News & Events

Students gathered at the Italian House on Friday, October 29 to watch Dario Argento's  Profondo Rosso.

The 7^th Annual International Karaoke Night was held on October 27 and featured acts in all the modern languages that Sewanee offers: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. There was fun, food, music, and incredible talent on display. Read more to find out which Italian acts won.

Come to the Italian House on Thursday, Sept 23 at 7:00pm to watch "Luca," an animated film set in Italy.  Bring your mask

The French House & the Italian House will combine to host a Bocce/Pétanque Tournament and Ice Cream Social.  Come on over to the lawn of the French House on Tuesday, April 27 at 5:00pm to enjoy a friendly game of pétanque/bocce, a pastime that is central to French and Italian culture, and have some ice cream.

Meet on the lawn of the Italian House on April 15 at 7:00PM for an outdoor screening of Perfetti sconosciuti.  During the course of a dinner, the hostess suggests everyone reveal all the info on their cell phones.  What starts as an innocent game slowly turns into target practice, and old friends and couples find out that they don't know one another as well as they thought.

Students gathered on a beautiful spring day around the new fire pit on the lawn of the Italian House for a bonfire to have s'mores.

Post your best photo from Carnivals past on our Photo Contest Wall by March 20. We will vote and award prizes on March 24. Include a caption in both English and in the language you are studying.

In many parts of the world, some form of Carnival is celebrated, combining Christian and pre-Christian traditions indigenous to the region. This celebration goes by many names: Maslenitsa Масленица in Russia; Mardi Gras in the Francophone world; Carnaval in Spain/Latin America, Carnevale in Italy, Fasching in Germany-to name a few. Common threads include celebrating the end of winter darkness, sometimes parades, often outrageous costumes, role reversal, consuming pancakes, or marking the beginning of Lent.  We include the Lunar New Year in this category since it honors the end of winter and the return of the light.

Students gathered at Cravens Hall for the The 6th Annual International Karaoke Night on Saturday, October 24.  It was a little different from past International Karaoke Nights when students sang live in front of a panel of judges and an audience.  Instead,  they submitted videos of themselves singing in the language that they are studying.  The videos representing Chinese, French, German, Latin, Russian, and Spanish were screened at the event, and students and faculty were able to view the videos and vote online in person or remotely.

In many parts of the world, some form of Carnival is celebrated, combining Christian and pre-Christian traditions indigenous to the region. This celebration goes by many names: Maslenitsa Масленица in Russia; Mardi Gras in the Francophone world; Carnaval in Latin America, Carnevale in Italy, Fasching in Germany-to name a few. Common threads include celebrating the end of winter darkness, sometimes parades, often outrageous costumes, role reversal, consuming pancakes, or marking the beginning of Lent. On Sunday, February 16, various language houses hosted a progressive festival starting at the Russian House, continuing on to the Spanish House, the German House, the Italian House, and ending at the French House.

The Italian House celebrated Carnevale on Saturday, February 23 with mask making and other fun activities in the Italian tradition.

On a rainy February day, students gathered at the Italian House to learn the art of "la pasta fatta in casa" from McClurg's Chef Caroline.

An article by Dr. Alessia Martini, "'A Tumultuous Shipyard': Urban Visions of New York in Fortunato Depero’s Art and Narratives" has been published in the journal, "Annali d'Italianistica, vol. 37 (2019)."

The 5th Annual International Karaoke Night took place on November 7, 2019 at the Tiger Bay Pub. There were songs in 8 different languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.

The Italian House residents have organized fun Italian-themed event this semester including learning how to make tiramisu and pasta from scratch. Many students came to share in the cooking and later in sharing a community meal with great food and conversation (in Italian, of course).