Twentieth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

My study will be the result of a course I am teaching this semester titled “Contemporary Italy: Food Security and Justice” at John Carroll University. My contribution analyzes students’ reactions to the historical treatment of poverty and famine in Italian literature and in other cultural texts where ecological problems are represented. One of the major themes of the class is food safety. In this study, I measure students’ reactions to the historical cultural narrative of poverty and the lack of food among the poor, addressing the causes that derive from the ecological crisis, which cause famine in the poorest countries of the planet. Furthermore, I evaluate if a course on food security, which emphasizes the literary history of poverty in Italy has the interest of possible majors in Italian Studies and if the content of such course generates a larger enrollment in Italian classes.