Sopranos Symposium at Fordham Univ, NYC, May 22-25, 2008

May 17, 2008 at 11:08 PM
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The Sopranos: A Wake
Fordham University, New York
Lincoln Center Campus– Lowenstein Hall
60th Street and Columbus Avenue

May 22nd-25th, 2008

Conveners:

Paul Levinson and Al Auster (Fordham University)
David Lavery (Brunel University, London)
Douglas Howard (Suffolk Community College)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ...MEDIA WELCOME
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The Sopranos: A Wake
Program at a Glance

All events at Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Lowenstein Hall, at 60th Street and Columbus Avenue

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

7:00 pm: Opening Session [Lincoln Center 816]
Housekeeping (Doug Howard)
Welcome (Paul Levinson, Fordham University)
Opening Panel (Gary Edgerton, David Lavery)

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Friday, May 23rd, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track A: 9:00am-10:00am
Session 1—Featured Speaker: Franco Ricci [LL 310]
Session 2—Featured Speakers: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe [LL 311]

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track B: 10:30am-12:15pm
Session 3—Film Form and Filmmaking [LL 305]
Session 4—Therapy [LL 307]
Session 5— Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question [LL 310]
Session 6—Women and Gender I [LL 311]

12:15pm-1:45pm - Lunch Break

Track C: 1:45pm-3:30pm
Session 7—Dreams [LL 305]
Session 8—Journalism, Poetry, and Silence in The Sopranos [LL 307]
Session 9— Family, Society, and the American Way [LL 310]

3:30pm-4:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]

Track D: 4:30pm-6:00pm
Session 10— Images of Justice and The Sopranos [Pope Auditorium]

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Saturday, May 24th, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track E: 9:00am-10:00am
Session 11—Featured Speaker: Robin Nelson [LL 310]
Session 12—Featured Speaker: Martha Nochimson [LL 311]

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track F: 10:30am-12:15pm
Session 13—Creating Narratives [LL 305]
Session 14—Intertextuality I [LL 307]
Session 15—Food and the Body [LL 310]
Session 16—Women and Gender II [LL 311]

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

Track G: 1:45pm-3:30pm
Session 17—Intertexuality II [LL 305]
Session 18—Whiteness and Cultural Privilege [LL 307]
Session 19—Masculinity and Gender [LL 310]
Session 20—Role-Playing and Negotiating [LL 311]

3:30pm-4:00pm: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track H: 4:00pm-5:00pm
Session 21—Featured Speaker: Jason Jacobs [LL 305]
Session 22—Featured Speaker: George De Stefano [LL 307]
Session 23—Featured Speaker: Jimmie Reeves [LL 311]

5:00pm-5:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]

Conclusion: 5:30pm-7:00pm
Session 24—Fade to Black: The Finale and The Sopranos Legacy [Pope Auditorium]
Featured Speakers: Maurice Yacowar, Doug Howard, Paul Levinson
Chair: David Bianculli

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Sunday May 25th, 2008
10:00 AM: Sopranos Bus Tour (meet at Fordham)

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Detailed Program

The Sopranos: A Wake: Sessions
Fordham University, New York (May 22-25, 2008)

All events at Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Lowenstein Hall
60th Street and Columbus Avenue

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

7:00pm: Opening Session [Lincoln Center 816]
Housekeeping: Doug Howard (Suffolk Community College)
Welcome: Paul Levinson (Fordham University)
Featured Speakers:
Gary Edgerton (Old Dominion U), “The Sopranos as Tipping Point in the Second Coming of HBO”
David Lavery (Brunel University), “Made Men to Mad Men: What Matthew Weiner Learned from David Chase”

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Friday, May 24, 2008
8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

9:00am-10:00am Track A
Session 1 [LL 310]—Featured Speaker: Franco Ricci (U of Ottawa), “Word Play, Power Struggle: The use of written text in The Sopranos”
Session 2 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan U), “’Blabbermouth Cunts’: The Sopranos and the Feminist Dilemma

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

10:30am-12:15pm: Track B
Session 3 [LL 305]—Film Form and Filmmaking
Chair: Cameron Golden
Jody Malcolm (U West Florida), “The Final Analysis: Epiphany and the Possibility for Redemption in The Sopranos and “A Good Man is Hard to Find””
Cameron Golden (Independent Scholar), The Producers: The Dangers of Filmmaking in The Sopranos”
William Siska (U of Utah), “The Sopranos as Art Cinema”

Session 4 [LL 307]—Therapy
Chair: David Pattie
Matthew Leporati (Fordham U), “’Sometimes what happens in here is like taking a shit’: Confession and Identity in ‘The Test Dream’”
Bruce Plourde (Rowan U), “Tony and Dora: Mastering the Art of Counter-Transferrance”
David Pattie (U Chester), ““Whatever happened to stop & smell the roses?”: The Sopranos as Anti-Therapeutic Narrative”

