Noether Dialogues in Modern & Italian History

The SIHS proudly joins Dr. Sergio Luzzatto at University of Connecticut in promoting the “Noether Dialogues in Modern & Italian History.” Below you will find a description of the public speaking series, along with a schedule for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 terms.

Concept

All around the planet, the academic world is busy turning the dramatic circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic into an intellectual and educational opportunity. All the more so in the case of prestigious but “peripheral” universities, which – thanks to the new normal of digital meetings – can now host events that it would be difficult (or, in any case, much more expensive) to organize, on a comparable level, through in-person meetings.

Besides, the Covid-19 emergency is pushing the academic community to experiment with new ways of working. On the one hand, lighter ways: more swift, rapid, and targeted than the old formats of cultural dialogue and scientific exchange. On the other hand, more accessible ways: immediately open to the outside world, easier to record and reuse, etc.

The purpose of the Noether Dialogues in Modern & Italian history is both to reflect and to contribute to this new intellectual climate, from the virtual vantage point of University of Connecticut.

As the new holder of the Emiliana P. Noether Chair, in the academic year 2020-21 I will be hosting four digital meetings, the first two to be held during the Fall of 2020, the second two to be held during Spring 2021.

Format

The Noether Dialogues format includes a panel of three people (plus myself), invited to debate “in public” – albeit remotely, and for no longer than one and half hour – on an original aspect of a chosen question related to modern Italian/European/global history.

The focus of each panel will be a short paper, written by the keynote speaker and circulated in advance. During the digital meeting, two guest speakers will discuss the paper with the author.

I will moderate the panel, in the virtual presence of colleagues from the UConn History Department, UConn students, and anyone else outside UConn expressing interest in attending the digital meeting.

Fall Term, 2020

“What Is a Fascist? A Trans-Atlantic Issue”
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 12:15-13:15 EST (US Eastern Time)
Keynote Speaker: Victoria de Grazia (Columbia University): vd19@columbia.edu
Guest Speaker: Moshik Temkin (Harvard University): moshik_temkin@hks.harvard.edu
Guest Speaker: John Foot (University of Bristol): j.foot@bristol.ac.uk

“Is the Jew the Paragon of the Victim? From History to Non-Memory”
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 12:15-13:15 EST (US Eastern Time)
Keynote Speaker: Manuela Consonni (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): manuela.consonni@mail.huji.ac.il
Guest Speaker: Alon Confino (University of Massachusetts): confino@umass.edu
Guest Speaker: Simon Levis Sullam (University of Venice): levissmn@unive.it

Spring Term, 2021

“A Global Revolutionary South? Rethinking Nineteenth-Century History from the Mediterranean to Latin America”
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 12:15-13:15 EST (US Eastern Time)
Keynote Speaker: Maurizio Isabella (University of London): m.isabella@qmul.ac.uk
Guest Speaker: Konstantina Zanou (Columbia University): kz2269@columbia.edu
Guest Speaker: Gabriel Paquette (University of Oregon): paquette@uoregon.edu

“Ego-History? Writing History in the Age of Neo-Liberalism”
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 12:15-13:15 EST (US Eastern Time)
Keynote Speaker: Enzo Traverso (Cornell University): vt225@cornell.edu
Guest Speaker: Luisa Passerini (University of Turin): Luisa.Passerini@eui.eu
Guest Speaker: Philippe Artières (CNRS, Paris): ph.artieres@wanadoo.fr