Calabretta-Sajder Named Tiro a Segno Fellow at NYU

Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, director of International and Global Studies and associate professor and section head of Italian, was recently awarded the Tiro a Segno Fellowship at New York University. He will be in residence at NYU’s New York City campus in fall 2024.

“Dr. Calabretta-Sajder is a well-established scholar who contributes significantly to the academic integrity of our institution, both nationally and internationally,” said Linda Jones, chair and professor of World Languages, Literature and Cultures at the U of A. “Having this opportunity to teach at NYU for fall 2024 will only further his expertise, his reputation both here and abroad, and further spotlight the growing Italian program at the University of Arkansas.”

The Tiro a Segno Visiting Faculty Fellowship was established in 2000 with a generous endowment from the Tiro a Segno Association. It is the most prestigious fellowship in Italian American Studies in the U.S. Multidisciplinary in scope, the visiting fellow is chosen through a rigorous application process that occurs every four years. The fellowship occurs every other fall. Fellows teach one undergraduate and one graduate course in residence at the NYU campus at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, the headquarters of the Italian Program, and offer two public lectures.

Vito Vincenti, chair of the Tiro a Segno Foundation, stated, “One of the wonderful advantages of this fellowship is that, unlike the conventional endowment of a university chair, [it] is a particular course of study to which a specific professor is named until his or her death or retirement; this fellowship will vary both in the subject matter taught in alternate years as well as in the professor who will guide the teaching and study.”

Faculty are asked to include possible courses taught while in residence as part of the application process. Calabretta-Sajder will be teaching “Tracing the Italian American Experience: From Wise Guys to Good Guys,” which he first offered at the U of A campus in fall 2023 and is an optional-required course in the Italian major sequence, and “Queering the Italian American Bildungsroman.”

“Dr. Ryan Calabretta-Sajder’s Tiro a Segno Fellowship at NYU is an incredible honor,” said Lisa M. Corrigan, director of the Gender Studies program and professor of communication. “While Dr. Calabretta-Sajder has been frequently honored for excellence in both research pedagogy, this prestigious fellowship recognizes both and honors multidisciplinary scholars who work on Italian-American Culture. Dr. Calabretta-Sajder exemplifies the work of distinction of top-tier teacher-scholars and this opportunity speaks to the international recognition of his work.”

Calabretta-Sajder is a scholar of Italian and Italian American cinema, culture and literature. He is the founding and current editor of Diasporic Italy: Journal of the Italian American Studies Association. Besides his publications in Italian studies, he is the co-editor of Italian Americans on Screen: Challenging the Past, Re-Theorizing the Future; Italian Americans on the Page: Re-Reading the Classics and Examining Underexplored Subjects (forthcoming with SUNY, 2025); and Traveling through the South: Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Peter Farrelly’s Green Book (forthcoming with Bordighera Press/CUNY Press, 2025) and author of over 25 articles and book chapters on the Italian diaspora.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.