Lecture by Joseph John Viscomi

Abstract: This talk examines the history of migration from the perspective of departures. It asks what happens when we shift our analytical focus to explore continuity and change in relation to places left behind. How are continuities and connections navigated? How are separations and changes explained? How do each become part of larger constellations of membership and meaning in the history of migration? It explores these questions through two examples. First, the departure of Italian migrants from Egypt in the mid-twentieth century, during the waning of Mediterranean colonialism. Second, the (partially) emptied landscapes of southern Italy. Together, these stories challenge how we see migration history in relation to modernity.

Bio:  Joseph John Viscomi is a lecturer in European History in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London. He is a historian and anthropologist specialised in temporality, migration, and political processes in the Mediterranean region. He is currently completing a manuscript on the departure of Italians from Egypt entitled Migration at the End of Empire: Time and the Politics of Departure between Italy and Egypt, and has recently published the open-access edited volume Locating the Mediterranean: Connections and Separations across Space and Time (Helsinki University Press, 2022). His research has appeared in History & Anthropology, The Journal of Modern History, Modern Italy, and elsewhere. His new research explores the emptying of landscapes in Southern Italy since the eighteenth century.

IISH Seminar: This lecture is part of the monthly IISH Seminar series.

In principle, seminars take place every first Tuesday of the month. The seminar is open to the public, but with regard to accommodation, we would like you to register, jacqueline.rutte@bb.huc.knaw.nl, under the mention of 'lecture'.