Recent developments in Italian historiography on colonialism and post-colonial studies have been showing great vitality and maturity, combining approaches from various disciplines (from social or cultural history, and art history to film theory and anthropology) focusing mainly on the colonial imaginary and memory. This perspective has allowed us to ‘rethink’ the role of colonialism as a cultural process, emancipating the study of Italian colonial history from its merely chronological and disciplinary limits. Hence, by connecting the Empire and the ‘Oltremare’ to the process of nation-building this perspective has enabled us to reconstruct some of the cultural aspects of the Italian colonialist experience that were still pervasive during the Republican phase.

If the unexplored and neglected aspects of the Italian colonial experience have paved the way for renewed interest, this historiographic debate has, however, favoured the ‘colonizers’ and the ‘invaders’, their ambiguity and representations, the collective imagination that they have contributed to establishing e. In other words, since it has been supported by a flourishing memorialistic literature and recently rediscovered photographic and audio-visual materials, the ‘private’ sphere of the Italian colonial history has been privileged.

Starting from here, for the second meeting of the Sissco Workshop on ‘Colonialism and National Identity, “L’Oltremare” between Fascism and Republic’ it seems appropriate to broaden our perspectives and cross the heuristic boundaries hitherto set by scholarly discussions in order to stimulate a mature reflection capable of re-examining not only the consequences of colonialism on society and contemporary culture, but at the same time capable of returning the colonial discourse to its public dimension and to within its political perimeter. The goal is to reconstruct historical events, public debate and colonial discourse from other points of view, highlighting not only the aspects related to the construction of memory and oppressed voices, and placing the Italian experience within the broader context of European colonialism.

This workshop will promote the meeting of scholars whose research relate to Italian colonialism and its peculiar process of decolonization during the Fascist and Republican periods. We welcome papers on the transnational aspects of the Italian colonialism, which adopt an interdisciplinary and comparative methodology.

Here are some of the topics, but not the only ones, which we will focus on:
- public discourse and intellectual debate against Italian colonialism (the Fascist period, the Republican era)
- reception of the European anti-colonial debate in Italy
- reactions to Italian colonial aggression on the part of other States: new discoveries
- Italian colonialism within a comparative perspective
- transnational relations between the European anti-fascism and Italian anti-fascism and anti-colonialism
- (re)emergence of the anti-colonial discourse in the Italian political debate
- neo-fascism and the colonial discourse

Scholars and researchers of all levels of experience are invited to submit proposals. To be considered for the workshop, please submit a 300-word abstract of your proposed paper, in English or Italian, as well as a short CV by March 31st 2014 to italiacoloniale@gmail.com. Successful applicants will be advised by April 30th 2014.

Scientific Committee: Paolo Bertella Farnetti (coordinator), Paolo Borruso, Charles Burdett, Valeria Deplano, Marzia Maccaferri, Luciano Marrocu, Cecilia Novelli, Alessandro Pes (coordinator), Gabriele Proglio, Alessandro Triulzi.