The Italian program at Johns Hopkins and the Department of Italian Studies at Yale are pleased to present the third edition of the Mutamenti graduate symposium to be held in person on October 25-26, 2024 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The word “alien” conjures images of little green bipeds, flying saucers, and lunar hoaxes; or, maybe border walls, refugees, and stolen jobs. In English, “alien” means both “a foreigner” and “unfamiliar and disturbing.” With this understanding, the alien is both a physical entity, requiring space and resources, and an existential threat, challenging the normative notions upon which a society is built. However, in Latin the word alienus carries yet another meaning: “belonging to another,” “not one’s own.” Could we then define “alien” as that which lies outside of one’s own dominion? In either context, the “alien” functions as the vehicle through which normative identities define themselves in relation to what they are not.

As Italianisti on American soil, we know first-hand the fruitful work that materializes after the collision of alien perspectives. This year at Mutamenti, we’re exploring topics that question our notion of what it might mean to be “alien.” Does the “alien” exist in a vacuum? Or can it only be defined by its relative position within its host frame? Further, what differing views of society come into focus when looking through an alien perspective? What role do alien perspectives play in the arts? And what environmental effect does alien matter have outside its place of origin?

Grounded in a transnational framework of Italian Studies, the symposium fosters exchange between students, early career scholars, and established faculty, encouraging scholarship that spans a wide range of methodological concerns and interdisciplinary approaches. These include (but are not limited to) philosophy, cultural studies, literary analysis, environmental humanities, history, history of art, film and media studies, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, studies of race and ethnicity, and classics.