Pirelli established “Pirelli Visiting Professorship in Italian Studies” in the Department of French and Italian at Princeton University

Milan, Italy, 14-10-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — As part of its efforts to promote, sponsor, and support various cultural projects in Italy and around the world, Pirelli has established the “Pirelli Visiting Professorship in Italian Studies” for a five-year term in the Department of French and Italian at Princeton University. Its aim is to support the dissemination of the study of Italian history and culture through New Media and Technology within Italian Studies.

Princeton University will invite a prominent Italian scholar or professional each academic year to the Princeton campus to teach one course and engage in additional activities that would enrich Princeton’s distinctive educational experience and expand the breadth and scope of its interdisciplinary programs. In 2014, the visiting position will be entrusted by Princeton to Gianni Riotta.

The Pirelli and Princeton University partnership will be launched in January by the Department of French and Italian at the prestigious U.S. University. A newly designed course, team taught by journalist-writer Gianni Riotta and Professor Gaetana Marrone-Puglia, will focus on Italian history from the postwar period to the present day through the analysis of the Italian cinema which best captured the characteristics of the day, as well as its political, cultural and lifestyle dynamics.

Students will be called upon to analyze the period of history in question through the production of multi-media projects to which Pirelli will contribute by providing content and material from the Pirelli Foundation’s archives. These include documentaries, manuscripts, photographs, films and advertisements which will enrich the choice of material available to students through which to
understand and describe Italian history.

With over 140 years of industrial activity, Pirelli has traversed and contributed to all of the most significant phases of the country’s development, not only from an economic point of view but also socially and culturally. Princeton students and faculty will have access to materials catalogued in the Pirelli Foundation which will offer original research materials such as the world of work, the
urban transformation of the city, the modernization of technology, culture and lifestyles.

Pirelli today collaborates with 14 Universities in a global effort to promote scientific and humanistic research. The partnership with Princeton University in the field of the humanities and mass media not only enables the company to support Italian culture abroad, but also gain greater visibility on contemporary trends and the evolution of the world of new media, which are increasingly important also in terms of business.

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