Book Chat: The World Refugees Made: Decolonization and the Foundation of Postwar Italy
Join IES and the Department of Italian Studies for a discussion with Professor Pamela Ballinger (University of Michigan) about her recent book, The World Refugees Made: Decolonization and the Foundation of Postwar Italy (Cornell UP, 2020).
In The World Refugees Made, Ballinger explores Italy’s remaking following the loss of its territorial possessions in Africa and the Balkans, the repatriation of Italian nationals from those territories, and the integration of these “national refugees” in the post-World War II period. The presence of displaced persons also posed the complex question of who belonged, culturally and legally, in an Italy that was territorially and politically reconfigured by decolonization. Ballinger’s analysis of the postwar international refugee regime and Italian decolonization illuminates the study of human rights history, humanitarianism, postwar reconstruction, fascism and its aftermaths, and modern Italian history.
Speaker: Pamela Ballinger is Professor of History and the Fred Cuny Chair in the History of Human Rights in the Department of History at the University of Michigan. She holds degrees in Anthropology (B.A. Stanford University, M. Phil Cambridge University, M.A. Johns Hopkins University) and a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and History (Johns Hopkins). She is the author of History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans (Princeton University Press, 2003), La Memoria dell’Esilio (Veltro Editrice, 2010), and the World Refugees Made: Decolonization and the Foundation of Postwar Italy (Cornell University Press, 2020). She has published in a wide range of journals, including Austrian History Yearbook, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Contemporary European History, Current Anthropology, Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Journal of Refugee Studies, Journal of Tourism History, and Past and Present. Her areas of expertise include human rights, forced migration, refugees, fascism, seaspace, and modern Mediterranean and Balkan history.
Moderated by Mia Fuller, Associate Professor of Italian Studies and Director of the Program for the Study of Italy
If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Ray Savord at rsavord@berkeley.edu or 510-643-4558 with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.
Ray Savord, rsavord@berkeley.edu, 510-643-4558