariosto: un ménage à trois?” Calvino e i classici, study day, Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e Culture Moderne, 1 December 2023.
  13. “Incontro con Enrico Palandri.” Seminar for Moscow State Linguistic University [former Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages], with writer Enrico Palandri, Beatrice Manetti, Erika De Angelis, online, 23 October 2023.
  14. “Alfonso Gatto e la povertà.” Class for students of the Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa, Napoli, 12 April 2023.
  15. “Insegnare l’italiano (la lingua, la cultura, la letteratura) agli stranieri.” Seminars and lecture for MA students at the University of Bologna, 4-5 April 2023.
  16. “Word.” Class for MA students of the Sinclètica Monastic School, Monserrat (online), 18 March 2023.
  17. “Giorgio Manganelli and Luigi Settembrini’s The Neoplatonists.” Response to a new English-language translation of The Neoplatonists by Luigi Settembrini. Discussion with authors Barbara Graziosi and Andrea Capra on “Classics, Love, Revolution: The Legacies of Luigi Settembrini.” University College London, 14 March 2023.
  18. “Humility.” Class for MA students of the Sinclètica Monastic School, Monserrat (online), 21 January 2023.
  19. “Sbarazzarsi del cavaliere. La cultura italiana contro l’idolatria (1945-1966).” Class for the PhD students in “Culture letterarie e filologiche” of the University of Bologna. 26 October 2021.
  20. “Covid-19 and Dante’s Hell: Venturing from a Black Hole on the Thread of a Tune.” Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, 19 October 2021.
  21. “Words for Covid-19,” paper for the international conference The Languages for Covid-19: Implications for Global Healthcare. Institute of Modern Languages Research (online), London, 21 June 2021.
  22. “Italy and France between the two world wars: magic countries?” Talk for the UCL Francophone and Italian Societies, London (online), 27 November 2020.
  23. “Poetry and Portraiture” (with Catherine Keen). Workshop on Italian poetry for students at Westminster Academy Sixth Form, London (online), 22 and 29 June 2020.
  24. In and Out of the Saddle: Cavalieri in Twentieth-Century Italian Culture.” Dulwich College, London, 15 November 2019.
  25. “Campioni di quale fede? Immagini di cavalieri nella cultura italiana del Novecento.” Lecture for Il Circolo, London, 24 September 2019.
  26. “From ‘This Quarter’ to the ‘European Caravan’: Samuel Putnam’s Anthologies of Italian Literature.” Biennial Conference of the Society for Italian Studies (SIS), University of Edinburgh, 28 June 2019.
  27. “In and Out of the Saddle: Images of Cavalrymen and Knights in Italian Culture, 1915-1965.” Festival of Culture, University College London, 7 June 2019.
  28. “Samuel Putnam, Italian Literature, and the European Caravan.” International Conference on The Diasporic Canon. Anthologies of Italian Literature in Translation, University College London, 1 June 2019.
  29. “Samuel Putnam, This Quarter e la letteratura italiana.” Study Day on La letteratura italiana del Secondo Novecento fuori d’Italia (1945-1989). Ricezione e immaginario: le riviste, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Bruxelles, 6 May 2019.
  30. “In and Out of the Saddle: Cavalieri in 20th-Century Italian Culture.” Lecture for the Laurea magistrale in Italian Studies, University of Bologna, 15 April 2019.
  31.  “Politics in and Out of the Saddle: Cavalieri in 20th-Century Italian Culture.” Oxford Italian Research Seminar, University of Oxford, 13 November 2018.
  32. “Le seduzioni dell’uomo a cavallo: Mussolini, Gadda, Palazzeschi e la cultura virile in Italia tra primo Novecento e fascismo.” Journée d’études sur la littérature italienne: “La masculinité dans la littérature italienne contemporaine”, Université Paris Nanterre (CRIX, Centre de Recherches Italiennes), Paris, 28 September 2018.
  33.  “Necessary deformations: caricatures and parodies of Mussolini condottiero in post-WWII Italy.”Mis-Shapings: The Art of Deformation and the History of Emotions, International Conference, Queen Mary University of London,, 13 September 2018.
  34. “Men on Horseback in 20th-Century Italy.” Poster and science slam session at EURIAS 2018 conference and annual meeting, Institute for Advanced Studies, Central European University, Budapest, 26-28 April 2018.
  35. “Resistance Knights? Unseated, Mutilated, and Defeated Men on Horseback in the Italian Culture of the 1950s and 1960s.” Society of Italian Studies Themed Conference on Resistance in Italian Culture: Literature, Politics, and Film, University of Sussex, Brighton, 5-6 April 2018.
  36. “Campioni di quale fede? Immagini di cavalieri nella cultura italiana del Novecento.” Scuola Superiore dell’Università degli Studi di Udine, 7 March 2018.
