Italian Studies Community Engagement
Contacts with schools
Annamaria Pagliaro participates in annual Victorian Department of Education & Training tenders to run refresher/qualification courses for primary and secondary school teachers, and is in touch with various Department of Education & Training administrators. The program offers equivalency testing for Italian.
Italian Institute of Culture
The Italian Studies program has strong links with the Italian Institute of Culture. Mirna Cicioni represents Monash on a committee that assists the Italian Consul General and the Director of the Institute in organising events. The staff at Monash have organised the public speaking engagements of Italian writers and academics, such as the Jewish writer Aldo Zargani (September 2002), Prof. Graziella Parati (June 2003) and Ida Dominijanni (July 2003).
Every year Mirna Cicioni participates in deciding the initiatives of Italian Week and usually takes part in a public panel discussion connected with the theme of the year.
The Institute also regularly gives a subsidy towards the publication of the Melbourne journal Spunti e ricerche.
Other cultural organizations
Annmaria Pagliaro is a juror for the Italo-Australian Writers Association (Accademia Letteraria Italo-Australiana Scrittori). Raffaele Lampugnani is a member of the Victorian Committee of the Dante Alighieri Society and cooperates in organising such events as the annual Dante Alighieri Prize for the best Italian Studies student in each tertiary institution. Mirna Cicioni has (between 1998 and 2001) given guest lectures on Italian Jewish writers at the Jewish Holocaust Centre and at the Jewish Museum.
Annamaria Pagliaro, Susanna Scarparo and Rita Wilson are members of the newly formed national association, the Associazione per la Ricerca tra Italia e Australasia. Rita Wilson has been invited to be Honorary Secretary of the Victorian branch.
The program has close links with consular authorities, which helped in the establishment of the Prato Centre.
Media
Members of the program give occasional talks and interviews on SBS Radio and Radio Italia.
Quantas Language Testing Program
Raffaele Lampugnani is involved in the Qantas language testing program.