Day 1 – Wednesday 24 September 2025

09:15-09:45 (Room 2) Registration and Coffee
09:45-11:15 (Room 2) Panel 1: Economic, Social, Political Aspects 1
Chair: Alice Gussoni (University of Padova-University of Oxford)
Anna Gervasio (IPSAIC, Bari): Dinamiche e caratteristiche dei processi migratori di ritorno verso il territorio pugliese nel XX secolo
Anna Pellegrino (University of Bologna): The Myth of Return: Migration, Memory, and Identity in a Southern Italian Town from 1950 to Present Day
Marco Spada (University of Messina): The Human Cost of Coal: Discriminatory Practices and Return Migration in Post-WWII Italian-French Labor Agreements
11:30-13:00 (Room 2) Panel 2: Literary Perspectives 1
Chair: Emma Bond (University of Oxford)
Aurora Sturli and Aminata Sow (University of Cambridge/Independent Scholar): Returning Home, Returning to Class: Social Privilege and the Contemporary Italian Novel of Return Migration
Concetta Maria Pagliuca (University of Naples Federico II): “Siamo spezzati in due metà”: il racconto dei “treni della felicità” dalla prospettiva di un bambino
13:00-14:00 (Main Hall) Lunch Break
14:00-15:15 (Main Hall) Keynote: Selena Daly (University College London): Emigrant Soldiers: Conscription and Return Migration to Italy in the First World War
15:15-15:30 (Room 2) Coffee Break
15:30-17:00 (Room 2) Panel 3: Political Propaganda
Chair: Selena Daly (University College London)
Remigio Petrocelli (University of Dundee): Fascist “Temporary” Mobilities: Pilgrimages and Holiday Camps for Italians Abroad
Saverio Battente (University of Siena): La questione migratoria nei romanzi di Enrico Corradini: alla base del nazionalismo italiano
Gabriele Bassi (University of Siena): From Mass Migration to a Difficult Return: Italian Settlers in Libya Between Historiography and Belated Memory
17:00-18:30 (Room 2) Panel 4: Artistic Approaches and Experiences
Chair: Alessandra Vannucci (University of Turin)
Francesco Vizzarri (Justus Liebig University Giessen): From Lecce to Wolfsburg and Back: Return Migration, Artistic Practice, and Collective Memory in the Work of Crocifisso Sisinni
Diego Cantore (University of Salerno): Il canto della resilienza: come la canzone napoletana degli emigranti racconta la resilienza
Giuliana Muscio (University of Padova): Birds of passage and disilluded performers