Call for Papers

Society for Italian Studies Themed Conference 2027

“Multicultural Italy: Identities, Mobilities, Cultures”

University of Exeter

24-25 June 2027

Keynote speakers: To be confirmed

 

Always a site of multicultural encounter, over the past half century, Italy has undergone profound demographic, social, and cultural transformation. Long understood primarily as a country of outward and internal migration, Italy has increasingly become a destination for inward migration, as well as a space of transit, mobility, and intercultural encounter. As people, languages, cultures, and traditions move across borders, they contribute to reshaping the country’s social and cultural landscape, challenging established notions of national identity, citizenship, and belonging. These processes have fostered the emergence of new forms of cultural expression, representation, and social participation that reflect the growing plurality of contemporary Italian society.

The conference “Multicultural Italy: Identities, Mobilities, Cultures”, to be held at the University of Exeter on 24-25 June 2027, seeks to explore the historical and contemporary dynamics of cultural diversity in Italy. It aims to promote critical reflection on the ways in which identity, mobility, and cultural difference are understood, represented, and negotiated in Italian Studies, encouraging dialogue among diverse theoretical perspectives and approaches. Bringing together scholars from across Italian Studies and related fields, the conference seeks to explore Italy as a space of arrival, transit, encounter, and transformation, where individuals and communities from diverse linguistic, cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds contribute to shaping and negotiating new forms of coexistence, participation, and belonging.

The conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for established academics, early-career researchers, postgraduate students, and independent scholars interested in discussing Italy’s multicultural realities. We invite participants to engage in critical conversations about the challenges and opportunities of cultural diversity within Italy and across diasporic spaces, drawing on traditional and/or digital research methods and approaches.

Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following questions:

  • How have mobility, migration and cultural exchange shaped Italian identities across different historical periods?
  • How do literature, language, visual culture and digital media represent, negotiate or challenge multicultural forms of belonging?
  • What forms of inclusion, exclusion and inequality emerge from competing understandings of citizenship, heritage, and national identity?
  • How can comparative, transnational and cross-cultural connections reshape understandings of Italy, Italianness, and multicultural belonging?
  • How are cultural memory, heritage and public spaces mobilised to negotiate diverse histories and identities in and beyond Italy?
  • What role do educational, cultural, and public institutions play in shaping sense of belonging, inclusion and social participation?
  • How can digital approaches, methodologies, and tools contribute to the study, analysis, representation and dissemination of multicultural experiences, cultural heritage, mobility and migration in Italy and beyond?
  • How might multicultural perspectives transform the methods, disciplinary boundaries and future directions of Italian Studies?

Areas of Interest

Histories, Mobilities and Geographies of Diversity:

Migration, colonialism, internal mobilities, diasporas, Mediterranean encounters, transnational connections, digital mapping and GIS (Geographic Information Systems).

Identity, Citizenship and Belonging:

Race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, borders, inclusion and exclusion.

Languages and Cultural Encounters:

Multilingualism, translation, language education, heritage languages, intercultural communication, digital methods for linguistic analysis, digital ethnography.

Literature, Arts and Media:

Transcultural and postcolonial writing, film, television, digital media, visual cultures, performance, cultural production.

Memory, Heritage and Public Cultures:

Museums, contested heritage, public memory, urban spaces, cultural institutions, digital archives, virtual collections and digital heritage initiatives.

Multiculturalism and the Future of Italian Studies:

Postcolonial and decolonial approaches, innovative and digital research methodologies, pedagogy, public humanities, interdisciplinary perspectives.

Italian Studies is intended here in its broader sense, including literature, history, politics, public humanities, linguistics and language acquisition, translation, cultural and intercultural studies, digital humanities, film, media and visual studies, among other areas. We welcome interdisciplinary, comparative and transnational approaches that position Italy and Italian Studies within wider global conversations about diversity and engage with transcultural discourses.

Keynote Speakers: To be confirmed.

Conference Format

Alongside traditional conference sessions, we plan to offer a range of presentation and participation formats to foster scholarly exchange, methodological innovation, skills development and engagement beyond academia. We also intend to offer space for hands-on workshops for postgraduate and early-career researchers, including dedicated CV clinics and/or sessions focused on research, publishing, teaching, and funding applications. These may include:

  • Individual papers (20 minutes plus discussion).
  • Pre-organised panels (3-4 speakers).
  • Roundtable discussions.
  • Workshops, digital labs and professional development sessions.
  • Creative, practice-based, and digital presentations, including work involving community engagement, public humanities, cultural organisations, education, and artistic practice. Contributions may explore or showcase digital or non-digital projects, initiatives, and outputs, such as (virtual) exhibitions, collaborative community projects, podcasts, digital storytelling, (digital) archives, and other participatory platforms.

The conference will be held in person at the University of Exeter. Contributions may be delivered in English or Italian.

All attendees of the conference must be current members of the Society for Italian Studies. To start or renew your membership, please follow this link: https://italianstudies.org.uk/the-society/membership/. If you have any issues, please contact Dr Lorenzo Dell’Oso at lorenzo.dell’oso@durham.ac.uk.

Reduced Conference fees will be available to support attendance by PGRs / ECAs and unwaged academics.

Submission Guidelines

Panel Submissions (250-word abstract, along with essential works cited, keywords, and short bio) – Please use the relevant form linked below.

The organising committee encourages panel submissions in diverse formats of 90 minutes, including:

  • three papers, 20 minutes each, and a chair
  • four papers, 15 minutes each, and a chair
  • two papers plus a response, and a chair
  • a roundtable of up to six participants, and a chair

The submission of panels and papers that foster interdisciplinary research, engagement with innovative methodological approaches, and critical reflections on the teaching and learning of Italian in relation to the conference themes is especially encouraged.

Individuals may not organise more than one panel and may not present more than one paper during the conference, although they may also appear on the programme as panel chair(s).

Individual Paper Submissions (250-word abstract, along with essential works cited, keywords, and short bio) – Please use the relevant form linked below.

Paper presenters who have not found an appropriate home panel may submit an individual paper proposal. The organisers will group accepted individual papers into thematic panels.

Proposals must be submitted using the appropriate form (Individual paper proposal form OR Panel proposal form) and must be sent as a single attachment (PDF) to Multicultural.Italy.SIS.2027@exeter.ac.uk, by 18 December 2026. Conference participation will be confirmed by the end of February 2027.

 

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment and strongly encourage submissions from scholars at all career stages, from underrepresented groups, and from  diverse geographical backgrounds, in accordance with the SIS Policy for Conferences and Event Planning guidelines (https://italianstudies.org.uk/front-page/edi/our-policies/).

We will particularly welcome panels that bring together participants at different career stages and reflect diversity in their composition. A limited number of bursaries to support travel and accommodation costs may be available for postgraduate students, early-career researchers, speakers or conference delegates from the Global South, and unwaged participants. Further information will be provided closer to the conference date.

Further details, including registration information and keynote announcements, will be circulated in due course.

For more information, please contact Multicultural.Italy.SIS.2027@exeter.ac.uk.

The organising committee: Steve Basset, Rossella Bongi, Sonia Cunico, Alice Farris, Antonella Freschi, Francesco Goglia, Danielle Hipkins, Eliana Maestri, and Alessia Risi (University of Exeter)