ITAL2005 “A Cultural History of Italian Americans: Spotlight on Missouri”

Have you ever wondered why there are so many Italian-Americans in Missouri (200,000!) and two large Italian-American communities? The Hill in St. Louis has a history harking back to the 1880s and is still a proud, thriving community celebrating all things Italian with grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, Saint Ambrose Church, an Italian language school, and festivals all year long. Columbus Park, previously The North End, has been known as Kansas City’s Little Italy since the 19th century, yet has a more checkered past with links to the mob according to the FBI.

In this course, students will examine the histories of Italian American communities with a focus of those in Missouri, but also in the context of the larger framework of Italian immigration to the United States. What were the economic, political, and social forces that resulted in a mass emigration of more than five million Italians from 1870-1920? What types of economic opportunities and challenges did they find in their new homeland? How/did they assimilate? Were Italians marked as racialized others? How are Italian-Americans depicted in U.S. television and film? What did Italian immigrants say about their experience of a new life in America? What lasting contributions have Italian-Americans made on American culture in the fields of politics, the arts, sports, cuisine, intellectual life and more?

This course will incorporate a project-based approach in which students will complete an oral history project based on recorded interviews and other artifacts at the Missouri State Historical Society and its archives. Funding permitting, the course will include experiential visits to The Hill, a guided historical tour and the Mob Tour in Kansas City, and a talk by a Sicilian-American restaurateur right here in Columbia!

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Please contact Dr. Carla Cornette, carla.cornette@missouri.edu, for more information