From the Editor

I am excited to announce the publication of volume four of Diasporic Italy: Journal of the Italian American Studies Association. We have been working on this volume all year, and although it is slightly late, it is filled with unique pieces representing a much less common focus of Italian migration, Arkansas. This past year, IASA hosted a conference in October 2023 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, hosted by the Italian program at the University of Arkansas. At this event, numerous national, international, and regional scholars gathered to more closely explore Italian migration to this area of the US. University of Arkansas students also performed a dramatic reading of Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni and Professor Antonio Marinoni's works on Saturday evening, some pieces of which are published in this volume. IASA also hosted the third IASA-sponsored guaranteed session at the Modern Language Association's convention in January 2024. The theme was Affect Theory in Italian Americana; hopefully, those pieces will be published in volume 5. Finally, we hosted an international symposium in collaboration with Georgetown University's Villa Le Balze in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy. The contributions in this volume represent research stemming from these venues and others completely independent of IASA. We continue to welcome all contributions for future volumes.This fourth volume is divided into four major sections: Linguistic and Pedagogical Implications, along with a Special Focus: Italians in Arkansas consisting of a historical piece on the Italians of Tontitown, Arkansas, an extended biography of Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, an academic piece exploring Zagnoni Marinoni's influence and relationships with other local Ozark authors, and finally a translation from Professor Antonio Marinoni's novel Come ho “fatto” l'America. We are confident that these diverse avenues of inquiry will better enhance our knowledge and understanding, incorporating intersectional aspects of the personal, professional, and scholarly.My heartfelt thanks to our authors, editors, and reviewers for their continued support of the journal. Our reviewers are amazing; their attention to detail, speed, and insight have strengthened the quality of this volume.In closing, I am happy to share we have a few more university library subscriptions to Diasporic Italy, but we can still do better and enlarge our readership. I invite you to speak with your university librarian today.Buona lettura!