Italian Studies

Professor Perry’s scholarly interests focus upon commemoration and representation of Italy in both World War II and the Cold War with a focus on the way Italians sacralized fallen partisans and recall solitary nocturnal air incursions. He has published extensively on Giovannino Guareschi and how this journalist and former Nazi POW captured the post-war ethos in Christian terms through his humorous Little World of Don Camillo stories. Recently he has published three co-authored historical books on the Italian POW experience in Pennsylvania: Italian Prisoners of War in Pennsylvania: Allies on the Home Front, 1944 – 1945 (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2016), World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Pennsylvania (Arcadia, 2017), and Prigionieri italiani di guerra in Pennsylvania, 1944 – 1945 (Mulino, 2019). He is currently examining the material culture (“trench art”) Italian POWs crafted in various detention camps in the United States. He teaches all levels of Italian language and offers classes in English on Italian history, culture, and Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Professor Perry is Gettysburg College’s inaugural Mahan Professor of Christian Studies for 2023 - 2028.