A Darker Shade of Whiteness - Dashow

[link below] 🌍 Today: 3rd CIRSE Seminar on the History of Education and Migration!

The research group "Mobility and Migration in the History of Education" invites you to its third virtual meeting today, May 25th, 2026, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. CET.

This afternoon, four leading scholars will dive into the archival sources, political experiences, and educational footprints of Italian communities across the United States, Argentina, and Turkey.

📚 Program Lineup:
• Stefano Luconi: Le fonti per ricostruire l'esperienza politica degli italiani negli Stati Uniti

• Luana Salvarani: Accertamenti: strumenti linguistici, filologici e lessicografici per comprendere le fonti storico-educative

• Paula Alejandra Serrao: Fonti per una storia transnazionale dell'educazione italiana all'estero: il caso argentino

• Francesco Pongiluppi: Tra nazionale, transnazionale e plurilinguismo. Fonti e problemi storiografici nella ricerca sulla presenza scolastica italiana in Turchia


✨ Coordinated by Andrea Mariuzzo

Participation is free and open to all faculty, researchers, and students.

💻 To join: https://meet.google.com/rhm-fijj-hio or scan the QR code on the flyer attached below!

Tomorrow, May 8th, from 16:30 to 18:30, we invite you to join the online seminar on "Sources for the History of Education and Migration," curated by the Mobility and Migration in the History of Education Group.

During this session, we will be proudly presenting recent findings from the DaShoW project. We will dive deep into the importance of Italian-language newspapers for studying the educational and cultural practices of migrant communities across the 19th and 20th centuries.

The seminar will be coordinated by Antonella Cagnolati and will feature incredible presentations from Carmen Petruzzi, Matteo Brera, and Pietro Pinna.

Participation is completely free and online. You can join by scanning the QR code on the attached poster or by following the link below.
https://www.cirse.it/news/79-seminari-nazionali/2380-secondo-seminario-fonti-per-la-storia-delleducazione-e-della-migrazione

Feel free to share this with anyone interested in migration studies and the history of education!

[link below]
How do cemeteries tell stories about migration, faith, and race?

At the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute’s 2026 Annual Conference, Religions, Beliefs, and the Supernatural in Italy and Across Italian Mobilities (April 24–25), Matteo Brera (Università degli Studi di Padova and Seton Hall University) presents a compelling study of the Italian Catholic Cemetery in West Blocton, Alabama.

His paper shows how funerary monuments and inscriptions illuminate the lived realities of Italian immigrants in a segregated Southern society, where Catholic devotion, community cohesion, and racial tensions intersect.

This perspective also connects to 'Il Gladiatore,' the Italian-language newspaper of Birmingham’s immigrant community, which helped transform Italian migrants from marginal “coloni” into politically engaged Italo-Americans. Together with Sicilian religious traditions, such as the cults of San Calogero and the Madonna del Balzo, the press played a central role in shaping a shared sense of belonging rooted in faith, memory, and everyday life.

From tragic deaths in coal mines to deeply symbolic epitaphs, the cemetery becomes a space where identity, memory, and belonging are negotiated and preserved.

Join us for this thought-provoking discussion on religion, race, and diaspora.

https://calandrainstitute.org/2026/03/12/announcing-the-2026-annual-conference-program/

[link below and in bio]
📢 SSSL 2026 Conference
On Monday, March 30, 2026 (8:45–10:05 AM), Dr. Matteo Brera (University of Padova / Seton Hall University) will present “Primo Bartolini’s Poetic Landscapes and the Making of Diasporic Freedom in the U.S. South”. The presentation is part of the panel “Text, Space and Memory: Italian Transnational Practices Across the Global and U.S. Souths.”
This session examines how Italian transnational experiences shape literary representations of space and memory in the U.S. South, contributing to broader conversations on diaspora, identity, and cultural mobility.

📍 Franklin Library 1, Fisk University (Nashville, TN)

https://southernlit.org/conference/

SSSL: Society for the Study of Southern Literature

It has begun!

[link below and in bio]
🎓 Padua Scholars Lead Session at the LHA Annual Meeting
The Università degli Studi di Padova will play a central role at the Louisiana Historical Association Annual Meeting in Lafayette, Louisiana, with a fully Padua-led and organized session.
Titled “A Southern European Gaze on the US South,” the panel explores Italian experiences in Louisiana through migration history, racial formation, and the Italian-language press, drawing on original archival research and transatlantic perspectives.

The session brings together Matteo Brera, Alice Gussoni, and Stefano Luconi (all from the University of Padua). It will be chaired and commented on by Elena Daniele (Tulane University). Italian Studies at Tulane is one of the longest-standing Italian Studies programs in the US South and testifies to the central place of Louisiana in the history of the teaching of Italian abroad and in the United States
📍 Lafayette, LA | In-person session

🔗 https://www.lahistory.org/annual-meeting/


̀dipadova

📚🇮🇹 International Conference | ‘L’editoria italiana all’estero nel Risorgimento (1796 – 1870)’ (“Italian Publishing Abroad during the Risorgimento (1796–1870)”) brings together international scholars to explore how books, newspapers, and periodicals circulated beyond the Italian peninsula, shaping political consciousness, exile cultures, and diasporic identities.

