About

Jon Cavallero is Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies at Bates College and the Founding Director of the Bates Film Festival. Under his leadership, the Bates Film Festival has grown into a regionally respected, bi-annual event. In just four iterations, the festival has screened over 100 films originating from 6 different continents and welcomed over 60 guest filmmakers, including John Turturro, Chris Cooper, and John Sayles. Cavallero has also authored two books: Hollywood’s Italian American Filmmakers: Capra, Scorsese, Savoca, Coppola, and Tarantino (University of Illinois Press, 2011) and Television Directors, Race, and Gender: Written Out of the Story (Routledge, 2024). He is the co-editor of Italian American Review’s special issue on “Italian Americans and Television,” and his essays have appeared in numerous journals including Cinema Journal/The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Journal of Film and Video, The Journal of Popular Culture, MELUS, and The Journal of Popular Film & Television. Cavallero currently sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Film and Video and Diasporic Italy as well as the executive council of the Italian American Studies Association. At Bates, he teaches courses on US and global media with a particular focus on the representation of race, ethnicity, and gender. Cavallero previously taught at the University of Arkansas, Penn State University and Indiana University – Bloomington, where he was a two-time recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award. He earned his B.A. from Georgetown University, his M.A. from Penn State University, and his Ph.D. from Indiana University – Bloomington. He lives in Yarmouth, Maine with his family.

Publications

Books

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Television Directors, Race, and Gender: Written Out of the Story. Routledge Advances in Television Studies Series.  New York: Routledge. 2024.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Hollywood’s Italian American Filmmakers: Capra, Scorsese, Savoca, Coppola, and Tarantino. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011.

Journals

Jonathan J. Cavallero & Laura E. Ruberto (eds.), Italian American Review 6.2 (Summer 2016). Special issue on Italian Americans and television.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Don(n)ing Italian-American Ethnicity: DigitalSpace, Ethnic Performance, and Textual Evolution in The Godfather Video Game.”  Diasporic Italy 3 (October 2023): 43-59.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Edible Ethnicity: Italian-American Representations, Cinematic Style, and Ethnic Commodification in Stanley Tucci’s and Campbell Scott’s Big Night.” In Italian Americans on Screen. Edited by Ryan Calabretta-Sajder and Alan J. Gravano. 37-58. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Italian-Americans in Cinema and Media.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies. Edited by Krin Gabbard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016/2021.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Transnational Adaptation: Q & A, Slumdog Millionaire, and Aesthetic and Economic Relationships between Bollywood and Hollywood.” The Journal of Popular Culture 50.4 (August 2017): 835-854.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Written Out of the Story: Issues of Television Authorship, Reception, and Ethnicity in NBC’s ‘Marty.’” Cinema Journal 56.3 (Spring 2017): 47-73.

Jonathan J. Cavallero & Laura E. Ruberto. “Introduction to the Special Issue on Italian Americans and Television.” Italian American Review 6.2 (Summer 2016): 160-172.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “The Afterlife of a Classical Text: Representing Ethnicity in the Stage Productions of Marty.” Italian American Review 5.1 (Winter 2015): 27-45.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Issues of Race, Ethnicity and Television Authorship in Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues and Boardwalk Empire.” In A Companion to Martin Scorsese. Edited by Aaron Baker, 214-234. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Engaging Millennial Students in Social Justice from Initial Class Meetings to Service Learning.” In From Entitlement to Engagement: Affirming Millennial Students’ Egos in the Higher Education Classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning Ser., 135. Edited by Dave S. Knowlton and Kevin Jack Hagopian, 75-80. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Playing Good Italian/Bad Italian in ABC’s The Untouchables.” In Mafia Movies: A Reader. Edited by Dana Regna, 76-84. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. Second edition, 2019 (58-63).

