Umbra Institute professor of photography Philippa Stannard has had shows with photographs taken all over the world, but she only recently turned her lens towards her adopted home, Perugia.
Stannard, in collaboration with her colleague Betty Press (from the University of Mississippi), just had a book of photographs published. The subject is Perugia, seen through the eyes of a foreigner who is a long-time resident.
“Recently Betty came to visit me and asked me if I’d ever taken pictures of Perugia. I realized that I hadn’t—oftentimes we don’t really see the places we live in,” Stannard said recently in an interview with the Corriere dell’Umbria, a Perugia daily. The book’s title, La dolce vista (The Sweet View) is a play on the Italian phrase “la dolce vita” (the sweet life).
Attracting scholars who study food since 1981, the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is the oldest academic conference on food history. Every year academics interested in using food studies as a lens to examine modern (and ancient) societies gather at the prestigious St. Catherine’s College in Oxford to take part in a series of discussions and hear the newest findings on food history.
Professor Elisa Ascione, the coordinator of the Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program, was among those presenting at this year’s conference. Each year’s conference has a theme, and this year’s was “material culture”: the artifacts and objects that are used to manipulate food from its “natural” state and the impact they have on the culture of food and the way we eat and cook.
Within this broader theme, Ascione’s paper focused on the way new objects are charged with meanings and social expectations in Italian modern kitchens, especially for women. Her research explored the way a very popular all-in-one food-processor and cooker, described as a “magic” appliance by its owners, acquired an almost totemic status because it is an “unclassifiable” object that defies symbolic boundaries linked to different activities of transformation. In this paper she shows that food preparation and cooking retains deep symbolic meanings even when it is performed through modern technological equipment.
Ascione’s paper is under consideration for publication in the conference’s Proceedings.
With the Intensive Italian students’ departure early this morning (read: 1 a.m.), The Umbra Institute concluded its packed Summer 2013 semester.
Perugia’s city center bids farewell to summer students and awaits the newcomers.
Umbra staff and faculty will spend the next few weeks preparing for the arrival of new students at the end of August. If you are among Perugia’s next batch of temporary residents, check your email for the Umbra departure handbook, which will answer questions you may have about what to pack and what to anticipate as you prepare for a fall semester in Italy.
Upon your arrival, expect a warm welcome at the airport from Umbra staff members, followed by a bus ride through Italian countryside and a welcome dinner that will make you forget your jetlag. Over the next two days, we will hold orientation meetings detailing your stay in Perugia, an Umbrian city rich with culture, history, and adventure. Get excited for an international chocolate festival, the opportunity to travel to the south of Italy, pizza workshops, academic field trips spanning the peninsula, wine tastings, aperitivi (Italy’s take on happy hour), walking tours, and more.
Whether away from the United States for six weeks or sixty years, American expatriates feel a twinge on Independence Day. This year, Umbra Intensive Italian students celebrated the Fourth of July with an American-style barbecue, which morphed into a language exchange when local Italian students joined in the star-spangled, hamburger-grilling festivities.
“It was the most popular Tandem language exchange of the summer semester,” said Student Services staff member Marco Bagli, who estimated that 50 people attended the barbecue at the campus of Onaosi, an Italian university.
Students celebrated the Fourth of July with Italians at a barbecue-themed Tandem.
The Umbra Institute never misses the chance to celebrate the U.S. national holiday, even if the majority of its summer students — temporary expatriates — will be back in their home country within the month. Americans can assuage any flashes of homesickness by sharing their cultural traditions with their Italian guests — while practicing their Italian.
One of Perugia’s most celebrated events, Umbria Jazz, begins today. Since 1973, jazz lovers from around the world have flocked to this festival, a time when the streets of Perugia vibrate with music and culture from dusk to dawn. This year, students enrolled in Umbra’s Intensive Italian Language through Culture program have the opportunity to partake in the revelry; in fact, one co-curricular activity features an afternoon jazz concert at Bottega di Vino.
Past festivals have featured acclaimed musicians, including Elton John, Van Morrison, James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Sting. This year, the likes of Diana Krall and John Legend will perform during the 9-day festival. In addition to ticketed concerts, the international audience may attend free shows throughout the city. During Umbria Jazz, one can’t walk through the center of Perugia without stumbling upon some tunes.
Buona musica!
In cooperation with Washington & Jefferson College, The Umbra Institute hosted Bridges Across Culture, a first-time international conference on the arts and humanities, from June 27-30. More than 100 acclaimed academicians from across the globe presented on a variety of subjects pertaining to the liberal arts.
Dr. Maurice Wheeler of the University of North Texas presented “Bridging Politics, Race and Culture: Operatic Performances in the White House” at the Ranieri Foundation.
The keynote speakers were Professor Peter Schepelern of the University of Copenhagen, who spoke about the New Danish Cinema, and Dr. Patrick J. Quinn of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy in Baku, who presented his dissertation concerning the failure of certain British poets to write anything significant for a decade after World War I.
Sessions were held at The Umbra Institute’s Via Bartolo location and The Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation. Every day, Umbra organized informal gatherings such as coffee breaks, a dinner in the Umbrian countryside, and two aperitivi.
“The conference was a success: Four days of interesting panels were combined with ample opportunities to meet international colleagues and continue the academic discourse during the breaks,” said Dr. Elgin Eckert, an Umbra professor who co-organized the event with Dr. H.J. Manzari of Washington & Jefferson College.
“Perugia was the perfect location for an international conference,” agreed Manzari. “It’s a central location but off the beaten path.
“Even though we were all from different worlds, we connected with English as a common language, bridging the linguistic barrier to share in the diverse topics that appealed to scholars of literature, for example, as much as to those in science education,” Manzari added.
