On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura presents a talk by Professor Angelica Pesarini who recently took up a new position at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Pesarini will illustrate stories of marginalization and resistance of Italian women of African descent born during the fascist colonial time in East Africa. The talk will show the complexities of the Black presence in Italian history and the difficulty to acknowledge issues of race, identity and citizenship.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022
“You Were the Shame of Race”. Black Italian women, history and resistance
A talk by
Prof. Angelica Pesarini
Assistant Professor
Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies
University of Toronto
Tuesday, March 8 | 6:30PM EST
Alliance Française
Spadina Theatre
24 Spadina Road | Toronto, ON
FREE EVENT | REGISTRATION REQUIRED
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT ON EVENTBRITE
DR. ANGELICA PESARINI is an Assistant Professor in Race and Cultural Studies / Race and Diaspora and Italian Studies at the University of Toronto and works on the intersections of race, gender, citizenship and identity in Italy. She earned her Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Leeds with a dissertation on “Colour Strategies: Negotiations of Black Mixed Race Women’s Identities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Italy”, and has taught courses in Gender, Race and Sexuality at Lancaster University and courses in Race and Immigration in Italy at New York University’s Florence Campus.
Dr. Pesarini’s work explores the dynamics of race performativity with a focus on colonial and postcolonial Italy and she is also interested in the racialization of the Italian political discourse on immigration. She has previously conducted research on gender roles and the development of economic activities within some Roma communities in Italy and has analyzed strategies of survival, risks and opportunities associated with male prostitution in Rome. Active in anti-racist debates in Italy, she is the author of several publications on issues of race in Italy, both in English and Italian, and is a member of The Black Mediterranean Collective, which just published The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders, and Citizenship (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).