Professor Ilaria Favretto

My research lies in contemporary European cultural and social history, with four main areas of expertise: protest and social movements; labour history; left-wing parties, ideas, cultures, and practices since 1945; memory and identity. While my work has primarily focused on Italy and Britain, I have consistently explored transnational connections between these and other countries, situating my research within broader comparative and global perspectives. 

My most recent work centres on the cultural analysis of protest and collective action. I am particularly interested in the forms of protest, their circulation, and their re-adaptation to different needs and contexts over time and across movements. My last book, Cultures of Protest and Industrial Conflict in Post-1945 Italy (Oxford University Press, October 2025), examines the wide range of protest practices employed by workers, how and why these forms evolved, and their underpinning rituals, meanings, and strategic and symbolic functions. 

My research has been supported by a wide range of funding bodies, including the European Union (FP6 Framework Programme, Marie Curie, and Jean Monnet funding), the Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy.

Main publications

Books and scholarly editions

• 2025 Cultures of Protest and Industrial Conflict in Italy since 1945 (Oxford University Press).
• 2024 co-edited with Maud Bracke and Nico Pizzolato, Gendering Work in 20th c. Italy, special issue of Modern Italy (vol 29, special issue 2, 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)

Journal articles and long reviews

• 2025 ‘The European left finally halted?’, review of Matt Myers, The Halted March of the European Left. The Working Class in Britain, France, and Italy, 1968-1989 (2025), in Political Quarterly, 96 (4), pp. 740-741.
• 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 (vol 29, special issue 2, 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’, Sociologia del Lavoro, issue 163, pp. 271-280.
• 2022 ‘The complicated business of social movements’, review of David S. Meyer, How Social Movements (Sometimes) Matter (2021), in Political Quarterly, 93 (1), pp. 171-173.
• 2021 ‘The price of casual labour’, review of From the Workplace. A Collection of Worker Writing, Notes from Below (2020), in Political Quarterly, 92 (4), pp. 740-742.
• 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. 

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.

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. 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.