Conferences

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF MODERN ITALY

Annual Conference 2016 

THE FORCE OF HISTORY: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF MODERN ITALY

25 November IHR University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London

 26 November ICI Italian Cultural Institute Belgrave Square, London    

The ASMI annual conference will be held jointly this year with the Institute of Historical Research's Modern Italian History Seminar. The seminar, which is sponsored by ASMI, this year marks its twentieth anniversary. In that time, it has hosted numerous speakers who have given papers on many aspects of modern Italian history. One of the convenors of the seminar was Christopher Duggan, who was also Chair of ASMI at the time of his death in November 2015. The conference offers an opportunity to reflect on the state of historiographical debate on a range of themes that figured prominently in Christopher Duggan's work, and to explore the roles of British historians and of the seminar itself in the historiography of Italy.

The conference will include sessions on the following themes: Fascism and Totalitarianism; Legacies of Fascism; The Mafia; Biography; British Historians and Italy from Mack Smith to Duggan, the History of the IHR Modern Italian History seminar.  There will be a number of invited speakers and some sessions will consist of panels which are wholly composed of them.

See below the Conference Programme. PDF version here 

Saturday 26 November

Italian Cultural Institute (ICI)

9.00 – 9.30     Registration

9.30 – 11.10      Panel I Lecture Hall

Fascism and Totalitarianism

Chair: Maria Sophia Quine (Oxford Brookes University)

The Politics of Consent

Keynote: Paul Corner (University of Siena and Director of Centre for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes)Dictatorship as Experience: Perspectives and Problems

Kate Ferris (University of St Andrews). Outside the State? The Politics of Everyday Life in Fascist Italy 

Ugo Pavan Della Torre (Independent researcher). The Italian National Association of Disabled Servicemen (ANMIG) and Fascism

Panel I/II Room Library

Legacies of Fascism

Chair: Marzia Maccaferri (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Cultural Legacy

Hannah Malone (University of Cambridge). Architectural legacies of fascism 

Dario Pasquini (Independent researcher). Longing for purity. Fascism and Nazism in Italian and German satirical press (1943-1963)

Giuliana Pieri (Royal Holloway, University of London). Fascist Art: a disputed legacy

Beatrice Sica (University College London). A Battle of Images in Postwar Italy: Unseated Knights as Champions of Anti-Fascism

Panel I/III Room 1st Floor Hall

The Mafia

Chair: John Dickie (University College London)

Vittorio Coco (Università di Palermo). Christopher Duggan, la mafia, il fascismo

Carolina Castellano (Università di Napoli). Criminal groups in Campania between Fascism and the Second World War: a case-study

Daron Acemoglu (MIT), Giuseppe De Feo (Univ. of Strathclyde), Giacomo De Luca (Univ. of York). Men of honour and men of order: Social conflict and the expansion of the mafia in the Sicilian countryside

Samantha Owen (Curtin University, Western Australia). Celebrating Unity: Danilo Dolci, clientelism, Waste and transnational conversations

11.10 – 11.30     Tea break

11.30 – 13.10     Panel II/Lecture Hall 

The Mafia

Chair: John Dickie (University College London) 

Keynote: Salvatore Lupo (Università di Palermo). Il fascismo e la Mafia. 

Manoela Patti (Università di Palermo). Il fascismo, l’antimafia e la selezione della classe dirigente locale. Il caso palermitano

Tommaso Baris (Università di Palermo). L’accusa di associazione mafiosa negli esposti anonimi tra realtà ed autorappresentazione del regime fascista

Panel II/II Room Library

Fascism and Totalitarianism

Chair: Maria Sophia Quine (Oxford Brookes University)

Cultures of Consent

Richard Bosworth (Jesus College, Oxford). Fascism and other Italian Histories in the Emotions of Claretta Petacci and her Family

Enrica Asquer (Gramsci Institute, Bologna). Writing to the Regime: Conflicts and Contradictions in Fascist Jews’ Letters to Demorazza

Alice Gussoni (Pembroke College, Oxford). Gaetano Salvemini and the Anti-Fascist Struggle from Abroad

Giuliana Minghelli (McGill University). History and Emotion in Franco Fortini’s I cani del Sinai

Panel II/III Room 1st Floor Hall

Legacies of Fascism

Chair: Marzia Maccaferri (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Political and Intellectual Legacy

