











feminists@law, Vol 4, No 1 (2014)
Gaia Giuliani, 'Black and White: History of Racial Identity in Italy'

This is a video, with accompanying powerpoint slides, of a lecture given by Dr Gaia Giuliani at the Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, on 23 October 2013. Drawing on her book co-authored with Cristina Lombardi-Diop, Bianco e nero: Storia dell'identità razziale degli Italiani (2013), the lecture traces back the  political, cultural and visual history of Italian racial identity from unification to the economic boom, through Fascism and the post-war era. Dr Giuliani  uses analytical categories derived from political philosophy, critical race  theory, whiteness studies and postcolonial studies, and examines political  theories of race, scientific literature and legislation related to emigration  in order to trace the different processes of self-racialisation in the  political discourse from the unification period up to 1936. The lecture also looks at Italian contemporary racism, analysing mass culture products  (1980s-2007), TV coverage of  racist events (2010-2012), and the  intertwining of masculinity, virility, whiteness and race in Berlusconi’s  sexual scandals.




Gaia Giuliani from donatella alessandrini on Vimeo.

Gaia Guiuliani is research assistant in Political Theory and Colonial and  Postcolonial Studies at the University of Bologna, Department of Social and Political  Sciences. She has been an honorary visiting scholar at the University of Technology  Sydney, NSW (2007-2011) and at the University of Leeds, UK  (Oct-Dec 2013). Her first  book was Beyond curiosity. James  Mill e la nascita del governo coloniale britannico in India (Aracne, Roma  2008), and in 2014-2015 she will  publish a co-authored book with Dr Gabriele Proglio, DistopieStoria della paura nella narrazione fantascientifica e horror dal dopoguerra a oggi  (Dystopias: History of Fear from the Aftermath of WWII to Today) (Le Monnier-Mondadori  Education, Milano). She will also edit the collective book E gli  italiani divennero bianchi. Razza, genere e classe nell’Italia contemporanea (And Italians Became  White: Race, Gender, and Class in Contemporary  Italy) (Ediesse, Roma).  She  is has also edited a book on affectivities and changes: G. Giuliani  et al., L’Amore ai tempi dello tsunami. Amore, Sessualità e Modelli di  Genere in Mutamento which will be published in May 2014.  For a more detailed bio see academia.edu/drGaiaGiuliani.

 
 