Hosted in Rome and organized within the PRIN 2022 project «“An idle question”? Ripensare e commentare la letteratura del primo Ottocento» (“An idle question”? Rethinking and commenting on early-nineteenth-century Italian literature), the conference examines transnational networks of Italian publishing across Europe, the Americas, and the Mediterranean.

One of the conference sessions focuses on the United States and the early Italian ethnic press, including New Orleans and the Gulf South. Dr. Brera’s paper “Dalle barricate a Bourbon Street: Il Monitore del Sud (1849) e l’educazione alla rivoluzione a New Orleans” (“From the Barricades to Bourbon Street: Il Monitore del Sud (1849) and Revolutionary Education in New Orleans”) examines one of the earliest Italian-language newspapers published in the United States, situating it within the broader history of Risorgimento exile politics, education and Italian diasporic print culture.

📍 Rome
📅 January 28–30, 2026

https://news.uniroma1.it/28012026_1400

Sapienza Università di Roma Adi - Associazione degli Italianisti Istituto Risorgimento Vittoriano

[link below and in bio]
When considering Italian migration to the United States, our focus often falls on New York, Boston, or Chicago. Much less attention is given to the American South, but Tennessee presents a revealing and complex example.

A new episode of the Ottocentismi podcast examines the early Italian communities in Memphis, Knoxville, and Nashville from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. From Italian-language newspapers and agricultural work in Memphis to the quieter yet traceable presence of Italian families in Knoxville, the episode highlights a lesser-known chapter of southern Italian American history.

Particular attention is paid to Nashville and to the figure of Primo Bartolini: born in Fanano (Modena), educated in Bologna, and later a modern languages instructor in Tennessee, including at Fisk University. Bartolini’s life sheds light on the ambiguities of race, culture, and belonging in the Jim Crow South; Italian, “almost white,” foreign yet authoritative, deeply connected to Italy while active in American civic life.

Through Bartolini’s story and those of other migrants, the episode encourages us to re-examine Italian American history from a southern viewpoint and to see migration as a diverse, locally rooted experience.

🎧 Listen to “Essere italiani sotto la Mason–Dixon Line. Le prime comunità del Tennessee e l’eredità di Primo Bartolini” here:
https://ottocentismiilpodcast.podbean.com/e/essere-italiani-sotto-la-mason-dixon-line-le-prime-comunita-del-tennessee-e-l-eredita-di-primo-bartolini/

Visit Fanano

The Special Session “Tongues of Belonging: Language, Race, and Education in the Italian Diaspora in North America (1910–1967)” has concluded with great success at the MLA Annual Convention in Toronto.

The panel, chaired by Franco Pierno (University of Toronto / Accademia della Crusca), highlighted how language and education functioned as key tools of cultural negotiation within Italian diasporic communities:

• Mattia Ragazzoni (University of Toronto) explored Italian language teaching in early-20th-century Toronto, emphasizing community-based pedagogies and transnational linguistic identity.

• Matteo Brera (Seton Hall University / Università degli Studi di Padova) analyzed Italian-language newspapers in the US South, showing how the ethnic press mediated race, promoted Italian instruction, and navigated ideological tensions in the Jim Crow era.

• Carmen Petruzzi (Università di Foggia) offered a fresh reading of Leonard Covello’s educational thought, framing it as an early model of bicultural and multicultural pedagogy.

The session fostered a lively exchange across linguistic history, migration studies, and educational theory, confirming the importance of multilingualism in shaping diasporic belonging.

DaShoW at MLA 2026 – Toronto
We are pleased to share that the DaShoW – A Darker Shade of Whiteness project will be represented at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA 2026), taking place January 8–11, 2026 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
You can find the official session information here:
https://mla.confex.com/mla/2026/meetingapp.cgi/Session/22769
Dr. Brera will present on Language, Race, and Education in the Italian Diaspora — more details on the project website:
https://www.msca-dashow.com/news/mla-2026-dr-brera-to-present-on-language-race-and-education-in-the-italian-diaspora

This major international gathering of scholars in languages, literature, and cultural studies offers an important opportunity to further disseminate DaShoW’s ongoing research on the Italian-language ethnic press in North America and its role in shaping transnational identities across the color line.
More updates on our MLA participation to follow.
Stay tuned!

[link below and in bio]
🎓 Padua Scholars Lead Session at the LHA Annual Meeting
The Università degli Studi di Padova will play a central role at the Louisiana Historical Association Annual Meeting in Lafayette, Louisiana, with a fully Padua-led and organized session.
Titled “A Southern European Gaze on the US South,” the panel explores Italian experiences in Louisiana through migration history, racial formation, and the Italian-language press, drawing on original archival research and transatlantic perspectives.

The session brings together Matteo Brera, Alice Gussoni, and Stefano Luconi (all from the University of Padua). It will be chaired and commented on by Elena Daniele (Tulane University). Italian Studies at Tulane is one of the longest-standing Italian Studies programs in the US South and testifies to the central place of Louisiana in the history of the teaching of Italian abroad and in the United States
📍 Lafayette, LA | In-person session

🔗 https://www.lahistory.org/annual-meeting/


̀dipadova