History/Food Studies professor Zachary Nowak and Associate Director for Academic Development Elgin Eckert delivered papers.
The Umbra Institute strives to represent the best of American academia in Italy, and key to this is a good mix of both excellence in the classroom and continued research in one’s field. These past twelve months have been especially fruitful in 
terms of exhibitions, publications, and presentations for professors at the Institute.
After four Umbra professors presented at the annual AATI conference in Erice (Sicily) in late May, Umbra history and Food Studies professor Zachary Nowak and Associate Director for Academic Development Elgin K. Eckert represented Umbra this past weekend at the AACUPI sponsored international conference Echi Oltremare: Italy, the Mediterranean … and Beyond.
Nowak’s paper “Selling the Mediterranean Diet: Marketing a Myth” talked about the facts, fiction and especially marketing strategies behind this highly popular “diet”, while Eckert’s paper “Change, Innovation, and Globalization in Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano Series” looked at how Italy’s best-selling author confronts the changing times in his popular series of mystery novels.