Oxford Conference: 'Turna a Surriento': Return Migration to Southern Italy form 1876 to Today - 24/25 Sept 2025

Dear all, before Term starts, we would like to draw your attention to an Italy-related event on 24-25 September at the Taylorian Institution:

All welcome -

Torna a Surriento: Return Migration to Southern Italy from 1876 to Today

Organised by Dr Fanny Clemente and Dr Alice Gussoni

Taylor Institution Library, University of Oxford

24-25 September 2025

 

Part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, Grant agreement n.101149130, Project: SAIL – Sicilians dreAmIng Louisiana: Agents of Migration and Labour Recruiters on the Palermo – New Orleans Route (1865-1901)

 

 

Programme

 

DAY 1 – Wednesday 24 September

 

9:15-9:45 (Room 2): Registration and Coffee

 

9:45-11:15 (Room 2): Panel 1 Economic, Social, Political Aspects 1

Chair: Alice Gussoni (University of Padova-University of Oxford)

Anna Gervasio (IPSAIC, Bari): Dinamiche e caratteristiche dei processi migratori di ritorno verso il territorio pugliese nel XX secolo

Anna Pellegrino (University of Bologna): The Myth of Return: Migration, Memory, and Identity in a Southern Italian Town from 1950 to

Present Day

Marco Spada (University of Messina): The Human Cost of Coal: Discriminatory Practices and Return Migration in Post-WWII Italian-

French Labor Agreements

 

11:30-13:00 (Room 2): Panel 2 Literary Perspectives 1

Chair: Emma Bond (University of Oxford)

Aurora Sturli and Aminata Sow (University of Cambridge/Independent Scholar): Returning Home, Returning to Class: Social Privilege

and the Contemporary Italian Novel of Return Migration

Concetta Maria Pagliuca (University of Naples Federico II): “Siamo spezzati in due metà”: il racconto dei “treni della felicità” dallaprospettiva di un bambino

 

13:00-14:00 (Main Hall): Lunch Break

 

14:00-15:15 (Main Hall)

Keynote

Selena Daly (University College London): Emigrant Soldiers: Conscription and Return Migration to Italy in the First World War

 

15:15-15:30 (Room 2): Coffee Break

 

15:30-17:00 (Room 2): Panel 3

Political Propaganda

Chair: Selena Daly (University College London)

Remigio Petrocelli (University of Dundee): Fascist “Temporary” Mobilities: Pilgrimages and Holiday Camps for Italians Abroad

Saverio Battente (University of Siena): La questione migratoria nei romanzi di Enrico Corradini: alla base del nazionalismo italiano

Gabriele Bassi (University of Siena): From Mass Migration to a Difficult Return: Italian Settlers in Libya Between Historiography and

Belated Memory

 

17:00-18:30 (Room 2): Panel 4 Artistic Approaches and Experiences

Chair: Alessandra V annucci (University of Turin)

Francesco Vizzarri (Justus Liebig University Giessen): From Lecce to Wolfsburg and Back: Return Migration, Artistic Practice, and

Collective Memory in the Work of Crocifisso Sisinni

Diego Cantore (University of Salerno): Il canto della resilienza: come la canzone napoletana degli emigranti racconta la resilienza

Giuliana Muscio (University of Padova): Birds of passage and disilluded performers

 

 

DAY 2 – Thursday 25 September

9:15-9:45 (Room 2): Coffee

 

9:45-11:15 (Room 2): Panel 5 Literary Perspectives 2

Chair: Fanny Clemente (University of Oxford)

Maddalena Tirabassi (AltreItalie): I “ritorni” nella storia e nella letteratura

Laura Giurdanella (University of Catania): L’isola che attende: il ritorno nella scrittura siciliana

Alessio Aletta (University College Cork): Being (Not Quite) Here. Impossible Returns in Pirandello and Camilleri

 

11:30-13:00 (Room 2): Panel 6, Economic, Social, Political Aspects 2

Chair: Guido Bonsaver (University of Oxford)

Francesca Frisone (University of Messina): “…perhaps they were not away too long enough for contact with the new to have left its

mark upon them”. La Cee e la questione dell’emigrazione di ritorno in Sicilia (1960-1965)

Antonio Martino (University of Messina): “Non odiano, ma ricordano”. Aspetti sociali ed economici dell’emigrazione di ritorno nel Mezzogiorno liberale

Stefano Luconi (University of Padova): “Powerful America Will Make You a True Revolutionary Comrade”: The Return of Radicals Who Became Politicized Abroad

 

13:00-14:00 (Main Hall): Lunch Break

 

14:00-15:15 (Main Hall): Keynote

Martino Marazzi (University of Milan La Statale): Italian Immigrants’ Return Fiction

 

15:15-15:30 (Room 2): Coffee Break

 

15:30-17:15 (Room 2): Panel 7, Personal and Collective Memories

Chair: Martino Marazzi (University of Milan La Statale)

Lucia Cristina Tirri (University of Salerno): The Multiple Shades of Return in Italian Diaspora Self-Writings

Moira DiMauro-Jackson (Texas State University): Letters Across the Atlantic: Correspondence and the Emotional Geography of

Return among Sicilian “Birds of Passage” (1876-1929)

Ugo De Polo (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France): L’Italia che non c’è. Il rientro dei giovani fuorusciti nei ricordi di Giorgio

Mario Bergamo e di Franca Schiavetti

Paolo Speranza (SNCCI): Dall’East Coast a Napoli: Santa Lucia luntana, un film-manifesto sull’emigrazione italiana di ritorno

 

17:20-17:30 (Main Hall): Closing Remarks

 

17:30-19:00 (Main Hall): Neapolitan Songs of Return Migration - A Musical Event with Diego Cantore and Drinks Reception

 

For further information please email: frances.clemente@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk or  alice.gussoni@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk