Professor Ilaria Favretto

My main research interests lie in contemporary European cultural and social history; and social movements. While my main focus has been on Italy and Britain, I have consistently explored connections between these and other countries and I have sought to place my research in a broader comparative context. 

My most recent work focuses on the cultural analysis of protest and collective action. I am particularly interested in forms of protest, their circulation and re-adaptation to different needs and contexts throughout time and across different movements. I have just completed a book on industrial conflict in twentieth century Italy (forthcoming with Oxford University Press), which explores the range of forms of protest that workers utilised, how they changed and why, their underpinning rituals, meanings, strategic and symbolic functions. 

My research has been supported by a wide range of funding bodies: the EU (e.g. FP6 framework programme, Marie Curie, Jean Monnet funding); the Leverhulme Trust; and the British Academy.

I co-convene the Modern Italian History seminar at the Institute of Historical Research (School of Advanced Study, University of London) and sit on the Executive Committee of ASMI (the Association for the Study of Modern Italy).

I am also on the editorial boards of the following peer-reviewed journals: Journal of Balkan and Near East Studies, The Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Ricerche di Storia Politica and Rivista Storica del Socialismo.

From 2018 to 2023 I was co-editor of European History Quarterly (Sage), currently ranked 32/102 in the History category. 

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Books and Scholarly Editions

2024                co-edited with Maud Brack and Nico Pizzolato, Gendering Work in 20th c. Italy, special issue of Modern Italy (forthcoming - May 2024)

2023                co-edited with Nico Pizzolato and Maria Chiara di Trapani, Aos Olhos Delas. Mulheres e trabalho em Italia desde 1950 (Catalogue of the photographic exhibition ‘Aos Olhos Delas. Mulheres e trabalho em Italia desde 1950' (Galeria Av. De India, Lisbon - 7 June/27 August 2023), Edizioni Torri del Vento.

2021             co-edited with Nico Pizzolato and Maria Chiara di Trapani, Through the Female Gaze: women and work in Italy since the 1950s. Catalogue of the photographic exhibition ‘Through the Female Gaze: women and work in Italy since the 1950s' (Italian Cultural Institute,  London 3-23 December 2021; Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh 8 March -30 April 2022)

2017             co-edited with Xabier Itcaina, Protest, Popular Culture and Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Western European History (Basingstoke: Palgrave - Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements).

2007             co-edited with John Callaghan, Socialism and Social Reform in the Twentieth Century: Cultures of Social Democracy in Historical and Comparative Perspective (Manchester: Manchester University Press).

2006             co-edited with James Newell, thematic section on ‘The second Berlusconi Government: changes and transformations', in The Journal of Contemporary European Studies, vol 14, no. 1, April.

2004             co-edited with Dejan Jovic, Memories of Wars: Italy and her Eastern Adriatic neighbours since 1989, special issue of Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, vol. 6, no. 2.

2004             Storia d'Europa nel XX Secolo: Gran Bretagna (Milan: Unicopli) (trans: 20th Century Europe: Great Britain)

2003             The Long Search for a ‘Third Way': the British Labour Party and the Italian Left since 1945 (Basingtoke: Palgrave Macmillan-St Antony's series).

2003             Alle radici della svolta autonomista. PSI e Labour Party, due vicende parallele (1956-1970) (Rome: Carocci) (trans: Understanding Nenni's ‘autonomist' course. The relations between the PSI and the British Labour Party from 1956 to 1970)

Chapters in books

2023                Ilaria Favretto, Nico Pizzolato and Eloisa Betti, ‘Mulheres  e trabalho em Italia apos a Segunda Guerra Mundial: um novo enfoque', in Aos Olhos Delas. Mulheres e trabalho em Italia desde 1950 (Catalogue of the photographic exhibition ‘Aos Olhos Delas. Mulheres e trabalho em Italia desde 1950' - Galeria Av. De India, Lisbon - 7 June/27 August 2023), Edizioni Torri del Vento, pp. 59-63.

2021             Ilaria Favretto, Nico Pizzolato and Eloisa Betti, ‘Women and work in Italy since the 1950s: shifting the focus', in Through the Female Gaze: women and work in Italy since the 1950s. Catalogue of the photographic exhibition ‘Through the Female Gaze: women and work in Italy since the 1950s' (Italian Cultural Institute,  London 3-23 December 2021; Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh 8 March -30 April 2022), pp. 75-80.

2017             Ilaria Favretto, ‘Looking backward to move forward. Why appreciating tradition can improve our understanding of modern protest', in ‘Xabier Itcaina and Ilaria Favretto (eds), Protest, Popular Culture and Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Western European History (Basingtoke: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements), pp. 1-20.

2017             Ilaria Favretto and Marco Fincardi, ‘Carnivalesque and charivari repertoires in 1960s and 1970s Italian protest', in ‘Xabier Itcaina and Ilaria Favretto (eds), Protest, Popular Culture and Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Western European History (Basingstoke: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements), pp. 149-183.

2015             ‘The "Opening to the Left"', in Erik Jones and Gianfranco Pasquino (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp. 268-282.

2010             ‘Red scare: ‘pericolo rosso' e Gran Bretagna nel ventesimo secolo' (transl: Labour and the ‘red threat' in 20th century Britain), in Fulvio Cammarano (ed), Il nemico e la politica. La delegittimazione dell'avversario nell'Europa contemporanea (Bologna: Il Mulino).

2009             ‘The parties of the Centre Left', in James Newell (ed.), Italian Political Elections 2008 (London: Routledge), pp. 85-101.