  37. “Figures of the Past to Speak About the Present: Medieval Knights in Italian literary and visual culture of the 1950s and 1960s.” Lecture for the Laurea magistrale in Italian Studies, University of Bologna, 13 February 2018.
  38.  “The Language of Images and the Practice of Rewriting: Lancers and Condottieri in Italy from the 1910s to the 1940s.”Lecture for the Laurea magistrale in Italian Studies, University of Bologna, 6 February 2018.
  39. “Gianfranco Contini’s Italie magique / Italia magica.” Colloquium on Gianfranco Contini, University of Cambridge, 17 January 2018.
  40. “Siamo uomini o cavalieri? Immagini di lancieri, condottieri, combattenti a cavallo nella cultura italiana del Novecento.” Doctoral School of the University of Bologna, 30 November 2017.
  41. “Politics in and Out of the Saddle: Images of Cavalrymen and Knights in Italian Culture, 1915-1966.”Acton Lectures Series, New York University–Villa La Pietra, Florence, 28 November 2017.
  42. “Le dictateur à cheval entre antiquité et modernité,” Journée d’études sur Mythe des origines et réalité politique: La Mostra augustea della romanità (1937-1938), Université de Lille, 13 October 2017.
  43. “Du Duce condottière au César en carton-pâte: construction, traductions, réceptions et destruction des images de Mussolini à cheval,” LASLAR (Lettres, Arts du Spectacle, Langues Romanes), Universitè de Caen, Basse-Normandie, Caen, 16 March 2017.
  44. “Omacci sudati, paladini di carta e bietoloni: la parodia dei cavalieri in Calvino, Luzzati e Monicelli,” CAER (Centre Aixois d’Etudes Romanes), Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, 27 February 2017.
  45. “Unseated, mutilated, nonexistent knights in postwar Italy.”Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) Conference, University of London and Italian Cultural Institute, London, 25-26 November 2016.
  46. “Milano fantastica: via Saterno, piazza del Duomo e via Belloveso.” Conference on Milan: Crossroad of Cultures, University of Birmingham and University of Warwick in collaboration with University of Milan, Milan, 22-23 September 2016.
  47. “Out of the Saddle: Deconstructing the Myth of Mussolini on a Horse.” Conference on Icons of Italy, University of Hull, 7-8 September 2016.
  48. “Zoopraxography, Chronophotography, and Futurist Art.” Fifth International Conference on Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, organized by the European network for Avant-garde and Modernism Studies (EAM), University of Rennes 2, Rennes, 1-3 June 2016.
  49. “The Boot and the Saddle: Italian Children and the Image of Mussolini on a Horse.” International conference Under Control. Childhood and Twentieth-Century Dictatorships (1917-1991), University of Warwick, 19 May 2016.
  50. “L’Italia magica.” Université de Lausanne, section d’italien, Lausanne, 29 October 2015.
  51. “Fantastico, magico, italiano: intrecci teorici e sviluppi critici da Contini a Calvino.” Journée d’études sur le fantastique italien, Université Paris Nanterre (CRIX, Centre de Recherches Italiennes), Paris, 23 October 2015.
  52. “Novecento al galoppo: personaggi a cavallo tra letteratura, cinema e arte.” Séminaire général ELCI – Équipe de Littérature et Culture Italiennes, Université Sorbonne-Paris IV, Paris, 20 May 2015.
  53. “The ‘mysterious realm’ of childhood: Alain-Fournier’s Le grand Meaulnes and Paola Masino’s Periferia.” Annual Conference of the American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS), University of Zurich, 23-25 May 2014.
  54. “Back to the Future on Galloping Horses.” Interdisciplinary conference Memories of the Future. Chelsea College of Art and Design (UAL) and Institute of Modern Languages Research (Senate House), London, 2-3 May 2014.
  55. “Les études italiennes, en Italie et dans le monde.” Journées doctorales en études italiennes 2014. Université Paris Nanterre (CRIX, Centre de Recherches Italiennes), Paris, 28-29 March 2014.
  56. “L’ ‘Italie magique’ de Gianfranco Contini entre ‘fantastique’ et Résistence.” International Conference Gianfranco Contini entre France et Italie: philologie et critique, Clermont-Ferrand, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, 30 May-1 June 2013.
  57. “Is it magic or fantastic? Definition, translations, and contexts of controversial terms in literary and art criticism.” Postgraduate Training Programme in Italian Studies. University of London, School of Advanced Studies, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London, 17 May 2013.
  58. “L’art et la littérature « magiques » en France et en Italie: approches critiques et questions méthodologiques.” Journées doctorales 2011. Université Paris Nanterre (Études romanes EA 369 – Lettres, langues et spectacles ED 138). Paris, 30-31 May 2011.
  59. “Gianfranco Contini, l’ «Italie magique» et le débat franco-italien sur les arts dans l’entre-deux-guerres.” Séminaires du Collège de France (Chaire de Littératures modernes de l’Europe néolatine), Paris, 24 March 2011.
