{"id":6711,"date":"2025-05-21T10:05:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/?p=6711"},"modified":"2025-05-21T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:18:11","slug":"call-for-papers-torna-a-surriento-return-migration-to-southern-italy-from-1876-to-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/2025\/05\/call-for-papers-torna-a-surriento-return-migration-to-southern-italy-from-1876-to-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Papers: \u201cTorna a Surriento\u201d: Return Migration to Southern Italy from 1876 to Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTorna a Surriento\u201d: Return Migration to Southern Italy from 1876 to Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

Venue: Taylor Institution Library, University of Oxford
\nDates: 24-25 September 2025
\nOrganised by:
\nFanny Clemente (Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford)
\nAlice Gussoni (DiSSGeA, University of Padova\/Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages,
\nUniversity of Oxford)<\/p>\n

As part of the Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, Grant agreement n. 101149130, Project: SAIL
\n\u2013 Sicilians dreAmIng Louisiana: Agents of Migration and Labour Recruiters on the Palermo \u2013 New Orleans Route (1865-1901) based at the University of Padova, Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World.<\/p>\n

In collaboration with:<\/strong>
\nFaculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford
\nDiSSGeA, University of Padova
\nMoHu \u2013 Mobility and Humanities Centre of Advanced Studies, DiSSGeA, University of Padua
\nISO \u2013 Italian Studies at Oxford
\nMigration Oxford Network<\/p>\n

Confirmed keynote speakers:<\/strong>
\nSelena Daly, University College London
\nMartino Marazzi, University of Milan<\/p>\n

As evidenced by the extensive and ever-growing body of literature, historians have persistently examined the various facets of the Italian \u201cmany diasporas\u201d (Gabaccia 2000), which follow complex trajectories, including that of the return. For instance, during the Mass migration period (1876-1914), Italians migrants in the US were considered as \u201cbirds of passage\u201d, moving back and forth, seeking seasonal work opportunities to enhance their economic status, always keeping in contact with their land through letters and remittances, with the ultimate aspiration of returning to their place of origin (Rinaldetti 2014; Fauri 2015). During this period, 14 million Italians emigrated from the country; a figure that subsequently increased to 26 million by 1976 (Rosoli 1978; Vecoli 1995). After 1901, migration evolved into a predominantly Southern phenomenon, and the period following WWII signified the further meridionalizzazione of this trend (Bonifazi 2013). However, it is estimated that 50% of these 26 million migrants, disseminated across Europe, the United States, South America, but also to a lesser extent to Africa and Oceania, eventually returned to Italy (Cerase 2001). Recent statistical analysis covering the period from 1902 to the present days \u2013 when mobility has become much easier \u2013 confirm an aggregate return rate of 40% (Sanfilippo and Prencipe 2025).
\nReturn migration to Southern Italy is also a notable topic in works of literature, music, cinema, theatre and other forms of creative expression, which explore the practical and emotional complexities that surround the positive or negative experience of going back. The latter may be definitive, as in the instance of return migration, wherein the former emigrant elects to live permanently in their place of origin. This is what happens in Mario Baffico\u2019s film Terra di nessuno (1938), describing a traumatic return home full of difficulties and predicaments, and Andrea Camilleri\u2019s Maruzza Musumeci (2007), where the protagonist\u2019s return to Sicily takes, instead, the form of a joyous new start. At other times, the return may be a temporary \u201cvisit