Food historian professor Karima Moyer-Nocchi provided an audience gathered in Gasson’s Fulton Room an overview of how pasta—once a staple of the Neapolitan poor—garnered an international reputation as the centerpiece of Italian identity. The talk, titled “The History of Pasta and Italian Identity,” included a pasta-making session as well as a discussion of modern-day pasta controversies. 

Pasta, to Moyer-Nocchi, who is a tenured professor at the University of Siena and teaches at the University of Rome, is a food that Italians eat to feel a sense of belonging in their culture and pride in their identity.  “We must keep in mind that identity is a collective invention,” Moyer-Nocchi said. “Peoples decide, whether overtly or as part of the collective subconscious, who they want