‘Italian Literature and Culture through a Comparative Lens: Transnational and Transhistorical Networks’

SIS Postgraduate Conference

University of Cambridge

 

5 December 2025, in-person

SG2, Alison Richards Building, Sidgwick Site, Cambridge CB3 9DP

 

Keynote Speaker: Professor Emma Bond (University of Oxford)

‘The Italian case is, perhaps, at once peculiarly trans–national and transnationally peculiar: historically a space characterised by both internal and external transit and movement, Italy itself can be imagined as a hyphenated in-between space created by the multiple crossings that arch its geographical surfaces and cultural depths’ (Emma Bond, ‘Towards a Trans-national Turn in Italian Studies?’, Italian Studies, 2014).

 

The Society for Italian Studies invites postgraduate students working in the field of Italian Literature, History and Culture to submit abstracts for the 2025 SIS Postgraduate Colloquium, to be hosted at the University of Cambridge on December 5th, 2025. We encourage proposals in the fields of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature that engage with transnational and transhistorical networks – including, but not limited to, networks of influence and intellectual exchange, migration, and cultural circulation. Such networks may also be considered through the lens of comparative studies.

 

Following the approach and methods proposed by Charles Burdett and Loredana Polezzi in their edited volume, Transnational Italian Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2020), we aim to integrate the concept of transnational cultural production in Italian Studies with the framework of network analysis. Key recent contributions to network analysis with particular attention to Italian women’s writing include Matilde Serao. International Profile, Reception and Networks (edited by Gabriella Romani, Ursula Fanning and Katherine Mitchell, Classiques Garnier, 2022), which maps the transnational reception of Serao’s literary legacy; and Imagined Networks in Pre-Modern Italian Literature: Literary Mothers, Literary Sisters (edited by Eleonora Buonocuore and Giulia Cardillo, Lexington Books, 2004), which traces interactions among women writers in pre-modern Italian literature and outlines an antihierarchical literary network of textual authority in opposition to the male-dominated canon.

In her chapter ‘Stories’ in the Transnational Modern Languages Handbook (edited by Jennifer Burns and Derek Duncan, Liverpool University Press, 2022), Emma Bond encourages scholars to consider the ‘transnational’ in cultural production in ways that go beyond labels such as ‘global’ or ‘world’, which, she argues, ‘rely on transactional practices of circulation and commerce’. Instead, she re-conceptualises the transnational as a ‘narrative methodology’ that engages with ‘systems of time and space […] through relational linkage or exchange’ (Bond, 2022: 280). In line with this perspective, we aim to encourage dialogue on how transnational and network approaches can shape innovative discourses on Italian cultural and literary production.

We therefore invite proposals for papers that examine how transnational and transhistorical networks of contact and influence between Italian and foreign cultures have influenced Italian literary and cultural production, addressing questions such as:

  • What are the benefits and potential limitations of applying a transnational, network-based approach to Italian Studies?
  • In what ways does a network-based approach challenge traditional hierarchies within the canon?
  • What impact have transnational receptions, migrations, and intellectual collaborations had on Italian cultural production?
  • How can we fruitfully apply the network framework to comparative studies?
  • How do transnational narratives intersect with transnational networks?
  • How do cultural translations and forms of multilingualism operate within transnational Italian cultural circuits and networks?

Papers may be in English (preferred) or Italian and should be a maximum of fifteen minutes in length.

The Colloquium aims to create a welcoming environment that fosters exchange among researchers studying Italian culture across all historical periods. Proposals are welcome from Masters and PhD students in Italian Studies and related disciplines. Seven small travel grants (five of £100 and 2 of £50) will be awarded to postgraduate students who are not benefitting from the financial support of full scholarships. Those interested in presenting a paper should send a short abstract (max. 250 words) and a biographical note (max. 100 words) to Aurora Sturli and Camille Iuliano at transnationalnetworkssis@gmail.com by 29 August 2025.

The conference will take place in-person in Cambridge on 5 December. Hybrid participation will not be possible.

Submission is open only to registered SIS members who have paid the membership fee. Please note that PG students can become members of the Society at a reduced cost.

Contributors may be invited to submit an article based on the papers they present at the Colloquium to the peer-reviewed journal Notes on Italian Studies.

 

Timeline:

Abstracts deadline: 29 August 2025

Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2025

Date of Colloquium: 5 December 2025

Publication of a selection of articles in Notes on Italian Studies: 2026