7 September 2015
Organized by Joᾶo Fábio Bertonha
Sala Mansarda, Villa Schifanoia
10.00 – 13.00
via Giovanni Boccaccio 121, Florence

Participants: João Fábio Bertonha (visiting fellow, European University Institute)
Lucy Riall (European University Institute)
Nicola Labanca (Università di Siena)
Matteo Sanfilippo (Università della Tuscia)

The workshop will present the results of Bertonha’s recent research on the Parini Legion, a force of four thousand Italian volunteers from the Italian emigrant communities around the world who fought for Mussolini during the war in Ethiopia. The idea is to present the results of the research and have a discussion with the invited guests and public.
The topic deals with a transnational historical process: volunteers that crossed oceans and continents to fight for an ideology. We will have a historian of the Italian diaspora around the world (Sanfilippo), a specialist in the history of the Italian Armed forces during Fascism and the Ethiopian war (LaBanca) and a historian who works on Italian imperialism, and the theoretical approaches to a global and comparative history of the Empires (Riall). Putting together people with different backgrounds and perspectives, but with a common interest in the subject, can help us not only to understand the Parini Legion, but also to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of writing History in a transnational or even global way.
During the event, Bertonha will present, if already available, another book just completed here at the EUI and currently in print: Fascismo, antifascismo e gli italiani all’estero. Bibliografia orientativa, 1922-2014. Viterbo: Sette Città, 2015.

Please contact: kathy.fabiani@eui.eu