The Department of Italian Studies at UC Berkeley proudly presents:

The 2024 Marie G. Ringrose Graduate Lecture in Italian Studies by Professor Ara H. Merjian from New York University

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Pier Paolo Pasolini emerged as a lightning rod for postwar gay and lesbian culture well before his controversial murder in 1975. American artists in particular have long since gravitated toward both his work and his person: the visual artists Felix Gonzales-Torres and David Wojnarowicz; authors Kathy Acker and Gary Indiana; filmmakers Barbara Hammer and Cathy Lee Crane; and prominent cultural luminaries from Robert Mapplethorpe to Leo Bersani to John Waters. Such names do not even comprise the myriad individuals – from poets to playwrights to pornography editors – who have made of Pasolini a queer martyr of almost hagiographic status.

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