A three-day International conference of italian studies opened at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Banjaluka

Over a hundred participants from seventeen different countries from three continents, representing thirty-five universities, gathered for a three-day international conference organized by the Department of Italian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Banja Luka and Association for Italian Studies of the Balkans, whose headquarters are situated in Banja Luka. The opening ceremony took place at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Banja Luka on 5 June 2014.



This is the sixth conference regularly taking place at the University of Banja Luka since 2008. The Conference was supported not only by the Faculty of Philology and the University of Banja Luka, but also by the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Srpska Government, the City of Banja Luka and several sponsors.

The symbolic conference title ‘Italian Studies 2.0’ is a contribution to creating a new platform presenting a conscious and concrete reaction to negative trends, such as closing various institutes and centres nurturing Italian culture and extinguishing the sources of information in Italian language. As the creator and the main organizer of activities related to the Conference, Prof. Danilo Capasso, pointed out in his introductory lecture, ‘Italian Studies 2.0’ is the appropriate basis for reorganization of models, methods and spreading of Italian language and literature.



At the plenary session, which followed immediately after the Conference opening ceremony, lectures were delivered by the eminent guests from Italy: Prof. Nicoletta Maraschio, from the University of Florence, and Prof. Massimo Arcangeli, from the University of Cagliari.

During these three days, the Conference is going to provide answers to different questions from the field of linguistics, philology, literature, culture, methodology and translation.



The participants were greeted by Ms Radmila Pejic, Deputy Minister of Education and Culture, representing the Republic of Srpska Government and the Ministry of Education and Culture; Ms Ilaria Ragnoni, the Second Secretary, representing the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Prof. Valerija Saula, the Vice-Rector for International Cooperation of the University of Banja Luka, and Prof. Petar Penda, the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Banja Luka.

By the minute of silence at the very beginning, the participants of the conference paid their respects to all the victims of the recent disastrous floods which caused enormous damage in the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.