2008             ‘Le riviste storiche britanniche e la storiografia italiana', in Maurizio Ridolfi (ed), La storia contemporanea attraverso le riviste (transl: contemporary history and academic historical journals) (Bari: SSISCO – Rubbettino), pp. 51-68.

2006             ‘Resisting the "pervasiveness" of capitalist ideals?: The Italian Left and the challenge of Affluent Society since 1945', in John Callaghan and Ilaria Favretto (eds.), Socialism and Social Reform in the Twentieth Century: Cultures of Social Democracy in Historical and Comparative Perspective (Manchester: Manchester University Press).

2005             ‘Italy, EU-Enlargement and the "Reinvention" of Europe: between Historical memories and Present Representations', in Klaus Eder and Wilfired Spohn (eds.), Collective Memory and European Identity. The Effects of Integration and Enlargement  (London: Ashgate), pp. 87-108.

2003             co-authored with Oliviero Bergamini, ‘ "Temperamentally unwarlike": the image of Italy in the Allies' war propaganda, 1943-1945' in David Welch and David Culbert (eds.), War and the Media: the Changing Context of Reportage and Propaganda in Modern Warfare (London: I.B. Tauris), pp. 112-126.

Journal articles

2024                co-authored with Maud Bracke and Nico Pizzolato, ‘Gender and work in 20th c. Italy: New Approaches', in Gendering Work in 20th c. Italy, special issue of Modern Italy (forthcoming - May 2024).

2024                ‘A Love Letter to the North London Working Class', review of John Medhurst, I Could be So Good for You. A Portrait of the North London Working Class (2023), in Political Quarterly, 95 (1), pp. 198-200.

2023             ‘Social movements re-imagine the world', review of Michele Moody-Adams, Making Space for Justice. Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political Hope (2022), in Political Quarterly, 94 (1), pp. 156-7.

2022             co-authored with Nico Pizzolato, Maria Chiara di Trapani and Eloisa Betti, ‘Il lavoro attraverso lo sguardo femminile: la fotografia delle donne tra ricerca artistica e critica sociale', in Sociologia del Lavoro, issue 163, pp. 271-280.

2022             ‘The complicated business of social movements', review David S. Meyer, How Social Movements (Sometimes) Matter (2021), in Political Quarterly, 93 (1), pp. 171-173.

2019             ‘Toilets and Resistance in Italian Factories in the 1950s', Labor History, vol 60, Issue no. 6, pp. 646-665.

2017             ‘The ‘British School' and Italian historiography', Round table discussion, Modern Italy, vol 22, Issue no. 4, pp. 471-483.

2015             ‘Rough music and factory protest in post-1945 Italy', Past and Present, vol 228, no. 1, August 2015, pp. 207-247.

2006             ‘The Wilson Governments and the Italian Centre-Left Coalitions: between "Socialist" Diplomacy and Realpolitik, 1964-70', in Dejan Djokic (ed.), British Labour and the European Left during the Cold War, special issue of European History Quarterly, July 2006, vol. 36, No.3, pp. 421-444.

2004              ‘"Reinventing" Europe: Italy, the EU enlargement and the role of collective memory', in Ilaria Favretto and Dejan Jovic (eds.), Memories of Wars: Italy and her Eastern Adriatic neighbours since 1989, special issue of Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 161-182.

2004             ‘Conflicting Memories and Mutual Representations: Italy and the Balkans from World War II to the Present' (Conference Report), in Modern Italy, vol. 9, no.1, pp. 95-100.

2002             ‘The Italian Left in search of ideas: the re-discovery of the political ideas of the Action Party', in The Journal of Modern Italian Studies, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 392-415.

2000             ‘"Wilsonism" reconsidered: Labour Party revisionism, 1952-1964', in Journal of Contemporary British History, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 54-80.

2000             ‘1956 and the PSI: the end of "ten winters"', in Modern Italy, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 25-45.

2000             ‘New Labour and the Italian Left compared: a review essay', in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 101-117.

1997             ‘British Political Parties Archives: an Exemplary Case', in Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 205-213.

1996             ‘La svolta autonomista del PSI vista oltremanica il partito laburista, il Foreign Office e il centro-sinistra', in Italia Contemporanea, no. 202 (March), pp. 5-44.

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to talk about my work on Italy's national broadcaster, RAI Radio 3, The Guardian, the Times Higher Education Supplement, Political Quarterly, the Danish daily broadsheet newspaper Politiken, and Dagens Nyheter (Sweden's largest circulating quality newspaper), and most recently the BBC World Service (The History Hour): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct39mk

Drawing on my research on the Italian labour movement, in 2021-22 I co-organised (with Dr Nico Pizzolato, Middlesex; Dr Eloisa Betti, University of Padua; and the curator Maria Chiara di Trapani) the photographic exhibition ‘Through the Female Gaze. Women and Work since the 1950s' held at the Italian Cultural Institute in London (from the 3rd to 23rd of December 2021) and at the Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh, from the 8th of March to the 30th of April 2022: https://iiclondra.esteri.it/iic_londra/en/gli_eventi/calendario/2021/12/through-the-female-gaze-women-and.html

Sponsors included: Kingston University; Middlesex University; ASMI - Association for the Study of Modern Italy; the Italian Cultural Institute in London; and the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh. Thanks to an extra sponsorship from the Italian Embassy in Lisbon, in June 2023 the exhibition travelled to Lisbon and was shown at the Galeria Av. De India until the 27th of August 2023.