Co-sponsored by The University Seminar on Studies in Modern Italy
Italians in/and the Maghreb will expand discussions of colonialism, migration, race, decolonial movements, and postcolonial issues in Italian and Italian diaspora studies. While the study of Italian colonialism has blossomed in recent years with the country’s official colonies in Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, Ethiopia, and the Dodecanese Islands now the topic of many scholarly studies, the history of Italians in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia has tended to remain marginal, and mostly examined as an example of Italy’s aggressive emigration policies and attempts to pursue informal colonies. This seminar explores the exchanges between Italy and French North Africa, focusing on imperial ambitions, migration, and the wide-ranging intellectual dialogues between the two regions. Papers span in focus and time frame—from the period of peak diaspora in the late nineteenth century to “repatriations” during long decolonization (Ballinger 2020)—and converse with recent studies such as L’Italia e Africa: Strategie e visioni dell’età postcoloniale, 1945–1989 (Borruso 2024), Migration at the End of Empire. Time and the Politics of Departure between Italy and Egypt (Viscomi 2024); Storia del colonialismo italiano (Deplano and Pes 2024), and Italiani d’Africa. Racconti del Ritorno (Vigo 2025).
Presenters: Sarah DeMott, Valerie McGuire, Erica Moretti, Gabriele Montalbano, Luca Peretti
Respondents: Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Columbia University; Youssef Ben Ismail, Amherst College; Claudio Fogu, University of California Santa Barbara; Mia Fuller, Gladyce Arata Terrill, University of California, Berkeley
