Mafia-type organizations in Italy continue to not only survive but thrive in the present day despite the attempts by the Italian State to combat the phenomenon. One of the major obstacles to fighting the mafia is the persistence of social acceptance and support for these organizations in communities across Sicily and Southern Italy. In this presentation, I will discuss how and why this is still happening and how cultural perceptions of the mafia have allowed the myths of mafiosi to endure in Italy and around the globe.

Dr. Nicholas Albanese is Associate Professor of Italian in the Department of Modern Language Studies at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He received his PhD from Indiana University in Italian Language and Culture and has taught extensively on Italian history, literature, and film both in Italy and the US. Dr. Albanese does research mainly on contemporary Italian history and culture with particular focus on Southern Italy and Sicily. His most recent publication discusses the ethics of story-telling in the works of the Sicilian author, Leonardo Sciascia. He is currently completing a project on 21st-century Italian apocalyptic fiction.