home\u201d (Baldassar 2001) by a diasporic community member who is just briefly reconnecting with their family or relatives, as in Leonardo Sciascia\u2019s La zia d\u2019America (1958) or Olga Campofreda\u2019s Ragazze perbene (2023). It may also assume the form of \u201croot tourism\u201d (Tomczewska-Popowycz and Taras 2022), a journey undertaken by Italian descendants to explore their familial heritage, as addressed by Helen Barolini\u2019s historical novel Umbertina (1979) and, more recently, in the second season of the popular TV series The White Lotus (2022) (Fognani 2024). In several works, returning to one\u2019s place of origin is less motivated by individual, personal factors and,
\nrather, situated within a wider historical and political frame, sometimes bearing nationalistic connotations as in the experiences of emigrants returning as soldiers to fight for their nation depicted in Luisa Macina Gervasio\u2019s short story \u201cI tre ferrovieri\u201d (1915-1916) and Guido Brignone\u2019s film Passaporto rosso (1935). The experience of return itself may be represented as not linear and corresponding to complex, at times disorienting, back-and-forth trajectories, as portrayed in Vincenzo Rabito\u2019s autobiographical Terra matta (2007) and Claudia Durastanti\u2019s memoir La straniera (2019).
\nOther works focus not on the returning emigrants\u2019 experience but on the emotional turmoil of those waiting for their return, as exemplified by Maria Messina\u2019s Cenerella (1918) and \u201cLa M\u00e8rica\u201d (1911), reflecting the experience of the so-called \u201cwhite widows\u201d (Reeder 2003). Others yet centre on the nostalgic longing for the return as an idea that, in Marazzi\u2019s words (2023) is \u201cdreamed, contemplated, meticulously planned and\/or anticipated by imagination\u201d but not necessarily achieved. This is the main theme of several popular songs from the repertoire of the canzone napoletana, from Raffaele Viviani\u2019s L\u2019emigrante (1918) to Libero Bovio\u2019s ‘O paese d\u2019o sole (1925) to Giambattista De Curti\u2019s Torna a Surriento (1894), which has become an emblematic anthem of the Southern Italian emigrants\u2019 desire of return.
\nInternational scholars are increasingly devoting their attention to the topic of return migration (Harper 2012; King and Kuschminder 2022; Oberbichler, Pfanzelter, and Larcher 2024). Nevertheless, after Cerase\u2019s (1971) definition of four type of return migration\u2013 failure, conservation, investment and retirement \u2013 the Italian case has only sporadically been addressed (Caroli 1973; Cerase 1974; 2001; Corti 2006) or, when examined, has revealed the need of more accurate research (Sanfilippo 1993).
\nRecently, the topic of return has garnered renewed attention thanks to Tirabassi\u2019s works on root tourism (Tirabassi 2022; 2024), to Daly\u2019s studies on emigrant soldiers returning to fight WWI and the impact on their families (Daly 2024; 2025). Pretelli and Izzo (2023) have shown the potentialities of an interdisciplinary approach involving historians, literary critics, geographers and marketing experts to study the return from the US in the 20th century, while Baldo (2019) has analysed the Italian-Canadian case from a linguistic perspective and in relation to the practice of translation.
\nAiming to expand the analysis of the topic, Turna a Surriento invites scholarly contributions from the fields of migration history, social history, economic history, literature, music, cinema, theatre and other forms of creative expression that investigate the phenomenon of Italian return migration from 1876 to the present day<\/strong>. Whereas the focus of the conference is specifically on returns to Southern Italy, where Naples (and Sorrento) are emblematic of the broader Southern cultural imagination and experience, we hope to collect contributions which have resonance with the experience of return from any country across the globe.<\/p>\n