Session 5 [LL 310]—Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question
Chair: Frank Tomasulo
Jonathan J. Cavallero (Penn State U), “Honoring Our Ancestors: Using The Sopranos to Mobilize Italian/American Ehtnic Identity”
Laura Cook Kenna (George Washington U), “’I can’t turn the other cheek on this . . . My father was a Knight of Columbus’: ‘Christopher’ and the Contested Construction of Italian American Identity”
Frank Tomasulo (Florida State U), “The Gangster as Guinea Hero: The Complex Representation of Italian Americans in David Chase’s The Sopranos”

Session 6 [LL 311]—Women and Gender I
Chair: Joseph Walker
Andrée Betancourt (Louisiana State U), “The Rise and Shine of Claire Fisher and Meadow Soprano: Good Mourning Daughters”
Marisa Carroll (Independent Scholar), “’When it comes to daughters, all bets are off”: Meadow Soprano and the Question of Familial Determinism in The Sopranos”
Joseph Walker (Independent Scholar), “’What’s Different Between You and Me’: Carmela, the Audience, and the End”

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

1:45pm-3:30pm: Track C
Session 7 [LL 305]—Dreams
Chair: Cynthia Burkhead
Terry Carney (Butler U), “From Mafioso to Kevin Finnerty: The American Way”
Sven Weber (Independent Scholar), “The Sopranos: Asleep—The Dream Sequences and Their Reflection on Television Structure and Complexity”
Cynthia Burkhead (U North Alabama), “Fishes and Football Coaches, Oh My! The Narrative Necessity of Dreams in The Sopranos”

Session 8[LL 307]—Journalism Poetry, and Silence in The Sopranos
Chair: Steven Peacock
Bastiaan Vanacker (Loyola U, Chicago), “Journalism in The Sopranos: Don’t Shoot the Messenger”
Rebecca Bobbitt (Middle Tennessee State U), “Slouching Toward Jersey: The Sopranos and Yeats”
Steven Peacock (U of Hertfordshire), “Silence in The Sopranos”

Session 9 [LL 310]—Family, Society, and the American Way
Chair: Al Auster
Julius S. Fackler (U Kansas), “The Sopranos, the Family, and the Postwar Imagined Community”
Dianna Lipp Rivers (Lamar U), “Hospital Scenes, Nursing, and Healthcare in The Sopranos”

3:30pm-4:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]—Akass, Bianculli, Creeber, De Stefano, Edgerton, Jacobs, Lavery, Levinson, McCabe, Nelson, Nochimson, Peacock, Yacowar

4:30pm-6:00pm: Track D
Session 10 [Pope Auditorium]—Images of Justice and The Sopranos
Chair: Barbara Villez (U of Paris 8)
Antonio Ingroia (Prosecutor Palermo, Italy)
Fabio Licata (Prosecutor Palermo, Italy)
James Keneally (Criminal Lawyer, New York)

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Saturday, May 24th, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

9:00am-10:00am: Track E
Session 11 [LL 310]—Featured Speaker: Robin Nelson, Manchester Metropolitan U) “Author(iz)ing Chase: Questions of Worth in Valorizing The Sopranos”
Session 12 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Martha Nochimson (Cineaste), “The Sopranos, Relatively Speaking”

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

10:30am-12:15pm: Track F
Session 13 [LL 305]—Creating Narratives in The Sopranos
Chair: Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Piluso (California State U Fullerton), “'Funny about God, and fate, and shit like that': The Imminent Unexpected in David Chase’s The Sopranos”
Ilaria Bisteghi (U of Bologna), “The New Serial Television: The Sopranos and The Relay Race-Like Text Structure”
Sean O’Sullivan (Ohio State U), “Episode Five, or When Does a Narrative Become What It Is?”

Session 14 [LL 307]—Intertexuality I
Chair: Al Auster
Lindsay Coleman (U Melbourne), “’Echoes in Eternity’: Gladiator and The Sopranos”
Kenneth T. Rivers (Lamar U), “Carmela in Paris: Culture Shock and Architecture in the “Cold Stones” Episode of The Sopranos
Al Auster (Fordham U), The Sopranos and History

Session 15 [LL 310]—Food and the Body
Chair: James Francis
Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College), “A Family That Eats Together, Kills Together: Food as Metaphor in The Sopranos”
Michael Grynbaum (Harvard U), “Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos”
James Francis (Middle Tennessee State University), “Body of Evidence: Tony Soprano’s Corporeal Battle”

Session 16 [LL 311]—Women and Gender II
Chair: Nancy Roche
Elizabeth Mauldin (Oglethorpe U), “Carmela Soprano as Emma Bovary: European Culture, Taste, and Class in The Sopranos”
Lyndsey Lefebvre (California State U Fullerton), “Carmela Soprano: Fighting Our Battle?”
Nancy Roche (Middle Tennessee State University), “The Last Temptation of Melfi”

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

1:45pm-3:30pm: Track G
Session 17 [LL 305]—Intertextuality II
Chair: Paul Wright
Paul Wright (Cabrini College), “Half a Wise Guy: Paulie Walnuts, Meet Tom Stoppard”
Carl Wilson (Brunel U), “’Even Brendan Filone’s got an identity and he’s dead’: Christopher Moltisanti and the Reflexive Subjectivity of the Constructed Self”
Glen Creeber (U Wales Aberystwyth), “Comfortably Numb? The Sopranos, New Brutalism and the Last Temptation of Chris”

