Barbara Faedda is the associate director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University, where she is also adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Italian. Among other works, she is the editor of Present and Future Memory: Holocaust Studies at the Italian Academy (2008-2016) (2016).Barbara Faedda is the associate director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University, where she is also adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Italian. Among other works, she is the editor of Present and Future Memory: Holocaust Studies at the Italian Academy (2008-2016) (2016).

Teodolinda Barolini, Lorenzo Da Ponte Professor of Italian, Columbia University:
Barbara Faedda magisterially illuminates Italy's vibrant and complex cultural presence in New York, using primary sources to trace the story of Italian studies at Columbia University from Da Ponte to the inauguration of the Casa Italiana through World War II. She thereby illuminates Columbia's early commitment to transcultural dialogue, a hallmark of both the university and the city to which it belongs.

from the foreword by Armando Varricchio, Ambassador of Italy to the United States:
Since its inauguration in 1927, the Casa Italiana at Columbia University has represented the vibrant intellectual, academic, political, and cultural connection between Italy and the United States of America. This important work [is]...a significant initiative that sheds new light on Italy's historical and contemporary role on the international cultural scene.

David Freedberg, Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art and director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University:
Written with admirable clarity, Barbara Faedda’s beautifully told story reveals the hopes, tensions, politics, and personalities behind the creation of Columbia’s Casa Italiana, one of New York’s most vital—and sometimes controversial—cultural and educational institutions.