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Hitchcock and Race: Is the Wrong Man a White Man?” Journal of Film and Video 62.4 (Winter 2010): 3-14. [Lead article]

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Beyond Italian Americans: When Directors of Italian Descent Cross Ethnic Lines.” VIA: Voices in Italian Americana 20.2 (Fall 2009): 3-11.  [Lead article]

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Gangsters, Fessos, Tricksters, and Sopranos: The Historical Roots of Italian American Stereotype Anxiety.” Journal of Popular Film & Television 32.2 (Summer 2004): 50-63. [Lead article]

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Frank Capra’s 1920s Immigrant Trilogy: Immigration, Assimilation, and the American Dream.” MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States 29.2 (Summer 2004): 27-53.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Redefining Italianità: The Difference Between Mussolini, Italy, Germany, and Japan in Frank Capra’s ‘Why We Fight.’” Italian Americana 22.1 (Winter 2004): 5-16.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “A Horse is a Horse?: Broadway Bill, Riding High, and a Changing American Culture.” Pennsylvania English 26.1-2 (2003/2004): 11-26.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “‘Maybe Because You’re Italian’: The Depiction of Italian and Italian American Characters in the Films of Frank Capra.” VIA: Voices in Italian Americana 14.1 (Spring 2003): 15-34.

Publicly Available Talks and Interviews

Jonathan J. Cavallero,“The Power of Film.” Maine Calling. Maine Public Radio. May 14, 2024.

Interviewee, “Students Are Running This Maine Film Festival but It’s Open to Everyone.” Rob Caldwell. 207. Newscenter Maine (NBC affiliate). Television. May 13, 2024.

Jonathan J. Cavallero, “Going to the Movies.” Maine Calling. Maine Public Radio. August 11, 2023.

Jonathan J. Cavallero, “Hollywood’s Italian American Filmmakers.”  The Italian Radio Hour.  Instituto Mondo Italiano.  Pittsburgh, PA.  January 20, 2023.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Edible Ethnicity: Italian-American Representations, Cinematic Style, and Ethnic Commodification in Stanley Tucci’s and Campbell Scott’s Big Night.” Maine Film Center.  Live Zoom Presentation. November 2020.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Bates Film Professor Jon Cavallero’s Top 30 Films of the Decade.” Bates News. January 9, 2020.

Jonathan J. Cavallero, “John Ford: Remembering Maine’s Native Son and Celebrated Director.” Maine Calling with Jennifer Rooks. Maine Public Radio.  January 29, 2019.

Book & Film Reviews & Remembrances

Jonathan J. Cavallero. (2020).  “The Problem(s) with Green Book.” Review of Green Book.  Animo Quarterly: Reflections on Green Book. (Fall 2020).

Jonathan J. Cavallero. (2020).  Review of Giuliana Muscio, Napoli/New York/Hollywood: Film between Italy and the United States. Italian American Review 10.1 (Winter 2020): 96-99.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. (2019). Remembrance of Peter Bondanella. Italian American Review.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of Anthony Julian Tamburri, Re-Viewing Italian Americana: Generalities and Specificities in Cinema. Altreitalie 47 (July – December 2013): 106-8.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of the documentary film Vito (2011). Italian American Review 3.2 (Summer 2013): 146-9.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of Gilbert Sorrentino, The Abyss of Human Illusion. Italian Americana 29.1 (Winter 2011): 124-5.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of Giorgio Bertellini, Italy in Early American Cinema. Italica 87.3 (Autumn 2010): 527-9.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. “Forbidden.” Review of the 1932 Frank Capra film. Quarterly Review of Film and Video 29.5 (2010): 399-401.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of the documentary film Hollywood Chinese (2007). Film & History 39.1 (Spring 2009): 84-5.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of the documentary film Excellent Cadavers (2005). Film & History 37.2 (September 2007): 86-7.

Jonathan J. Cavallero. Review of Robert Sklar and Vito Zagarrio, eds. Frank Capra: Authorship and the Studio System. Journal of Popular Film & Television 30.2 (Summer 2002): 120.