Based in Midtown Manhattan, the Calandra Institute has grown into the premier institution for Italian American Studies since its founding in 1979. Started by a group of concerned Italian Americans aiming to redress imbalances in treatment of Italian Americans in higher education, the Calandra Institute has grown to encompass a much more varied—and expanding—set of goals.

Today, as a CUNY-wide research institute, its staff of over a dozen professionals spearheads the Italian American and diasporic academic landscape. They conduct research and produces regular events that are open to the public, free of charge.

The Institute publishes a semi-annual academic journal, the Italian American Review. It also publishes a Substack blog on vital topics concerning the Italian American public. The Institute’s media team produces video programming on CUNY TV, available on YouTube, that highlights Italian American history and culture.

The Institute’s on-site library is the home of a number of scholarly collections of books and magazines. Through Bordighera Press, the Institute publishes fiction and nonfiction on topics including Italian-language learning and Italian Americans in higher education. Senior staff members of the Institute regularly serve as consultants for U.S., Italian, and other international scholars producing work in sociology, history, psychology, musicology, and folklore studies, among other fields. The Institute itself has formal agreements with several international institutions in Italy to advance Italian American studies on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Institute serves the needs of both our voracious New York City Italian American community and the broader Italian diaspora—in America and beyond. As with everything the Institute does, the aim is to further explore and promulgate the experience and creative output of people from that diaspora. Its doors are welcome to all.

The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute operates under the aegis of Queens College, CUNY.