We hope to address the topic from multiple perspectives, and areas of interest include (but are not limited to):<\/p>\n

– Nostalgia, homesickness, and desire to return
\n– Failed attempts and obstacles to the return
\n– Successful strategies of return
\n– Practical aspects of the return journey
\n– Traumatic experiences of return and alienation
\n– Return and transfer of knowledge
\n– Nationalistic, propagandistic, and political use of return
\n– Political engagement, persecution, exile, and return
\n– Returning soldiers and war experiences
\n– Colonial experiences, decolonisation, and repatriation
\n– Citizenship and the decision to return
\n– Generational change and return
\n– Financial strategies, remittances, and economic impact of return
\n– Questions of gender and the experience of return
\n– Waiting for those who return: \u201cwhite widows\u201d and family members
\n– Language barriers and return; the language of the returnees<\/p>\n

Presentations can be both in Italian and English. All submissions must be sent via email in a single
\nWord document to the email address tornaasurriento2025@gmail.com no later than 30 June 2025<\/strong> and include the following items:
\n– an abstract (250 words max)
\n– a short bio (100 words max)
\n– full name, email address, and affiliation.
\nNotifications of acceptance will be sent by 20 July 2025.
\nPlease feel free to contact the organisers Dr Fanny Clemente (frances.clemente@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk)
\nand Dr Alice Gussoni (alice.gussoni@unipd.it) for further information prior to submission.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong>
\nBaldassar, Loretta. 2001. Visits Home: Migration Experiences between Italy and Australia.
\nMelbourne: Melbourne University Press.
\nBaldo, Michela. 2019. Italian-Canadian Narratives of Return: Analysing Cultural Translation in
\nDiasporic Writing. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
\nBonifazi, Corrado. 2013. L\u2019Italia delle migrazioni. Bologna: il Mulino.
\nCaroli, Betty Boyd. 1973. Italian Repatriation from the United States, 1900-1914. New York: Center
\nfor Migration Studies.
\nCerase, Francesco Paolo. 1971. L\u2019emigrazione di ritorno: innovazione o reazione? Rome: Facolt\u00e0 di
\nScienze Statistiche, Demografiche e Attuariali.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. 1974. \u2018Expectations and Reality: A Case Study of Return Migration from the United States to
\nSouthern Italy\u2019. The International Migration Review 8 (26): 245.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2001. \u2018L\u2019onda di ritorno: i rimpatri\u2019. In Storia dell\u2019emigrazione italiana. Partenze, ed. by
\nPiero Bevilacqua, Andreina De Clementi, and Emilio Franzina, 113\u201325. Roma: Donzelli.
\nCorti, Paola. 2006. \u2018Dal \u201critorno\u201d alle visits home: le tendenze di studio nell\u2019ultimo trentennio\u2019. Studi
\nEmigrazione, 164, 927\u201346.
\nDaly, Selena. 2024. \u2018\u201cThe Loneliest of the War\u2019s Victims\u201d: Wives and Families of Italian Emigrant
\nSoldiers in the First World War\u2019. Immigrants & Minorities 42 (3): 275\u2013302.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2025 (forthcoming). Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War.
\nCambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
\nFauri, Francesca. 2015. Storia economica delle migrazioni italiane. Bologna: il Mulino.
\nFognani, Arianna. 2024. \u2018Incontri e scontri con le radici. Il viaggio degli italo americani nella serie tv
\nThe White Lotus\u2019. In Turisti per caso: migrazioni e viaggi delle radici, ed. by Maddalena Tirabassi,
\n53\u201368. Turin: Accademia University Press.
\nGabaccia, Donna R. 2000. Italy\u2019s Many Diasporas. London: Routledge.
\nHarper, Marjory. 2012. Emigrant Homecomings: The Return Movement of Emigrants, 1600-2000.
\nManchester: Manchester University Press.
\nKing, Russell, and Katie Kuschminder, eds. 2022. Handbook of Return Migration. Northampton:
\nEdward Elgar Publishing.
\nMarazzi, Martino. 2023. \u2018Turn Turn Turn. Narrazioni e poesie del ritorno\u2019. In Il ritorno della
\n\u2018diaspora\u2019. Migranti italiani di ritorno dagli Stati Uniti nel Novecento, ed. by Matteo Pretelli
\nand Donatella Izzo, 105\u201322. Naples: La Scuola di Pitagora.
\nOberbichler, Sarah, Eva Pfanzelter, and Valerio Larcher, eds. 2024. Return and Circular Migration in
\nContemporary European History. Basel\/Berlin\/Boston: De Gruyter.
\nPretelli, Matteo, and Donatella Izzo, eds. 2023. Il ritorno della \u2018diaspora\u2019. Migranti italiani di ritorno
\ndagli Stati Uniti nel Novecento. Naples: La Scuola di Pitagora.
\nReeder, Linda. 2003. Widows in White: Migration and the Transformation of Rural Women, Sicily,
\n1880-1928. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
\nRinaldetti, Thierry. 2014. \u2018Italian Migrants in the Atlantic Economies: From the Circular Migrations
\nof the Birds of Passage to the Rise of a Dispersed Community\u2019. Journal of American Ethnic
\nHistory 34 (1): 5\u201330.
\nRosoli, Gianfausto, ed. 1978. Un secolo di emigrazione italiana, 1876-1976. Rome: Centro studi
\nemigrazione.
\nSanfilippo, Matteo. 1993. \u2018\u201cThe National Integration of Italian Return Migration, 1870-1929\u201d By
\nDino Cinel (Book Review)\u2019. International Migration Review 27 (4): 901\u20132.
\nSanfilippo, Matteo, and Lorenzo Prencipe. 2025. Breve storia statistica dell\u2019emigrazione italiana
\n(1861-2024). Rome: Centro studi emigrazione.
\nTirabassi, Maddalena, ed. 2022. \u2018Il \u201cturismo delle radici\u201d nel passato e nelle nuove mobilit\u00e0\u2019.
\nAltreitalie, 65.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014, ed. 2024. Turisti per caso: migrazioni e viaggi delle radici. Turin: Accademia University
\nPress.
\nTomczewska-Popowycz, Natalia, and Vas Taras. 2022. \u2018The Many Names of \u201cRoots Tourism\u201d: An
\nIntegrative Review of the Terminology\u2019. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 50
\n(1):245\u201358.
\nVecoli, Rudolph J. 1995. \u2018The Italian Diaspora 1876-1976\u2019. In Cambridge Survey of World Migration,
\ned by Robin Cohen, 114\u201322. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressTorna a Surriento_CFP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTorna a Surriento\u201d: Return Migration to Southern Italy from 1876 to Today Venue: Taylor Institution Library, University of Oxford Dates: 24-25 September 2025 Organised by: Fanny Clemente (Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[507],"class_list":["post-6711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-call-for-papers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6711"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6718,"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6711\/revisions\/6718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asei.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}