Boost for Italian Studies
by Charlotte Knottenbelt
Future
generations of scholars will reap the benefits of a recent major donation
from the Cassamarca Foundation in Italy.
The Cassamarca Gift, to be shared among nine Australian universities
including UniSA, aims to promote Italian culture and language, and is worth
900,000 Euros a year over 13 years (around A$22.5 million). The gift will
fund 50 per cent of a lectureship at UniSA – one of 12 lectureships
established around Australia in recent years thanks to the foundation.
Dr Andrea Rizzi, the current Cassamarca lecturer in Italian Studies at UniSA‘s School of International Studies, said the gift recognised the global reach of Italian culture. “Italy has a population of 60 million, but there are also 60 million Italians living in other parts of the world including Australia,“ he says. “Italy has links with so many different countries, and they see education as a way to keep in touch, provide services for the offshore Italian community, and boost the economy through closer international links and the trade benefits that ensue.
“Italian culture has taken many forms and directions. There are three Italys really: the ancient, the contemporary and the Italy outside of Italy. Unfortunately, the third is the one we study and know the least about.
“You just have to look around – the cafes, the cars, the fashion – to see that Italians have enriched Australian culture in many ways, but it‘s not just about food and lifestyle.
“It‘s about sharing different cultures … rather than calling ourselves a multicultural society we should be aiming for an intercultural society – where cultures merge, change and grow from being in contact with one another.“
Dr Rizzi sees the gift as a way to improve understanding between cultures and sub- cultures, and part of that will include a focus on language.
“Only three to four per cent of books published in Australia are translated from languages other than English, which is really quite shocking for a so-called multicultural society. It‘s nice that we‘ve now got the resources to be able to work on that.“