ACIS 10th Biennial Conference, Wellington 2019
ACIS Conference Wellington 2019 delegates at the Te Herenga Waka Marae, Victoria University Kelburn campus (this and all photos of the Pōwhiri are by Colin McDiarmid, Victoria University of Wellington)
Despite Wellington being touted as the windiest city in the world, the elements were gentle on the 80 participants who flew in from across the world to take part in the 10th biennial ACIS Conference, Navigazioni possibili: Italies Lost and Found at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. Many congratulations to Sally Hill and Claudia Bernardi for hosting a delightful, stimulating, and welcoming ACIS conference. It was a conference which witnessed several firsts: our first ACIS group photograph; our first traditional Maori pōwhiri at the Te Herenga Waka Marae on the university’s Kelburn campus; and the first ACIS keynote lecture delivered barefoot within a marae. Being greeted individually with the hongi set the tone for what was to follow – stimulating conversations, keynotes, and individual papers delivered in an atmosphere of great collegiality which demonstrated quite clearly that Italian Studies in Australasia are flourishing. It was also announced that ACIS 2021, the celebration of twenty years of ACIS’s foundation, will be held in the location of its inaugural conference at the Australian National University, Canberra and will be hosted by Susanna Scarparo and Josh Brown – watch this space.
One of our tangata whenua welcomes us to the marae
The kaikaranga welcomes the manuhiri to the marae
Assoc. Prof. Marco Sonzogni, Conference co-convenors Dr Sally Hill and Dr Claudia Bernardi, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Prof. Sarah Leggott, and the Italian consul
Training the next generation of ACIS participants
Dr Flavia Laviosa, Wellesley College, and editor of the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies
Prof Clorinda Donato, California State University
Assoc. Prof. Timothy McCall, Villanova University, Philadelphia
Assoc. Prof. Mark Seymour, University of Otago
Rory McKenzie, PhD candidate Victoria University, and winner of the 2019 Jo-Anne Duggan essay prize
Dr John Gagné, University of Sydney
Dr Claudia Bernardi
Conference co-convenor Dr Claudia Bernardi, welcomes participants to the conference
Assoc. Prof. Andrea Rizzi introduces keynote speaker Prof. Elizabeth Horodowich
Prof. Elizabeth Horodowich about to deliver her keynote address – barefoot in the marae
Keynote speaker Prof. Mark Seymour
