Successful television shows as "art" don't usually find their way into hallowed university halls for at least a few years after they've been whacked. But Tony Soprano, looming large in our collective consciousness, isn't about to start following rules.

"The Sopranos: A Wake" will explore the series as cultural icon. The "Wake" will run Thursday, May 22 through Saturday, May 24, with solid days of guest speakers and panels. Some session titles include "Journalism, Poetry and Silence in the Sopranos," "Body of Evidence: Tony Soprano's Corporeal Struggle" and "Carmella Soprano as Emma Bovary." The conference will culminate on Sunday at 10 a.m. with a Sopranos bus tour. I wonder if it'll be anything like Tony and Meadow's infamous college tour...?

I get that the show is "a mirror for American society and family" and that it humanized mafia culture in a unique way, and I'm all for reading too far into our art to fully root out its cultural significance (and also to give ourselves an excuse for watching so much damn TV), but this seems like a slippery slope. "The Wire" seems like the next best (and most obvious) choice. But if anyone starts debating the post-feminist struggle and the role of the narcissistic wound in "Sex and the City," I might need to drown my sorrows in seven pink Cosmos.

Here are OTR's picks on the discussions you must attend:

Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question
Chair: Frank Tomasulo
Jonathan J. Cavallero (Penn State U), “Honoring Our Ancestors: Using The Sopranos to Mobilize Italian/American Ehtnic Identity”
Laura Cook Kenna (George Washington U), “’I can’t turn the other cheek on this . . . My father was a Knight of Columbus’: ‘Christopher’ and the Contested Construction of Italian American Identity”
Frank Tomasulo (Florida State U), “The Gangster as Guinea Hero: The Complex Representation of Italian Americans in David Chase’s The Sopranos”


Creating Narratives in The Sopranos
Chair: Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Piluso (California State U Fullerton), “'Funny about God, and fate, and shit like that': The Imminent Unexpected in David Chase’s The Sopranos”
Ilaria Bisteghi (U of Bologna), “The New Serial Television: The Sopranos and The Relay Race-Like Text Structure”
Sean O’Sullivan (Ohio State U), “Episode Five, or When Does a Narrative Become What It Is?”


Food and the Body
Chair: James Francis
Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College), “A Family That Eats Together, Kills Together: Food as Metaphor in The Sopranos”
Michael Grynbaum (Harvard U), “Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos”
James Francis (Middle Tennessee State University), “Body of Evidence: Tony Soprano’s Corporeal Battle”


Whiteness and Cultural Privilege
Chair: Christopher Kocela
Renee Curry (California State U, Monterey Bay), ““Bianca isn’t black; she’s pretty tan”: Desire, Repulsion, and Whiteness in The Sopranos”
Andrea Dottolo (Worcester State College), “Wops and WASPS: Using The Sopranos to Teach about Race and Racism”
Christopher Kocela (Georgia State U), "'All Caucasians Look Alike': Dreams of Whiteness at the End of The Sopranos"