Join Dr Neelam Srivastava (Newcastle) on Italian Colonialism and Resistances to Empire, 1930-1970.

"I will be discussing the cultural history of Italian colonialism and its impact on twentieth-century ideas of empire and anti-colonialism. I explore the widespread political and literary responses to Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, highlighting how Pan-Africanism grew from opposition to Italy’s late empire-building, and reading the work of George Padmore, Claude McKay, and CLR James alongside that of the feminist anti-colonial campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst. Extending into the postwar, I trace the connections between anti-colonialism and anti-fascism in Italy, outlining a Fanonian ‘resistance aesthetics’ in The Battle of Algiers and Giovanni Pirelli’s harrowing books of testimony about Algeria’s war of independence."

This event is free and open to all, booking is not required.