Research Topic
“Meaningful Immobilities: South Italy’s Postwar Migration through the Voices of the Leccese Women Who Stayed Behind, c. 1945-1973"
Supervisors: Natalya Vince and Guido Bonsaver
Research
My research project examines the cultural history of postwar seasonal migration from southern Italy to economically booming Western Europe – specifically France and Belgium – from the untold perspective of the women who remained behind. I am investigating the implications of gendered (im)mobility in the southern province of Lecce by combining micro-historical and oral history methods with transnational-comparative approaches.
My research contributes to the historiography of labour mobility in twentieth-century Europe, shedding light on the complexity of local, national and international identities in the mobile reality of the postwar European working class. Moreover, it adds to the growing body of literature looking at the development of north-south divides in integrating Europe and Italy, offering an innovative perspective from which to examine the question of the building of a “European identity” in the second half of the twentieth century.
Using women’s voices and a local-regional frame to inform a larger history, my thesis explores seasonal migration’s cyclical temporalities through the useful lenses of subjectivity and gender, moving the focus from the bureaucratic imaginary of the grand narratives of European integration to the idea of a “Europeanness from below”.
Research Interests
- Migrant labour in postwar Europe
- Italian and French colonial history
- European integration history
- Women's oral history
Education
I graduated with a first-class BA in History from Birmingham University, with a dissertation titled: “From Down in the Boot”: Mobility, Race and Gender in the Transnational History of Italian Mass Migration to the United States, c.1880-1930".
I also hold an MSt in Modern European History from the University of Oxford, where I was awarded a distinction for my dissertation on the impact of eugenics on political and intellectual discourses surrounding early 20th-century internal migration in Italy.
In 2023, during an internship at The Hague's Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, I conducted in-depth research on Antonio Baldissera, an Italian general pivotal in the Italian Empire's expansion into Northeast Africa.
Scholarships and Awards
Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP Studentship (2024-2027)
Oxford University Clarendon Fund Scholarship (2024-2027)
Lincoln College Graduate Awards (2022-2023)