The Graves of Academe (European Edition)

#1. Dr Francesca Ammaturo (London Metropolitan University)

Queering Southern Italy: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: Traditionally, research on LGBTQIA+ issues in Italy tends to focus on urban contexts such as Rome, Milan, Bologna or Turin, because these are perceived to be the ideal places where people are free to express their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, compared to rural, provincial or peripheral contexts. Currently, most research on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people in Italy focuses on these areas, following a ‘metronormative’ perspective (Halberstam 2005) insofar as urban areas are considered as the ideal destination for people who are trying to escape heteronormativity and/or cisnormativity. However, this metronormative approach in the Italian context does not just privilege the urban dimension, but it also adopts a North/South dichotomy, where Northern Italy is considered to be ‘queer friendly’, and Southern Italy is considered to be ‘backwards’ in relation to LGBTQIA+ issues (Barbagli and Colombo 2008). This creates the impression that Southern Italy exists in a situation of subalternity in relation to these themes.

Starting from the work of the Italian sociologist from Bari, Franco Cassano (2011) on the concept of ‘Meridian Thought’ as a form of agentic subjectivity for Southern Italy opposed to a proto-orientalist depiction of this area as being ‘backwards’ socially unevolved, this contribution offers a queer perspective on the potential to approach Southern Italy as a locus of knowledge production (not just knowledge-reception) in relation to identities, experiences, and theoretical contributions of LGBTQIA+ people in Italy. In particular, this contribution analyses some of the representations existing at the intersection between sexuality, gender identity, and meridionalist perspectives, offering both theoretical and methodological insights.

Keywords: Southern Italy, Queer Studies, Meridian Thought, Metronormativity, LGBTQIA+ Identities

Biography: Francesca Romana Ammaturo is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and International Relations rights at the London Metropolitan University. Her expertise is in the field of LGBTQI issues and human rights, LGBTQI social movements, European human rights and European Citizenship. During the last few years, she has been contributing to the field of LGBTQI+ studies by writing on a range of issues, from homonationalist sexual citizenship in Europe to debates on “gestational surrogacy” in Italy. She has published several single-authored articles in several international peer-reviewed journals, as well as having authored the monograph titled “European Sexual Citizenship: Human Rights, Bodies, and Identities for Palgrave in 2017. Currently, her research focuses on LGBTQI activism and human rights in Southern Europe.

#2. The conference “New Queer South: Perspectives on Italian Society and Culture”

The conference “New Queer South: Perspectives on Italian Society and Culture” took place at the University of Oxford between the 21 and 22 of September 2023. Numerous scholars, postgraduate students, and independent researchers participated in it as speakers or attendees from various national and international contexts. For instance, the speakers came from London Metropolitan University, University College London, Universidade de Lisboa, Sapienza,Università di Roma, Universidade de Coimbra, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, University of Exeter, to name a few. The conference was organised by Alice Parrinello (University of Oxford), and the scientific committee was formed by Professor Dimitris Papanikolaou (University of Oxford), Billie Mitsikakos (University of Oxford), and Claudio Russello (University of Oxford). Not only benefitting from the financial support of the Society for Italian Studies, the conference was also sponsored by the Association for the Study of Modern Italy and of two Oxford-based research groups, the Queer Intersections Oxford network and the Intersectional Humanities programme.

The aim of the conference was to explore various queer cultural practices, activists’ movements, and local histories of the South of Italy, which constitute an epistemological change that contrast the backwardness rhetoric imposed on it. Dr Charlotte Ross’ (University of Birmingham) keynote speech opened the conference by problematising the three main keywords “new,” “queer,” and “South” and laying out several themes, which were further explored during the event. Afterwards, the speakers presented their research during five panels “Displacement,” “The Sociology of Queerness,” “Femminielli,” “Literary Mappings,” and Centre/Periphery.” “Displacement” focused on the disruption of essentialising gender roles in poetry and cinema (Dr Francesca Romana Ammaturo, Dr Stefano Rossoni, Dr Marzia D’Amico), while “The Sociology of Queerness” explored a transfeminist association group in Palermo, Rome activism, and the history of AIDS/HIV in Sicily (Valentina Amenta, MartinaI. Millefiorini, Leonardo Campagna). “Femminelli” explored the history and representation of the Neapolitan femminelli (Luca Starita, Frances Clemente, Jules de Bellis, Dr MarcoRuggieri), “Literary Mappings” focused on the literary representations of the queer South (Dr. Carla Panico, Gian Pietro Leonardi), while the final panel, “Centre/Periphery” explored queer eccentricities in cinema and theatre (Dr Maria Elena Alampi, Dr Stefania Lodi Rizzini, Dani Martiri). The conference highlighted the fact that the South of Italy is bustling with queer creativity and community building.

The south of Italy economically lags behind the rest of the country. It already has a great many issues to deal with. Think only of the crime organizations: the Mafia in Sicily, the Camorra in Naples, the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia.

Now it has even more issues to consider:

Metrononormativity. Heteronormativity. Proto-Orientalist. Homonationalist. Cisnormativity. Meridionalist perspectives. Queer perspectives. LGBTQ. LGBTQI. LGBTGQIA. LGBTQIA+.

Lord have mercy.