Borders, Captivity and Memory in Transnational Italy and the Mediterranean: A Virtual Symposium in Two Parts (March 18 and April 8, 2022)
This two-day virtual symposium explores the relationship between borders, captivity, and memory, and how it shapes the racialization of migration and the construction of national identity. Given Italy’s porous position as a Southern European nation with complex histories of internal migration, emigration, and immigration, Italy and the Mediterranean region are critical contexts for understanding how processes of migration, racialization, and transcultural mediation have shaped public and cultural discourse about identity and belonging from nineteenth century emigration and colonialism, to today’s arrivals via the Mediterranean Sea. This symposium brings together scholars, writers, practitioners, activists, and students working in multiple fields and historical periods to explore questions of migration, incarceration, race, and memory in Italy and the Mediterranean in a transnational and transhistorical perspective.
Each of the symposium’s two thematic days (9:45am-4:15pm ET) features two roundtable discussions, a keynote session, and reflection sessions for undergraduate and graduate students.
Friday March 18, 2022: “Racial Justice and the Black Mediterranean”
- 9:45am-11:30am EST: Welcome and Roundtable 1: Cultural, Legal, and Sociological Perspectives on Racial Justice in Italy and the Mediterranean
- 12:00pm-1:30pm EST: Keynote: Racial Justice and the Black Mediterranean, featuring Camilla Hawthorne and Angelica Pesarini in dialogue, with Simone Brioni and Teresa Fiore as discussants
- 1:30pm-2:15pm EST: Student reflection session, facilitated by Simone Biorni and Teresa Fiore (open to undergraduate and graduate students at any institution)
- 2:45pm-4:15pm EST: Roundtable 2: “Italian others”: Histories of Racialized Migration and Diaspora between the Nineteenth Century and the Present
Friday April 8, 2022: “Language, Identity and Representation in Transnational Italy”
- 9:45am-11:30am EST: Welcome and Roundtable 1: Translation, Testimony, and Storytelling across Borders
- 12:00pm-1:30pm EST: Keynote: Language, Identity, and Representation in Transnational Italy, featuring Amara Lakhous and Ubah Cristina Ali Farah in dialogue, with Ron Kubati and Loredana Polezzi as discussants
- 1:30pm-2:15pm EST: Student reflection session (open to undergraduate and graduate students at any institution)
- 2:45pm-4:15pm EST: Roundtable 2: Readings and discussion to celebrate the launch of Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives (Farleigh Dickinson UP 2021), eds. Marie Orton, Ron Kubati, and Graziella Parati
Both days will also include roundtables and a reflection session for undergraduate and graduate students.
This event is open to all, and we encourage student participation.
Co-organized by Elena Bellina (University of Rochester) and Eleanor Paynter (Cornell University) through the Central New York Humanities Corridor (LLC35). Co-sponsored by the Montclair State University’s Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies; the AAIS Critical Race Studies Caucus; Cornell University’s Migrations initiative, Einaudi Center for International Studies, Institute for European Studies and Department of Romance Studies; the University of Rochester’s Humanities Center and the Department of Humanities in the Eastman School of Music.
Short url: https://tinyurl.com/MedSympSP22