EUGENE–Oregonians can experience the breadth of Italian culture at the American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) conference April 15—17 in Eugene.

The University of Oregon is hosting the conference at the Valley River Inn, 1000 Valley River Way. With approximately 300 participants, the annual AAIS conference is the major venue for Italian studies in this country.

The conference will feature more than 100 workshops, panels and roundtable discussions on different aspects of Italian culture. The three-day event also will include prose and poetry readings, a concert of Italian Baroque music and presentations by leading Italian scholars and writers.

Three scholars will deliver keynote addresses. They are Giuseppe Mazzotta, a professor of Italian at Yale University and a leading figure in medieval and Renaissance Italian literature; Gina Lagorio, a writer and critic in Italian letters and women’s studies; and Carlo Sini, an Italian philosopher and professor of theoretical philosophy at the Universita degli Studi, Milano.

Arcangeli, a period ensemble from the San Francisco Bay area, will perform Italian Baroque music at an 8 p.m. concert on Friday, April 16, at Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. on campus.

The American Association of Italian Studies is an international organization created to promote the interdisciplinary study of Italian language, culture and literature as well as the influence of Italian culture in other countries.

The full conference fee is $85. Members of the community may attend individual sessions free of charge by calling Gina Psaki, director of the UO Medieval Studies Program, (541) 346-4042.

For more information, or to register, call Psaki or Massimo Lollini, a UO Romance languages professor, (541) 346-0957, or visit the conference website at http://babel.uoregon.edu/romance/news/aais/aais.htm.

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