By examining Italy's long history of worldwide emigration in light of the country’s own colonial legacies and the contemporary transnational migrations directed toward it, the 2017 book Pre-Occupied Spaces poses Italy as a unique laboratory to rethink national belonging in our age of demographic mobility. It also advocates for re-designing the discipline of Italian Studies within a mobility-based and translingual vision. Through an interdisciplinary approach attentive to cultural texts that address travel, living, and spaces, the book finds traces of globalization in a past that may dispel preoccupation around migrations and hold useful lessons about inclusiveness for the present.

Presented by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY, as part of the Philip V. Cannistraro Seminar Series in Italian American Studies.