RSVP: nb2413@columbia.edu

Columbia University
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America

October 16-17, 2008: Conference

From Africa to the Balkans:
New Perspectives on Colonialism and
Material Culture in Fascist Italy

Organized by Lidia Santarelli (NYU) and
Jennie Hirsh (Maryland Institute College of Art)

Co-sponsored by the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, NYU; Maryland Institute College of Art; the Italian Cultural Institute of New York; the Program in Hellenic Studies at Columbia University, and the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.

"From Africa to the Balkans" is an interdisciplinary conference aimed at addressing a lacuna in the historiography of modern Italy and its relationship to the Mediterranean world. The past two decades have witnessed a significant increase in scholarly inquiries into the history, ideology, and material culture that evolved under Italian colonialism in Africa. More recently, scholars have begun to consider similar issues as they occurred during the Italian occupation of the Balkans. By examining the emergence of Italian colonialist strategies in Africa together with those articulated in Balkan contexts, which traditionally have been studied as separate spheres, this conference initiates a new, integrated approach to the historiography of Italian history and material culture in relation to twentieth-century Mediterranean and African studies.

Our speakers and respondents include scholars drawn from the disciplines of history, art and architectural history, and anthropology as well as literary studies. Together, they will present a wide range of research topics as well as generate stimulating dialogue that will challenge disciplinary limits. Conference sessions will fall under three rubrics: (1) Theories and Practices of Violence; (2) Social Behavior and Cultural Hybridization; and (3) Material Culture and The Built Environment.

Thursday, October 16: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm Friday, October 17, 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

Free and open to the public. RSVP: nb2413@columbia.edu

DAY ONE: THURSDAY 2:00-6:00

2:00-2:10 Welcome, Introductory Remarks
Representative of Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America

PANEL I. MILITARY VIOLENCE AND IMPERIAL PURSUITS: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Session Moderated by Larry Wolff, New York University
2:15-2:30 Lidia Santarelli, New York University
"Colonizing the Mediterranean: Italian Ruling Strategies and Practices of Violence from Africa to the Balkans"

2:35-3:00 Michael Ebner, Syracuse University
"Fascist Archipelagos: Domestic Coercion and Peripheral Violence"

3:05-3:30 Charles Burdett, University of Bristol
"Imperialism and Religion: Justifications of Expansionism in the 1920s and 1930s"

3:35-4:00 Pamela Ballinger, Bowdoin College
"Military Defeat, Violence, and the Fate of Italians in Africa and the Balkans"

4:05-4:30 Sanela Hodzic, University of Berne
"Italian Occupation in Croatia 1941-1943: Practices of Violence and their Limits"

4:30-5:15 Discussion of papers

5:30-6:30 RECEPTION

DAY TWO: FRIDAY 9:30-6:00

Coffee 9:30-10:00 a.m.

PANEL II. MATERIAL CULTURE & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Session moderated by Mia Fuller, University of California, Berkeley

10:00-10:10 Welcome
Representative of Italian Academy

10:15-10:30 Jennie Hirsh, Maryland Institute College of Art
"Constructing Fascism over Time and in Space"

10:35-11:00 Joshua Arthurs, George Mason University
"Roads, Arches and Aqueducts: Fascism and the Material Culture of Empire"

11:05-11:30 Stephanie Hom Cary, University of Oklahoma
"Constructing Hospitable Colonies: The Fiera di Tripoli, the Balkans, and Italian Colonial Representation"

11:35-12:00 David Rifkind, Florida International University
"The Very Model of a Modern Imperial City: Gondar, Ethiopia"

12:00-12:25 Derek Duncan, University of Bristol
"Istruzione, entusiasmo e virile commozione": Colonial Cinema and the Extent of Imperial Ambition"

12:30-1:00 Discussion of Papers

1:00-2:00 LUNCH

PANEL III. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR & CULTURAL HYBRIDIZATION

Session Moderated by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University

2:15-2:40 Marco Jacquemet, University of San Francisco
"Order-Words, National Language, and Italian-Albanian Phrasebooks"

2:45-3:10 Meredith Carew, University of Oxford
"Sex, Race, and Health in Italian Fascist Policy: the Fight against Venereal Disease in North Africa and the Balkans, 1940-1943"

3:15-3:40 Johanna Rossi Wagner, Rutgers University
"Italiana scalzata: Negotiating the Cultural Divide in Colonial Eritrea in the Works of Erminia dell'Oro"

3:45-4:10 Alessandro Pes, Università di Cagliari
"Building a New Colonial Subject? Comparing Fascist Education Systems in Albania and Ethiopia"

4:15-4:45 Discussion of Papers

4:45-5:00 COFFEE BREAK

5:00-5:45 KEYNOTE ADDRESS
INTRODUCTION, Victoria de Grazia, Columbia University

Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, Brown University
"Parentheses: Repression, Psychoanalysis, and Italian Modernity"

5:45-6:30 Roundtable Discussion of Keynote Address and Conference Themes