The Department of the Arts of the University of Bologna, in collaboration with Brown University, Dickinson College, The University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, and Wesleyan University, invites applications for the 2022 “Mediating Italy in Global Culture” summer school, which will be held from Monday, May 23rd to Saturday, May 28th, 2022. This year we plan to hold the course completely in-person at the University of Bologna. However, given ongoing uncertainty related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the necessary measures and regulations will be followed to ensure everyone’s safety (i.e. adopting a hybrid format). Updates will be given in due time to the selected participants.

The summer school “Mediating Italy in Global Culture” offers an intensive learning experience during which graduate and post-graduate students can broaden their knowledge on the forms of production, distribution, circulation, and reception of the Italian audiovisual culture in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Asia and other national contexts. Specifically, the summer school addresses those forms of media representations associated with Italy and their manipulation by cultural industries, fandoms, and opinion leaders. Particular attention is paid to the crucial role played by foreign countries in the popularization of Italy’s depictions around the world.

During this six-day program, students are encouraged to think provocatively about these topics and debates while participating in lectures, seminars, and roundtables. Students will have the opportunity to present their research in an informal and stimulating environment and partake in discussions with fellow colleagues and faculty.

Lectures, seminars, and activities will delve into a variety of themes and media, including:

● Italian cinema (and its circulation in movie theaters, festivals, and digital platforms);

● Italian television, digital platforms and digital media;

● Italian novels, graphic novels and other editorial phenomena;

● Italian fashion, entertainment, advertising, and photography;

● Italian gastronomic traditions, lifestyle and food-inspired media productions;

● Italian sport entertainment, tourism, and related events.

Activities

Students will be involved in a variety of on-campus and off-campus activities. They will meet and interact with professionals working for internationally renowned local institutions, museums, and creative industries. Participants will be invited to take part in organized visits, tours, meetings, and social events throughout the week. A detailed schedule of lectures and activities will be provided on the website a few weeks prior to the beginning of the Summer School. This edition of the Summer School is also scheduled to take place just before the 2022 American Association for Italian Studies annual conference (AAIS) which will give participants the opportunity to cross paths with internationally renowned scholars.

Costs

The cost of tuition and supplementary activities is 150 euros. Due to the last editions held fully online or in a blended format, former students will be eligible for a fee reduction. Tuition includes free access to Wi-Fi on the university campus, access to the libraries and university facilities, and organized visits. Room and board are not included.

Application deadline: March 31st, 2022

Expected notification of acceptance: April 18th, 2022

For more detailed information, please visit the Apply Now section of our website.

The idea of proposing the summer school ‘Endangered Theories’ stems from three concurrences. The first one has been unfolding worldwide, from the United States to Europe and Australia, right-wingers’ desire to restore a conservative social order has manifested in a concerted attack against what they purport Critical Race Theory (CRT) is. By positing what is defacto a niche of critical legal theory as either a harmful pedagogy for white pupils, or a form of anti-white racism, or, at best, as a highly divisive ideology, a disparate array of enraged right-wing parents, pundits and politicians, have successfully leveraged the latest salvo against anti-racist social movements, Black Lives Matter (BLM) in primis. In the USA, no less than twenty-two states have sought to pass legislation banning or limiting the teaching of race and racism in schools or universities. In Australia, where the attack against CRT was mounted by the same politician who rallied against the teaching of gender in schools, it renewed the legitimacy of the white hegemonic status quo. In France, it has lent a new rationale for state representatives to oppose scrutinizing its national history, political values and identity. InItaly, where the far right and radical right politicians have been rallying against migrants and no-border activists for years, it re-asserted that the ‘nation’ is ‘white and ‘in danger.’

The second occurrence has taken place in Europe, where both the Black Lives Matter movement and racial inequities that the Covid-19 global pandemic brought in sharp relief led to the launch of the Action Plan Against Racism (APAR) in the spring of 2020. As the chair of The European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Karen Taylor, stated in the wake of its launch, APAR constitutes the very first European normative document that ‘explicitly acknowledges the existence of structural, institutional and historical dimensions of racism in Europe’ as well as the necessity of addressing them by adopting a critical race and intersectional approach. Not incidentally, the attacks against CRT are taking place at the same time as anti-racist organisations put renewed pressure on the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to enforce the recommendations of APAR, including involving racial and ethnic minorities in European policymaking, and redressing European national histories of colonialism, enslavement and genocide.

The third occurrence has unfolded in Portugal. Following a string of racially motivated crimes that culminated in the murder of Bruno Candé in July 2020, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, issued the Memorandum on combating racism and violence against women in Portugal. In this document, Mijatović urged the Portuguese government to ‘acknowledge the legacy of the repressive structures put in place by past colonial policies’ and to identify and correct ‘ingrained racist biases and their present-day ramifications’. Heeding this request, the National Plan Against Racism and Discrimination (NPARD) was launched in 2021 presenting ‘intersectionality’ and deconstruction of ‘stereotypes’ as its guiding principles. Albeit nowhere in the NPARD is clarified how exactly CRT will inform the anti-racist interventions of the state, well-known right-wing pundits have systematically attacked CRT inspired scholarship and activism.

Because of these occurrences, CRT has been in the public eye, at the same time, as a dangerous political ideology and as a suitable tool to redress racism. In the first instance, CRT has operated as an empty signifier, by which right-wingers have conflated affirmative actions with multiculturalism, wokeism, identity politics, political correctness, and cancel culture. In the second instance, CRT has worked as an anti-racism tool, by which activists have advanced their demands for social justice. Either way, no comprehensive explanation has been offered about what CRT is, how it distinguishes itself from and/ or relates with other theoretical paradigms concerned with race and racism and, more importantly, if and how it accounts for the various ways in which racialized minorities have been oppressed from country to country in Europe.

The summer school ‘Endangered Theories’ addresses these questions through a programme that mixes introductory lectures on relevant theoretical paradigms concerned with the intersections of power relations and social divisions that are structured by race, gender, class, and nationality with lectures that illustrate their application in European nations (e.g., Italy and Portugal), roundtables with experts, workshops with participants, and social events. Each day is dedicated to one of the five selected models: CRT; Critical Whiteness Studies; Postcolonial Europe; Afro-Pessimism; and Settler Colonial Studies. Besides reflecting the expertise of the organisers, these paradigms afford prospective participants the opportunity to approach standing debates with new theoretical lenses. Afro-Pessimism and Settler Colonial Studies, for instance, have been rarely deployed to examine the various phases of the Portuguese empire, let alone the formation of its national myths and identities.