IAP 36: Robert Orsi on worship, Southern-Italian style – Superstition, Saints, and Feast Days

In this episode of The Italian American Podcast, we talk with Robert Orsi, who is the first holder of the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University. Robert discusses what inspired him to write his book, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem. He expands on the experiences of immigration and community formation, Italian-American Catholicism, as well as traditional Italian feasts. In our Stories Segment, Dolores sits around the table with several women in her family to talk about dreams, dream interpretation, and how Southern-Italian women have used both to strengthen, guide, and nourish their lives and the lives of their families. About our guest…Robert Orsi Robert Orsi is the first holder of the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies. Professor Orsi studies American religious history and contemporary practice; American Catholicism in both historical and ethnographic perspective; and he is widely recognized also for his work on theory and method for the study of religion. In 2002-2003, he was president of the American Academy of Religion. Professor Orsi has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010 he received the E. Leroy Hall Award for Teaching Excellence, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, the highest recognition for teaching offered by WCAS. Episode Sponsors The National Italian American Foundation