瓦莱里奥·费尔梅当选美国最大的州主席.S. 意大利研究协会

在21世纪的大部分时间^st世纪, study of the humanities has been derided by high-profile pundits for allegedly failing to prepare students to compete for employment in a technology-driven world, 导致入学率下降和公众支持率下降.

学者亨利·A. Giroux puts it this way: “Welcome to the dystopian world of corporate education, 在其中学习如何思考, 适当的公共价值观, and become an engaged critical citizen is viewed as a failure rather than a success.”

但 Valerio闭, professor of Italian and associate dean for the arts and humanities at the 博彩平台推荐, believes that a liberal arts education not only prepares students to adapt to a constantly shifting economic landscape, 也丰富了他们的人类经验.

“People now change jobs often, requiring completely different skills in 10 years. (Humanities) students have the skills that allow them to move between jobs and not become obsolete,费姆说。.

“The added benefit of the humanities is that they also allow us to be lifelong thinkers, 梦想家思考和梦想着可能和不可能.”

但 he also believes that some blame for the oft-cited crisis in the humanities rests with academics and “what we have done in our fields. At times, we have become involuted, drawn inward toward subfields and particular, narrow questions. These are valid and spur our research, but they don’t always interest our students as much. 博彩平台推荐得回到最重要的问题上来, 哪些因素吸引了学生的兴趣和参与.”

Ferme’s vision of broader relevance and outreach is one reason his colleagues recently elected him to a three-year term as president of the American Association for Italian Studies, 哪个主要关注文学追求. He stepped into the job in June with the goal of advancing an expansive, ambitious agenda.

他的近期目标之一是:与其他文化合作, 艺术和学术课程, 包括意大利人和非意大利人, 是否当地, national or international; meeting with officials at the Italian embassy in Washington, DC, to foster relationships with other cultural institutions and organizations around the nation; and working more closely with the American Association of Teachers of Italian, 哪一个更强调教学, 如何在这个国家推广“意大利式的一切”.”

“倡导意大利研究是我的首要任务, 但我也相信合作很重要, 展示力量. (The AAIS) has been run well, and from a financial standpoint, we are healthy,他说. “但我想寻找更显眼、更有发言权的方式, 为博彩平台推荐的工作制造更大的轰动效应.”

Ferme在博彩平台推荐的教学中也带着同样的情感, 设计能吸引广泛学生的课程.  比如《博彩平台推荐》.”

“在意大利，博彩平台推荐谈论的是人文主义的诞生，”他说. “Students don’t even realize how much they do and think is related to that culture and history, 追溯到几百年前.”

Ferme also teaches a course on the Italian-American experience and would like to delve deeper into the history of the Italian presence in Colorado.

“A lot of people don’t realize there was a very strong Italian-American community in the mining industry at the turn of the 世纪, and that high schools in Pueblo still today teach Italian among their foreign languages他说.

Ferme’s early academic career was focused in part on the provocative subject of Italian fascism. His first monograph explored the role that translators played in subverting the fascist regime of 贝尼托·墨索里尼 during the mid-20^th 世纪.

“Everybody thinks of Italian fascism as sort of sweet little sister or brother to Nazism,他说. “但是意大利有集中营，很多人死了. 它不像纳粹那样残酷，但却是真实的.”

With his current work translating an Italian scholar’s book about Mussolini’s concentration camps, Ferme finds himself re-immersed in a controversial subject at a time when some critics have tossed around the “f-word” (fascism) in describing presidential nominee Donald Trump.

对Ferme来说，这是夸大其词. 但是有, 他说, 特朗普和西尔维奥·贝卢斯科尼的相似之处, the brash business tycoon who served as prime minister of Italy for nine years, 特朗普经常被拿来和他比较.

“我确实认为特朗普可能在某种程度上模仿了贝卢斯科尼. 今天, people like someone who comes across as non-prepped and non–polished by political machinery, but also connects with certain values that are at the core of a national history. 直言不讳的领导人长期以来在意大利政坛颇有号召力. 只要想想千年来直言不讳的罗马皇帝就知道了, 文艺复兴时期的王子, 离博彩平台推荐更近, 贝尼托·墨索里尼.”

“在意大利，贝卢斯科尼曾一度将这种联系与过去联系起来,他说, 即使他的品牌已经用完了. 这是可能的, 不做价值判断, 特朗普助长了类似的情绪和国家代表.”

最后, 贝卢斯科尼被赶下台并不是因为人们对他不那么感兴趣了, but because his fiscal policies were not sound and his personal foibles caught up with him.

“但, as is the case for Trump,” Ferme says, “personality is a great part of Berlusconi’s appeal. It behooves us to appreciate his role in the public arena, and understand the nature of his appeal.” 

Ferme说，这可能是未来课程的素材. 但是现在, he’s firmly focused on promoting Italian studies and working to undermine criticism of the humanities. 他甚至为未来学生的家长写了一份文件, 解释为什么艺术和人文学科很重要.

“One thing that’s starting to creep up in publications like Forbes (magazine) and The Wall Street Journal is that many businesses are looking for arts-and-humanities majors who are trained in the soft skills of critical thinking, 口语和写作能力, 共情与文化知识,他说.

“人文学科很重要，无论从实际还是理想角度来看都是如此.”