Madeline Northup discovered her love of storytelling at a young age from her grandfather, an American citizen born in WWII Italy. Every time he would stop a stranger to tell them his life story, she would hang on to his every word. As she got older, she realized that if she did not record his stories, they would eventually be gone forever. Inspired by this, Madeline began interviewing Italian Americans in Ohio for Dr. Daniele Fioretti’s website, Italian Americans in Ohio Oral History Project (IAOOHP). Created as a way to store both oral and written memories of Italian Americans now living in Ohio, the website provides a space for ordinary people to tell and memorialize their extraordinary stories. It also serves as a historical record of the treatment endured by Italian Americans as immigrants, or children of immigrants, as they navigate a new life in the United States. While the primary method of research employed by Dr. Fioretti is visual and audio interviews, Madeline focuses more on written histories, combining her passions for Italian American culture, storytelling, and writing. Through her research, she has learned about the different receptions, both negative and positive, that Italian Americans had when they immigrated to the U.S. The occupations and interests of each person she has interviewed have also been diverse, including businessmen, newspaper editors, surgeons, stamp collectors, officers, museum curators, and educators, to name a few. With each interview, IAOOHP was able to grow, transforming into the Italian American Collective and expanding to a national project. Through working with Dr. Fioretti on his website, Madeline has been able to utilize her passion for storytelling, and learn more about the experiences of others, especially immigrants to the U.S. She will be using this knowledge to pursue a future career as a biographical author, combined with her other career as a professor of Linguistics and Romance Languages.
Author(s): Madeline Northup, Italian & Classical Studies, and Linguistics Major
Advisor(s): Daniele Fioretti, French, Italian, & Classics
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