The Daily Bulletin Archive

David A. Carson, chair and professor, and Martin F. Ederer, assistant professor, History and Social Studies Education, presented papers at a historic display unveiled at La Memoria Potenza del Futuro: Biblioteche, Archivi, Musei, Collezionisti Privat: Protagonisti Nell’unire il Tempo, the 12th annual workshop of Teca del Mediterraneo, held in Bari, Puglia, Italy, June 26–27.

Carson and Ederer’s participation was part of a collaborative research partnership proposed by the honorary vice consul of Italy for Western New York among the Buffalo State History and Social Studies Education Department, Teca del Mediterraneo, the Apulian Historical Institute for the Study of Antifascism and Contemporary Italian History, St. Anthony of Padua Church in Buffalo, and the Consiglio Regionale della Puglia to study Italian immigration to Western New York. The first project of the collaboration emphasized the story of Buffalo-born artist and author Thomas Sgovio, who ended up in Stalin’s Gulag in the Soviet Union before returning to Buffalo later in life.

Carson’s contribution to the conference was “The Idea of America: Why Immigrants Came,” and Ederer’s paper was “Buffalo, New York, and its Italian Immigrant Community.” Both papers were published, along with papers submitted by Jean Richardson, Gary Marotta, Kenneth Mernitz, and Alex Blair, all of the History and Social Studies Education Department, in a catalog of the display and a collection of articles by Italian, American, and Russian historians and archivists establishing the context of the exhibit.

Buffalo State College will host the American showing of the exhibit and a similar conference in September.