Mafia in the Movies will be Discussed in Upcoming Guest Lecture at Baylor University

Follow us on Twitter:
@BaylorUMediaCom
Contact: Terry Goodrich, Assistant Director of Media Communications, (254) 710-3321
WACO, Texas (Oct. 26, 2012) - Dana Renga, Ph.D., a professor of Italian at The Ohio State University, will be hosted by the department of modern foreign language in the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor University. Her lecture "Marketing the Mob: From the Corleonesi to the Camorra" will be given at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30, in Room 116 in Draper Academic Building, 1420 S. Seventh Street.
Renga is an authority on Italian film and cultural studies of Italy since the 20th century. Her research interests include Mafia movies, Italian fascism and relations with Nazi Germany, and representation of terrorism. Her edited volume Mafia Movies: A Reader was published in 2011, and she recently finished the manuscript for a book titled Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium. She also is co-authoring a new book called A Long Holiday: Internal Exile in Fascist Italy.
Guests who attend "will gain an understanding of differences between Italian and Italian-American Mafias as they come off in the cinema, and they will understand the history and function of the Italian Mafia as the organization appears in a selection of more recent Italian films," Renga said. "We will also think about how the image of the Mafioso is produced in popular media and how both real and fictional Mafiosi model their own behavior on film icons such as Don Vito Corleone, Salvatore Giuliano, Tony Montana and Raffaele Cutolo."
The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will be held afterward in Room 109 of Old Main, 1411 S. Fifth St. For more information, call 254-710-3711.
by Brent Salter, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having "high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.

ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University's oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 26 academic departments and 13 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.