Call for Papers: DIASPORE ITALIANE – ITALY IN MOVEMENT

THE CALL FOR PAPERS FOR THE MELBOURNE CONFERENCE IS NOW OPEN

OVERVIEW

This symposium is a collaboration between three diverse Italian migration organisations – a welfare and cultural agency, a tertiary institute and a museum – each deeply connected with the community, institutions and culture of a cosmopolitan city which is also iconic of the Italian migrant and diasporic experience.

This symposium – the first international conference of its kind – brings together researchers and practitioners from Australia, the United States, Italy and other locations to explore the vicissitudes of Italians and Italian identity in the transcultural spaces defined by mobility.

Five contexts emerge as the main foci of study: (1) Italian historic migration, with some 27 million emigrants between 1870 and 1970; (2) Italian diasporic communities, with some 80 million people worldwide today; (3) Italian colonial history, with some 500,000 settlers at its peak in 1940; (4) Italy as a destination for migrants and refugees, from the 1980s onwards; (5) the so-called new Italian emigration, from the turn of the century onwards.

A transnational approach to Italian Studies, as attempted in this multidisciplinary confer­ence, will develop a multi-perspectival view of Italian cultural identity in movement within the relevant historical frameworks, and thus produce new thinking and a sharper under­standing of the ways in which perceived differences are formed, acted on, and reacted to. In this way, this symposium aims to function as a model whose methodology and insights ap­ply beyond the Italian case.

• What lessons can we draw from the study of Italian communities and culture(s) as they adapt, react and change across different migratory and diasporic experiences?

• What defines italianità, or even italicità, within the diverse, hybrid contexts of global mo­bility?

• How do these studies help us question established notions and practices of multicultural­ism, as we enter a new interethnic, inter-racial age, globally characterised by increasingly complex patterns of métissage and integration?

• What is the contribution of Italian migration and diaspora studies to the development of new theoretical and political frameworks that may foster interethnic cohesion and class solidarity, and counter the rising tide of racism triggered by the current economic crisis and geopolitical instability?

The convenors intend to publish the proceedings of the entire conference as a peer-re­viewed book, and a selection of the best papers from each local chapter as special editions of prestigious peer-reviewed journals.

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Mr Ferdinando Colarossi, Manager, Co.As.It. Italian Language, Culture and Heritage Depart­ment, Melbourne.

Dr Paolo Baracchi, Manager, Co.As.It. Cultural Programs, Melbourne.

Professor Fred Gardaphè, Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies at Queens College/CUNY and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.

Professor Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College/CUNY and Distinguished Professor of European Languges and Literatures.

Dottor Pierangelo Campodonico, Direttore dell’Istituzione Mu.MA – Musei del Mare e delle Migrazioni di Genova.

Dottoressa Giovanna Rocchi, Conservatore Aggiunto del MEM – Padiglione Memoria e Migrazioni, Galata Museo del Mare.

LIVING TRANSCULTURAL SPACES – Melbourne: 5-7 April 2018

Living Transcultural Spaces, the inaugural chapter of the international conference Diaspore Italiane – Italy in Movement, will be held in Melbourne, nominated the most liveable city in the world for six consecutive years, and arguably Australia’s cultural capital. The unique multicultural society of Australia, with a significant Italian community now entering the third generation, is the backdrop of this discussion, which explores the notion of transcultural living as both a consolidated practice (in specific contexts) and a qualified ideal.

Transcultural contexts show cultural identities in motion as they react, adapt and develop in reciprocal contact. The transcultural subjects who, within varying degrees of structural con­straint, navigate, evaluate and negotiate different cultural options, emerge as the poten­tially rational agents of these changes. In parallel, cultural identities emerge as historical constructs, this-worldly products of the human imagination.

• How do these ideas of identities in motion compare with traditional ways of understand­ing cultural identities as fixed essences, typically anchored to metaphysical notions such as blood, the land, or the divinity?

• Can the ‘third space’ of transcultural negotiation inhabited by migration, diaspora and colonial studies be construed as a privileged space of reason, in the Enlightenment sense of the word?

• Are migration, diaspora and colonial studies paradigmatic of new emancipatory dis­courses and practices for the 21^st century?

ANTICIPATED STREAMS

Anticipated streams include but are not limited to:

• Migration, Mobility, Transnationalism and Diaspora Studies;

• Identity and the Second and Third Generations;

• Literary studies;

• Arts (film, visual arts, music, performing, design etc);

• Media;

• Pedagogy: Teaching of Italian Language and Culture;

• Linguistics;

• Politics;

• Religion;

• Business, Entrepreneurship and Professions;

• Colonialism and Settler-Colonial Relations of Power;

• Race, Gender, Sexualities and Disabilities;

• New Materialisms;

• Multicultural and Migration Museums;

• Italian Migrants and Migration Heritage.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Loretta Baldassar, Anthropology and Sociology, University of Western Australia.

Professor Enzo Colombo, Professore Ordinario in Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi, Dipartimento di Scienze sociali e politiche, Università degli studi di Milano.

Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, Chair, Language and Literacy Education, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.

Professor Joseph Pugliese, Research Director, Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University.

Professor Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College/CUNY and Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures.

Professor Rita Wilson, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University; Academic Co-Director, Monash-Warwick Migration, Identity and Translation Net­work.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Professor Loretta Baldassar, Anthropology and Sociology, University of Western Australia.

Dr Simone Battiston, Cassamarca Senior Lecturer of Italian Studies and History, Swinburne University of Technology.

Dr Alexandra Dellios, Lecturer, Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian Na­tional University.

Professor Fred Gardaphè, Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies, Queens College/CUNY and John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.

Dr Javier Grossutti, Adjunct Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology.

Associate Professor John Kinder, Italian Studies, University of Western Australia.

Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, Chair, Language and Literacy Education, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.

Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Senior Lecturer in Social Diversity in Health and Education, School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University.

Associate Professor Antonia Rubino, Department of Italian Studies, Faculty of Arts and So­cial Sciences, University of Sydney.

Professor Matteo Sanfilippo, Full Professor of Modern History at the Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e della Comunicazione of the Università degli studi della Tuscia, Director of Fondazione Centro Studi Emigrazione, Rome.

Associate Professor Susanna Scarparo, Associate Professor, School of Literatures, Lan­guages, Cultures and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.

Professor Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean, and Distinguished Professor of European Lan­guages and Literatures, Queens College/CUNY and John D. Calandra Italian American Insti­tute.

Professor Maddalena Tirabassi, Director, Centro AltreItalie sulle Migrazioni Italiane, Torino, Globus et Locus, Milano.

Professor Rita Wilson, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University; Academic Co-Director, Monash-Warwick Migration, Identity and Translation Net­work.

Professor Andrea Witcomb, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Faculty of Arts and Educa­tion, Department of School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Arts and Education; Deputy Director (Governance) Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

• Abstract (250 words).

• Short biography (100 words).

• Due: 30 September 2017.

• Submit to: melbourne@diasporeitaliane.com

• Acceptances will be notified on 1 November 2017.

We invite abstracts for individual papers and panel sessions.

Each presenter will have 20 minutes to present, followed by 10 minutes discussion

For more information visit www.diasporeitaliane.com