The Department of French and Italian will host a Zoom lecture series entitled New Directions in Italian Studies: Migration and Mobility in the Autumn 2025 semester. Led by Assistant Professor of Italian Studies, Qian Liu, the series will focus on a variety of topics surrounding language, culture, race, diaspora, migration, and movement. Each speaker will give unique insights into current Italian cultural phenomena. All are welcome and encouraged to attend this exciting new series!
Our third speaker will be Somali-Italian poet, novelist, playwright, and librettist, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah. Dr. Farah's talk, entitled, The Termite House: Creative Writing, Distance, and My Transatlantic Journey. She grew up in Mogadishu but fled to Europe at the outbreak of the civil war. She is the author of three novels: Little Mother (Madre piccola, Frassinelli, 2007) and Commander of the river (Il comandante del fiume, 66thand2nd, 2014) – both published in English by Indiana University Press as part of the Global African Voices series – and Stations of the Moon (Le stazioni della luna , 66thand2nd, 2021). She also wrote the ekphrasis La danza dell’orice (Juxta Press, 2020) and the collection of short stories The Phoenix’s Ashes (Le ceneri della fenice , Hopefulmonster, 2022). She holds a PhD in African Studies (Università L’Orientale Napoli) and is the recipient of the Lingua Madre and Vittorini Prizes. In her talk, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah will share her transnational literary experiences in Africa, Europe, and the United States.
To ask questions about accessibility or request accommodations, please contact Matt Lang.650@osu.edu. At least two weeks' advance notice will help us to provide seamless access.