Bridges Across Culture was free and open to the public, allowing Umbra students to expand their intellectual horizons.
“A number of undergraduate students currently studying at The Umbra Institute attended conference talks, allowing them to observe and participate in advanced academic discourse during their study abroad program,” Eckert said.
Manzari and Eckert are already in talks about next year’s conference.
Faculty and staff take pride in Umbra Institute alumni, especially when the alumni incorporate aspects of their education abroad into their post-graduate careers. From presenting her Harvard thesis at a conference to the acceptance to a prestigious culinary academy, two Umbra alumnae recently drew on their experience in the Food Studies Program for “real-world” success.
Alumna Teagan Lehrmann presents at a food studies conference in late June.
Recent Harvard graduate Teagan Lehrmann, an Umbra Fall 2011 alumna, presented her thesis “Sweet as Honey: The Beekeeper’s Fight Against Corn Sugar and Objectivity, 1926-1932” at the Association for the Study of Food and Society annual conference in Lansing, Mich, on June 20. Lehrmann began her research while abroad.
“The Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program led me to take a critical look at the way we think and interact with our food,” Lehrmann said.
Alumna Julia Rackow poses in a Parmesan cheese cooperative on a FSP field trip in Spring 2012.
Recent Tufts graduate Julia Rackow, an Umbra Spring 2012 alumna, was recently admitted into the San Francisco Cooking School. Like Lehrmann, Rackow said that her experience abroad was key in her decision to pursue a career in food.
“The Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program led me to (realize that) how we understand and interact with food is constantly in flux,” Rackow explained. “It’s fascinating to see how the old-world techniques and values we once left behind are now becoming increasingly popular in current American food trends.”
Auguri, alumnae!
“Arrivederci!”
A group of General Studies students smile at the Farewell Aperitivo Thursday. Intensive Italian students will remain in Perugia until July 12.
Summer General Studies students celebrated their five-week program at the Umbra Farewell Aperitivo on Thursday evening. Staff, faculty, and students mingled at il Birraio, trading favorite anecdotes from the classroom and beyond. Friday morning, students were taking finals; early Saturday morning, they were boarding the bus to the Rome airport.
Students enrolled in Umbra’s Intensive Italian Language through Culture program, however, will continue practicing Italian in the Perugian community through next week. In addition to Italian language courses, the remaining activities include a lecture on the well-known frescoes by Perugino, a Tandem language exchange-turned-Fourth of July barbecue tomorrow, an Umbria Jazz concert and aperitivo, and a farewell dinner on July 12, the last day of the semester.
Time, slow down!
After her semester at The Umbra Institute in Spring 2013, Food Studies Program student Caitlin Smith received a summer internship as a food blogger for Foodem, an online, D.C.-based start-up that caters to the U.S. wholesale food distribution industry.
Umbra alumna Caitlin Smith poses with a handful of recently-hunted truffles on a Food Studies Program field trip.
Smith primarily blogs about the connection between food and lifestyle, particularly in relation to her semester abroad in Italy. She explained that her decision to apply for the internship derived from her experience at Umbra.
“When I took this internship, I was very apprehensive. I was really worried that my food knowledge wasn’t going to prove up to the task,” Smith admitted. “But thanks to my time in Perugia, I’ve found that I have plenty of opinions on the subject! I have to say that The History and Culture of Food course really changed the entire way that I eat, think, and feel about food and culture.
“I was never really that interested in food trends or nutrition or the like before I took that class,” Smith continued. “And it wasn’t until I returned to the U.S. when I realized how much that course, as well as my experiences in Perugia, changed my perspective and my eating habits. … I actually care about what’s in season, where and how things are grown and cultivated, and what goes into my — and anyone else’s — body. And I think that really comes across in my blog posts — I want to show people how easy it is to incorporate fresh foods and home cooked meals into their diets. Everyone can have a little bit of that slow Italian lifestyle, even if they’re living in the American fast lane.”
At the end of August, Smith will return to George Washington University for her senior year. Explore her stories for the Foodem blog here.
After her semester at The Umbra Institute in Spring 2013, Food Studies Program student Caitlin Smith received a summer internship as a food blogger for Foodem, an online, D.C.-based start-up that caters to the U.S. wholesale food distribution industry.
Umbra alumna Caitlin Smith poses with a handful of truffles that she hunted earlier day on a Food Studies Program field trip.
Smith primarily blogs about the connection between food and lifestyle, particularly in relation to her semester abroad in Italy. She explained that her decision to apply for the internship derived from her experience at Umbra.
“When I took this internship, I was very apprehensive. I was really worried that my food knowledge wasn’t going to prove up to the task,” Smith admitted. “But thanks to my time in Perugia, I’ve found that I have plenty of opinions on the subject! I have to say that The History and Culture of Food course really changed the entire way that I eat, think, and feel about food and culture.
“I was never really that interested in food trends or nutrition or the like before I took that class,” Smith continued. “And it wasn’t until I returned to the U.S. when I realized how much that course, as well as my experiences in Perugia, changed my perspective and my eating habits. … I actually care about what’s in season, where and how things are grown and cultivated, and what goes into my — and anyone else’s — body. And I think that really comes across in my blog posts — I want to show people how easy it is to incorporate fresh foods and home cooked meals into their diets. Everyone can have a little bit of that slow Italian lifestyle, even if they’re living in the American fast lane.”
At the end of August, Smith will return to George Washington University for her senior year. Explore her stories for the Foodem blog here.
Location 
Umbra Institute professor of photography Philippa Stannard has had shows with photographs taken all over the world, but she only recently turned her lens towards her adopted home, Perugia.
