Italian Mafia: Origins and Development in Italy

Dr Gloria Pastorino, Professor Emerita, FDU
5 Tuesday afternoons, 1:30–3:30 pm; January 20, 27, February 3, 10, and 17, 2026.

These ZOOM lectures will look at the development of organized crime in Italy from its inception as Cosa Nostra in Sicily in the 19th century to the current Sicilian Mafia, Neapolitan Camorra, Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita.  We will analyze issues of power, political corruption, governmental connivance (national and international), and gender.

Although the term ‘Mafia’ is used worldwide to refer to organized crime, this minicourse will focus solely on Italy.

Prior to each of the last four lectures, an optional film will be available for streaming.  Three of the four films will be shown in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library, 39 Keep Street, Madison, NJ. The last film is not available for viewing; however, students can rent it on Amazon for $1.99.  The dates for viewing at the Madison Library’s Chase Room are:

• Wednesday, January 21 - 1:00 pm - One Hundred Steps, Marco Tullio Giordana, 2000

• Wednesday, January 28 – 1:00 pm - The Sicilian Girl, Marco Amenta, 2008

• Wednesday, February 4 – 1:00 pm - Gomorrah, Matteo Garrone, 2008

• -Black Souls, Francesco Munzi, 2014  - rent on Amazon for $1.99.

Dr. Gloria Pastorino is Professor Emerita, Fairleigh Dickinson University. She received her PhD from Harvard University in Comparative Literature and a BA and MA in Modern Languages (English, French, Spanish), I.U.L.M., Milan, and a MA in English Literature from the University of New Mexico.

She has taught English and world literature, drama, and film. Her publications include Othello. As interpreted by Luigi Lo Cascio (Bordighera, 2020), Beyond the Living Dead: Essays on the Romero Legacy (with Bruce Peabody, eds.; McFarland, 2021), For Love of the Punchline. Dario Fo and the Reinvention of Stage Languages (Biblion, 2023), several articles on Italian theater, cinema, migration, mafia, and masculinity, and translations of Italian plays.