Colonialism and National Identity, "Oltremare" between Fascism and Republic
CALL FOR PAPERS

Seminar 3: FACING THE PAST; ITALY AND THE COLONIAL LEGACY
University of Cagliari
2-3 July 2015

Keynote speaker: prof. SILVANA PATRIARCA

The necessity to reflect on the historiography of Italian colonialism, and re-reading it as a constitutive element of Italian history requires a critical confrontation to the traditional boundaries of interpretation and the chronological terms within which it has been developed in its first decades.

Researcher and scholars recently have stopped to look at colonialism only through the lens of foreign policy and have begun to analyse it as a political as well as a cultural process that was at the same time also internal to the institutions and society of the colonizer. Consequently this perspective has emancipated the study of Italian colonial history from its chronological limits, prompting further analysis capable of investigating the cultural legacy of colonialism in Italian society after 1945.

Starting from all stimuli emerged in the first two meeting, the third seminar of the SISSCo workshop on 'Colonialism and National Identity. "Oltremare" between Fascism and the Republic' will be dedicated to these aspects. The seminar aims to stimulate reflection and encourage debate on how the colonial culture has continued to be part of the 'national' culture after the end of World War Two - namely after the collapse of fascism and the formal end of Italian colonialism - and which fractures and continuities still persisted.

Submissions for papers may include, but are not restricted to, scholars whose researches concern the ways in which institutions, political parties, movements and associations, historiography, literature, public debate, political and social practices can be linked directly or indirectly to the colonial past.

Particularly appreciated will be those proposals that highlight the following topics:

- memory/memories of colonialism during the Republican years: new analysis/new discoveries

- cultural legacy; 'otherness' and identity, racism

- colonialism and decolonisation in the institutional discourse and intellectual debate

- mass media, public opinion and the colonial question

- Italian political parties and former colonies

- the end of the Cold war and the re-emergence of the colonial question


To be considered for the workshop, please submit a 300-words abstract and a short biographical note, in English or Italian, by January 15th 2015 to [log in to unmask] The list of accepted proposals will be notified by February 15th, 2015. 


The Scientific Committee: Paolo Bertella Farnetti (ccordinator), Paolo Borruso, Charles Burdett, Valeria Deplano, Marzia Maccaferri, Luciano Marrocu, Cecilia Novelli, Alessandro Pes (coordinator), Gabriele Proglio, Alessandro Triulzi.