News from MLAL Alumni/ae

Joseph Tumolo (FCRH ’14, Honors Program, Italian Language & Literature)

Congratulations to Joe Tumolo, class of 2014, on the publication of “Arturo Bandini’s Eclectic Identities in John Fante’s Ask the Dust,” in the journal Voices in Italian Americana 29.1 (2018)! This article originates in the research he did at Fordham for his senior Honors thesis in Italian under Dr. Perricone’s guidance.

We asked Joe to reflect on his years at Fordham. Here is what he told us:

“Four years after graduating from Fordham, I am only more grateful for the skills I developed and experiences I had working towards my major in Italian. I continue to rely on this training in both my research and teaching. Most recently, I expanded upon research I conducted at Fordham on Italian-American author John Fante and transformed it into my first academic publication.

With the depth and scope of my education in Italian at Fordham, I was able to start my Ph.D. program in 2016 with a clear sense of what I wanted to focus on for my doctoral dissertation.  Over the past year, I have been working on the “Neo-Baroque,” or the twentieth-century aesthetic and intellectual trends in Italy (and beyond) that bare a resemblance to the historical Baroque. Ultimately, I cherish most the connections I made with Fordham’s Italian faculty. Even four years later, I still feel very supported by the program, and I continue to count my professors as great mentors. This speaks to the value of the program, and the extent to which the faculty exemplifies the core tenets of a Jesuit education.”

We’re all very proud of Joe and we look forward to his future publications. Congratulazioni!