Directory

Profile

Renato Ventura was formerly a journalist in Italy before coming to the United States to study literature. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, and is an Associate Professor of Italian at University of Dayton. His research focuses on 20th century Italian literature and film and his dissertation’s title is Writing and Screening Images of Men. Negotiating Sicilian Masculinities from 1950-80, which investigates the construction of Sicilian masculinity through literature and cinema. 

Courses taught

• Elementary Italian
• Intermediate Italian
• Advanced Italian
• Composition and Conversation I
• Composition and Conversation II
• Renaissance 101
• Seminar on Boccaccio
• Dante and his Time
• Cinematic Representations of Italian Americans
• Italian Cinema
• Developed blended learning course I
• Developed blended learning course II

Professional activities

• Resident Director, UNH Study Abroad Program Ascoli Piceno (Italy), May-June 2008
• Academic Specialist in the LTL (Linkage through Language) program University of Connecticut, 2004-10
• Special Assistant to the Trinity College Study Abroad Rome Program (Italy), 2003-04
• English creative writing teacher, Academy of Science and Arts (Hartford, CT), 2002-03

Selected publications and presentations

Publications

"La Spirale Barocca nel Sorriso dell'Ignoto Marinaio: Chiave di Lettura dell’Euritmia Strutturale e della Sperimentazione Linguistica di Consolo." Cochlías legere: 'Il Sorriso dell'Ignoto Marinaio,' Approcci critici. Edited by Nicolò Messina and Daragh O'Connell (Florence: Cesati, 2011).

"L'alter Eco. L'animale semantico ne La misteriosa fiamma della Regina Loana." Forum Italicum (forthcoming 2010).

"La metafisica dello sguardo. Dai Siciliani agli Stilnovisti."  Futhark No. 5. Revista de Investigación y Cultura, 2010, 229-247.

"Learning Communities and Blended Courses. Technology in the Classroom." The Image of Technology. Eds. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan. Pueblo: University of Southern Colorado, 2009, 38-41.

"Television and Contemporary Italian Cinema. The Image of Sicilian Masculinity." The Image of Technology. Eds. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan. Pueblo: University of Southern Colorado, 2009, 183-186.

Presentations

The 'Normality' of Patriarchy: the Sicilian Family from Brancati to Cardella." MLA Convention, Philadelphia, 27-30 Dec. 2009.

"Il gallismo di Brancati e "l'uomo nuovo" fascista. Immagini della mascolinità del ventennio." XXIX AAIS Annual Conference, New York City, 7-10 May 2009.

"Creating Cross-Campus Language Learning Communities: a Blended Learning Approach." 56th Northeast Conference on Teaching of Foreign Languages, New York City, 2009.

"Cinema, Television and the Image of Man and Masculinities in Contemporary Southern Italy." The Image of Technology, Colorado State University, Colorado Springs, 12-14 March 2009.

"Television and Italian Cinema." The Image of Technology, Colorado State University, Colorado Springs, 12-14 March 2009.

"Learning Communities and technology in the Classroom." The Image of Technology, Colorado State University, Colorado Springs, 12-14 March 2009.

"La noia esistenziale del maschio siciliano nel Don Giovanni Involontario di Vitaliano Brancati." NEMLA 40th Annual Convention, Boston, MA, 2009.

"Creating, Connecting, and Cultivating Learning Communities: Voices from the Frontline." Ct World Language Fall Conference Passport to Proficiency, Hartford, CT, 2008.

"La spirale barocca nel Sorriso: Chiave di Lettura dell'Euritmia Strutturale e della Sperimentazione Linguistica di Vincenzo Consolo." AAIS-AATI Annual Convention, Giardini Naxos (Italy), 2008.

"Sud e Mascolinità nel Cinema Italiano degli Anni '90." NEMLA 39th Annual Convention, Buffalo, NY, 2008.