  60. “Le débat franco-italien sur l’art magique dans l’entre-deux-guerres: identité nationale et sens du sacré.” Quête identitaire et territoires du sacré. Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV – E.L.C.I, Équipe de Littérature et Culture Italiennes, E.A. 1496) and Collège de France (Chaire de Littératures modernes de l’Europe néolatine), Paris, 26-27 November 2010.
  61. “ ‘In the name, always, of the great, unique, true Idea-Force’: Paolo Buzzi, Italian Futurism, and French Surrealism.” International Conference Futurisms: Precursors, Protagonists, Legacies, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, 1-3 December 2009.
  62. “La Renaissance disputée: la France surréaliste, l’Italie ‘magique,’ et l’art italien du Quattrocento et du Cinquecento.” International Conference Acteurs et enjeux idéologiques des échanges culturels entre la France et l’Italie, 1925-1935. École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and Centre d’Histoire et Théorie des Arts (CEHTA), Paris, 18-19 June 2009.
  63. “Da Italie magique (1946) a Italia magica (1988): Gianfranco Contini e il mercato editoriale da Aux Portes de France a Einaudi.” Autori, lettori e mercato nella modernità letteraria, University of Venice, Padua-Venice, 16-19 June 2009.
  64. “Beaucoup de bruit pour rien? Les futuristes italiens contre la musicalité.” L’écriture et la musique. Université Paris 8–Vincennes Saint-Denis. Paris, 14-16 May 2009.
  65. “The Art of the ‘Magical Italy:’ Artistic References in Gianfranco Contini’s Definition of the Italian Fantastic.” Annual Conference of the American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) and the American Association of Teacher of Italian (AATI). New York, 7-10 May 2009.
  66. “Il «monologo geloso» di Alberto Savinio: travestimenti dell’io in Angelica o la notte di maggio.” Le forme del romanzo italiano e le letterature occidentali dal Sette al Novecento. University of Rome “La Sapienza.” Rome, 4-7 June 2008.
  67. “Il fantastico e l’identità nazionale italiana.” Annual Conference of the American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) and the American Association of Teacher of Italian (AATI). Taormina, Italy, 22-24 May 2008.
  68. “Avanguardie a confronto: l’Italia e il surrealismo francese.” Angles of Repose. Unveiling the Italian Avant-Garde of the Early Twentieth Century. New York University. New York, 18 April 2008.
  69. “Italy is ‘Magic:’ Italian Fantastic and French Surrealism in the 1930s and 1940s.” International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA29) The Fantastic in the Sublime. International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) Orlando, FL, 19-23 March 2008.
  70.  “L’italia è magica: il fantastico italiano contro il surrealismo francese negli anni Trenta e Quaranta del Novecento.”Fourth Annual Robert Dombroski Italian Conference Crossing Boundaries. Perspectives on the Fantastic in Italian Arts and Cultures. University Of Connecticut. Storrs, CT, 21-22 September 2007.
  71. “Le Avventure del barone di Münchhausen e il sentimento della realtà.” Symposium Alfonso Gatto nel segno di ogni cosa. University of Florence. Florence, 18-19 December 2006.
  72. “L’Italia è magica. Contini, Malaparte, Savinio e i caratteri del surrealismo italiano.” International Conference Italia magica. Letteratura fantastica e surreale dell’Ottocento e Novecento. University of Cagliari. Cagliari, 7-10 June 2006.
  73. “The Temptations of the Surrealist Word: Fears and Desires for Automatic Writing in Italy.” Annual Conference of the American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) and the American Association of Teacher of Italian (AATI). Genova, Italy, 25-28 May 2006.
  74. “The Missing Idol: Italy in Search of Surrealism.” Harvard Italian Graduate Conference Tutta un’altra letteratura: Authors and Approaches Beyond the Italian Canon. Harvard University. Boston, 14-15 April 2006.
  75. “Coincidentia oppositorum. Tra mito e storia, eternità e tempo.”Marguerite Yourcenar. Sulle tracce des accidents passagers. University of Florence. Florence, 18-19 October 2004.
  76. “Poetry and Childhood: Aldo Palazzeschi’s and Gianni Rodari’s Subversive Word.” New York University Italian Graduate Conference The Prodigal Text. Transgression and ‘Normatization’ in the Italian Literary Tradition. New York University. New York, 16-17 April 2004.
  77. “Poeta faber: Imaginary and Real Architecture in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.” Theorems of Power: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Sovereignty and Visuality. New York University. New York, 13 April 2002.
  78. “Tra le carte di Jacobbi: progetti di antologia.” L’eclettico Jacobbi. Percorsi multipli tra letteratura e teatro. University of Florence. Florence, 14 January 2002.

© 2025 Beatrice Sica.