This poster, designed by Linda J. de Wit, has now been translated into Italian. It demonstrates visually the common expression “the elephant in the room,” used to describe something which is obvious but not being discussed openly.
Here we present the Italian translation, CID Poster 12: L’elefante nella stanza, provided by Maria Flora Mangano, with additional graphic design work by Yan Qiu.
The image was originally prepared to illustrate In Dialogue: CID Occasional Papers 1: Intercultural Dialogue as the Elephant in the Room: Moving from Assumptions to Research Investigations, by Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz. The quote integrated into the poster comes from that paper, and says:
Intercultural dialogue might be called the elephant in the room, a metaphor referring to something obvious which is nonetheless ignored. Most often, practitioners and diplomats use the term intercultural dialogue, but they rarely define it, and conduct little to no research in order to discover how it works, but only hold it up as a desired end. Academics, who certainly conduct research, rarely use this term, thus have rarely studied it, although some research by other names sheds light on how it works.
Just in case anyone wants to cite this poster, the following would be the recommended format:
Center for Intercultural Dialogue. (2026). L’elefante nella stanza [M. F. Mangano, trans.]. CID Posters, 12. Available from:
https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cid-poster-12-the-elephant-in-the-room-italian.png
As with other series, CID Posters are available for free on the site; just click on the thumbnail to download a printable PDF. They may be downloaded, printed, and shared as is, without changes, without cost, so long as there is acknowledgment of the source.
As with other series, if you wish to contribute an original contribution, please send an email before starting any work to receive approval, to minimize inadvertent duplication, and to learn about technical requirements. As is the case with other CID Publications, posters should be created initially in English. If you want to volunteer to translate a poster into a language in which you are fluent, send in a note before starting, to receive approval.
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue
intercult.dialogue AT gmail.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 