South Australia finds Stefano Bona far from his native Italy, but the ACIS Honorary Research Associate, and now Lecturer in Italian at Flinders University, brings a passion for languages, for screen studies, and for his home country to his Australian students.

Dr Stefano Bona, Lecturer in Italian at Flinders University. Photo credit: SZhang

As the only lecturer in Italian at Flinders University, Dr Bona is fully occupied with teaching at all year levels. Curiously, though he is an Italian, Dr Bona came to the teaching of his country’s language and culture via the Chinese language. Learning Chinese as part of his Masters Degree in Political Sciences at the University of Milan, he was posted to an Italian company in Shanghai and from thence to Adelaide. In Adelaide he pursued a Masters in Language Studies and then a PhD in Screen Studies at Flinders. His Italian background, and Chinese experience and expertise is reflected in his chosen area of study. He has written on Italian film makers in China, on Italian-Chinese film co-productions; and on the representation of China in Italian Cinema after 1949.

Stefano feels that, in these days of increasing pressure on the teaching of Italian and of languages in general in the tertiary sector, it is important to:

• propose new cultural subjects (courses) to appeal to a larger number of students from any discipline who just want to take an elective, and use this as contact point to promote Italian courses;
• build connections with business and industry, in order to show students real job opportunities for multilingual speakers;
• make the case of the importance of languages in Aged care;
• train Language teachers for primary and secondary schools;
• explore cross-institutional synergies;
• maintain connections with community and institutions.
  
  

ACIS wishes him well in his new position at Flinders, and looks forward to seeing the outcomes of his various endeavours and initiatives.