Nick Carter (Australian Catholic University). ‘I’m busy flying.’ Remembering Italo Balbo: aviator, pioneer, adventurer; Squadrist, Fascist, murderer

Carl Levy (Goldsmiths, University of London). The Social, Cultural and Political History of the Term 'Totalitarianism' (the Italian Dimension): some reflections on a new project

Margherita Sulas (Università di Cagliari). La persistenza del mito mussoliniano nella destra postfascista italiana negli anni del centrismo

13.10 – 14.10    Lunch break (please make your own arrangements)

14.10 – 15.50    Panel III/Lecture Hall

Legacies of Fascism

Chair: Marzia Maccaferri (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Removals and Commemorations

Keynote: Marcello Flores (Università di Siena and INSMLI)

The Legacies of Fascism: continuities and ruptures

Mirco Carrattieri (Università di Bologna and INSMLI). Who is afraid of Predappio? The debate about a national museum of fascism in Mussolini’s birthplace 

Charles Leavitt (University of Reading). “La favola dell’anno zero” in Post-Fascist Italy

Panel III/II Room Library

Fascism and Totalitarianism

Chairs: Maria Sophia Quine (Oxford Brookes University), Adrian Lyttelton (Johns Hopkins University  - Bologna Center)

A People’s Dictatorship?

Simone Duranti (Università di Siena). Instruments of Propaganda? The Fascist GUF (Gruppi Universitari Fascisti) and the Limits of Totalitarianism’

Gioachino Lanotte (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano). Mussolini and his Orchestra: Songs and Radio Between Propaganda and Censorship.

Giuliana Minghelli (McGill University). History and Emotion in Franco Fortini’s I cani del Sinai

Panel III/III Room 1st Floor Hall

The Mafia

Chair: John Dickie (University College London)

Rossella Merlino (Bangor University). Redefining mafia “culture” beyond culturalism: the case of Cosa Nostra and religion

Amber Philips (University of Bristol). Ndrangheta in the news: contrasting national and regional press representations of the 1969 Montalto summit

Luca Palermo (Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli). Ethics and aesthetics: street art for the regeneration of a real estate confiscated from the camorra. An Italian study case

15.50 – 16.30    Tea break

16.20 - 17.30  Documentary film:

'Bologna 2 agosto 1980: la strage'

Chair: John Foot (University of Bristol)

Followed by Q&A with Director Vanessa Roghi (Università di Roma La Sapienza)

General Information

Suggestions for ACCOMODATION can be found here:  http://www.igrs.sas.ac.uk/node/39

Friday - 25 November 2016

Institute of Historical Research (IHR)

Senate House

Malet Street

London                  WC1E 7HU

Closest Tube Stops: Russell Square (Piccadilly Line), Tottenham Court Road or Goodge Street (Northern Line).

Closest Landmarks: British Museum and Russell Square.

Where to go for lunch

There are a number of cafés in the area as listed below, however we also suggest that you might like to bring your own lunch or sandwich to have in Senate House. On the Friday the Senate House Café will be open on the ground floor or you may want to head to:

RADA café: 62-64 Gower St, London WC1E 6ED

Waterstone's café: 82 Gower St, London WC1E 6EQ

There are also many cafés and bars on Store Street, a 3-minute walk due West from Senate House.

You can also find a map of the area here:

http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/home/map.pdf

Saturday - 26 November 2016

Italian Cultural Institute (ICI)

39 Belgrave Square

London                  SW1X 8NX

Closest Tube Stops: Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly Line), Victoria (Victoria Line, Circle Line and District Line).

Closest Landmarks: Hyde Park Corner, Wellington Arch, Harrods.

Where to go for lunch

There are a number of cafés in the area as listed below, however we also suggest that you might like to bring your own lunch or sandwich to have in the basement canteen or you may want to head to:

The Pret a Manger

132 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1HY

+44 (0)20 7932 5337

The Green Café

16 Eccleston Street, Belgravia, SW1W 9LT

+44 (0)20 305304

The Fine Cheese Co.

17 Motcomb Street, Belgravia, SW1X 8LB,

+44 (0)20 75362109

You can also find a map of the area here:

http://www.icilondon.esteri.it/iic_londra/it/istituto/come_raggiungerci