Session 18[LL 307]—Whiteness and Cultural Privilege
Chair: Christopher Kocela
Renee Curry (California State U, Monterey Bay), ““Bianca isn’t black; she’s pretty tan”: Desire, Repulsion, and Whiteness in The Sopranos”
Andrea Dottolo (Worcester State College), “Wops and WASPS: Using The Sopranos to Teach about Race and Racism”
Christopher Kocela (Georgia State U), "'All Caucasians Look Alike': Dreams of Whiteness at the End of The Sopranos"

Session 19 [LL 310]—Masculinity and Gender
Chair: Paola Ferrario
Paul Lumsden (Grant MacEwan College), “Tony and the Bear”
Melinda Di Condio and David Thierring (Independent Scholars), “Christopher’s Arc: The Existential Search of the Generation Y Gangster”
Paola Ferrario (Smith College), Maltornato: The Bitter Homecoming of Tony Soprano

Session 20 [LL 311]—Role-Playing and Negotiating
Chair: Sharon Sutherland
Frieda Pattenden (University of Munich), “Role-play Reading The Sopranos: “You are all white professional males between 25 and 45”
Sharon Sutherland (U of British Columbia Faculty of Law) and Sarah Swan (Independent Scholar), “’It’s not a negotiation’: Getting to Yes with Tony Soprano”

3:30pm-4:00pm: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

4:00pm-5:00pm: Track H
Session 21 [LL 305]—Featured Speaker: Jason Jacobs (U Queensland), “Christopher, Osama and AJ: Contemporary Narcissism and Terrorism in The Sopranos”
Session 22 [LL 307]—Featured Speaker: George De Stefano (Independent Scholar), “A ‘Finook’ in the Crew: Vito Spatafore, The Sopranos, and the Queering of the Mob Genre”
Session 23 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Jimmie Reeves (Texas Tech U), “Tony Soprano as Feral Father: Patriarchy in the Age of Hybridity”

5:00pm-5:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]—Akass, Bianculli, Creeber, De Stefano, Edgerton, Jacobs, Lavery, Levinson, McCabe, Nelson, Nochimson, Peacock, Yacowar

5:30pm-7:00pm: Conclusion
Session 24 [Pope Auditorium]—Fade to Black: The Finale and The Sopranos Legacy
Chair: David Bianculli (tvworthwatching.com)
Featured Speakers: Maurice Yacowar (U Calgary), “Unpredictable but Inevitable: That Last Shot”
Douglas Howard (Suffolk County Community College), “No Justice for All: The FBI, Cut to Black, and David Chase’s Final Hit”
Paul Levinson (Fordham U), “The Sopranos and the Closure Junkies”

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Sunday, May 25th, 2008

10:00am: Sopranos Bus Tour (meeting point: Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus)

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Presenters by Session

Akass, Kim—2, signings
Auster, Al—14
Betancourt, Andrée E. C.—6
Bianculli , David—24, signings
Bisteghi, Ilaria—13
Bobbitt, Rebecca—8
Burkhead, Cynthia—7
Carney, Terry—7
Carroll, Marisa—6
Cavallero, Jonathan J.—5
Coleman, Lindsay—14
Creeber, Glen—7, signings
Curry, Renee—18
De Stefano, George—22, signings
DiCondio, Melinda—19
Dottolo, Andrea—18
Edgerton, Gary—Thursday Evening Session, signings
Fackler, Julius S.—9
Ferrario, Paola—19
Francis, Jr., James—15
Golden, Cameron—3
Grynbaum, Michael—15
Howard, Douglas—24
Ingroia, Antonio—10
Jacobs, Jason—21, signings
Kenna, Laura Cook—5
Kenneally, James—10
Kocela, Christopher—18
Lavery, David—Thursday Evening Session, signings
LeBesco, Kathleen—15
Lefebvre, Lyndsey—16
Leporati, Matthew—4
Levinson, Paul—24, signings
Licata, Fabio—10
Lumsden, Paul—19
Malcolm, Jody—3
Mauldin, Elizabeth—16
McCabe, Janet—2, signings
Naccarato, Peter—15
Nelson, Robin—11, signings
Nochimson, Martha P.—12, signings
O'Sullivan, Sean—13
Pattenden, Frieda—20
Pattie, David—4
Peacock, Steven—8, signings
Piluso, Robert—13
Plourde, Bruce—4
Reeves, Jimmie—23
Ricci, Franco—1
Rivers, Dianna Lipp—9
Rivers, Kenneth T.—14
Roche, Nancy—16
Siska, William—3
Sutherland, Sharon—20
Swan, Sarah—20
Thiering, David—19
Tomasulo, Frank—5
Vanacker, Bastiaan—8
Villez, Barbara—10
Walker, Joseph—6
Weber, Sven—7
Wilson, Carl—17
Wright, Paul—17
Yacowar, Maurice—24, signings