Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DaShoW (A Darker Shade of Whiteness: The Italian Ethnic Press in Louisiana and the Making of Racial Awareness in The Gulf South (1877-1945))
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-11-01 al 2025-10-31
European migration to the United States has long been narrated through success stories of integration and upward mobility. However, these narratives often overlook the complex social and racial environments in which European migrants settled, particularly in the American South. In this region, rigid racial hierarchies and segregation shaped everyday life well into the twentieth century, profoundly influencing how migrant communities understood themselves and were perceived by others. Within this context, Italian migrants occupied an ambiguous position: legally classified as white, yet frequently exposed to racial suspicion, exclusion and violence.
The project A Darker Shade of Whiteness (DaShoW) addresses this gap by investigating how Italian migrant communities in the southern United States negotiated race, identity and belonging between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Its central focus is the Italian-language ethnic press, a largely underexplored body of sources that functioned not only as a means of communication, but also as a powerful space of education, cultural mediation and political socialisation. Through newspapers, Italian migrants debated citizenship, labour, morality, education and racial boundaries, actively shaping their collective self-representation within a segregated society.
The project responds to a broader need — both scholarly and societal — to understand how ideas of race and “whiteness” are historically constructed, transmitted and contested. By examining migrant newspapers produced in Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and neighbouring areas, DaShoW sheds light on how European migrants learned to navigate racial regimes and how transnational cultural practices interacted with local social orders. This perspective is particularly relevant in today’s political context, where debates on migration, identity and inclusion continue to shape public discourse in Europe and beyond.
The overall objectives of the project are threefold. First, it aims to recover, digitise and make openly accessible Italian-language newspapers from the American South, many of which were previously difficult or impossible to consult. Second, it seeks to analyse these sources to understand how language, education and cultural narratives contributed to the making of racial awareness and ethnic identity among Italian migrants. Third, it translates scholarly findings into public-facing formats - digital exhibitions, podcasts, and public-history initiatives - so that research results can reach audiences beyond academia.
Social sciences and humanities play a central role in the project. Historical analysis, cultural studies, migration history and the history of education are combined with digital humanities and public history to interpret complex social phenomena and communicate them effectively. By linking archival research with digital tools and community engagement, DaShoW demonstrates how humanities-based research can contribute meaningfully to contemporary discussions on diversity, heritage and social cohesion.
Ultimately, the project aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of European migration histories and their long-term social consequences, highlighting how past experiences of inclusion and exclusion continue to resonate in present-day debates.
The project A Darker Shade of Whiteness (DaShoW) addresses this gap by investigating how Italian migrant communities in the southern United States negotiated race, identity and belonging between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Its central focus is the Italian-language ethnic press, a largely underexplored body of sources that functioned not only as a means of communication, but also as a powerful space of education, cultural mediation and political socialisation. Through newspapers, Italian migrants debated citizenship, labour, morality, education and racial boundaries, actively shaping their collective self-representation within a segregated society.
The project responds to a broader need — both scholarly and societal — to understand how ideas of race and “whiteness” are historically constructed, transmitted and contested. By examining migrant newspapers produced in Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and neighbouring areas, DaShoW sheds light on how European migrants learned to navigate racial regimes and how transnational cultural practices interacted with local social orders. This perspective is particularly relevant in today’s political context, where debates on migration, identity and inclusion continue to shape public discourse in Europe and beyond.
The overall objectives of the project are threefold. First, it aims to recover, digitise and make openly accessible Italian-language newspapers from the American South, many of which were previously difficult or impossible to consult. Second, it seeks to analyse these sources to understand how language, education and cultural narratives contributed to the making of racial awareness and ethnic identity among Italian migrants. Third, it translates scholarly findings into public-facing formats - digital exhibitions, podcasts, and public-history initiatives - so that research results can reach audiences beyond academia.
Social sciences and humanities play a central role in the project. Historical analysis, cultural studies, migration history and the history of education are combined with digital humanities and public history to interpret complex social phenomena and communicate them effectively. By linking archival research with digital tools and community engagement, DaShoW demonstrates how humanities-based research can contribute meaningfully to contemporary discussions on diversity, heritage and social cohesion.
Ultimately, the project aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of European migration histories and their long-term social consequences, highlighting how past experiences of inclusion and exclusion continue to resonate in present-day debates.
During the reporting period, the project carried out a structured programme of archival, analytical and digital research centred on Italian-language newspapers produced in the southern United States. These newspapers constitute the core empirical material of the project and are essential for understanding how Italian migrant communities negotiated language, education, identity, and race within a segregated social environment.
A first major component of the work consisted in the identification, acquisition and digitisation of primary sources. Italian-language newspapers from Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee were located in public archives, libraries and private collections and systematically digitised. These materials include both well-known periodicals and previously underexamined or unknown titles, significantly expanding the available source base for the study of Italian migration in the American South. All digitised materials were processed through OCR and structured using metadata to enable systematic analysis.
Building on this corpus, the project undertook systematic textual and contextual analysis of the newspapers. The research focused on how migrant editors and contributors discussed education, language learning, civic behaviour, labour and race, and how these themes intersected with broader processes of racial classification and social positioning. Particular attention was paid to the pedagogical role of the ethnic press, understood as a medium through which migrants were instructed on norms, values and strategies for navigating a racially stratified society.
The analysis also led to significant extensions of the project’s empirical scope, grounded entirely in new source discoveries. Chronologically, the identification of early Italian-language newspapers pushed the historical framework back to the mid-nineteenth century, providing a deeper foundation for understanding later developments. Geographically, the discovery and study of newspapers produced in multiple Southern states revealed strong cultural and editorial connections across Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee, allowing the project to move beyond isolated local case studies toward a more integrated regional perspective.
A further strand of the work concerned the integration of traditional historical methods with digital humanities approaches. Digitised newspapers were organised into a searchable digital corpus that supports close reading, comparison across titles and regions and long-term reuse. This infrastructure not only underpins the project’s own analyses but also establishes a durable research resource for future scholarship.
Overall, the main achievements of the project lie in the creation of a substantially enlarged and previously inaccessible corpus of sources, the development of new analytical insights into the educational and cultural functions of the Italian-language press in the American South and the establishment of a robust digital foundation that supports both current and future research on migration, race and identity.
A first major component of the work consisted in the identification, acquisition and digitisation of primary sources. Italian-language newspapers from Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee were located in public archives, libraries and private collections and systematically digitised. These materials include both well-known periodicals and previously underexamined or unknown titles, significantly expanding the available source base for the study of Italian migration in the American South. All digitised materials were processed through OCR and structured using metadata to enable systematic analysis.
Building on this corpus, the project undertook systematic textual and contextual analysis of the newspapers. The research focused on how migrant editors and contributors discussed education, language learning, civic behaviour, labour and race, and how these themes intersected with broader processes of racial classification and social positioning. Particular attention was paid to the pedagogical role of the ethnic press, understood as a medium through which migrants were instructed on norms, values and strategies for navigating a racially stratified society.
The analysis also led to significant extensions of the project’s empirical scope, grounded entirely in new source discoveries. Chronologically, the identification of early Italian-language newspapers pushed the historical framework back to the mid-nineteenth century, providing a deeper foundation for understanding later developments. Geographically, the discovery and study of newspapers produced in multiple Southern states revealed strong cultural and editorial connections across Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee, allowing the project to move beyond isolated local case studies toward a more integrated regional perspective.
A further strand of the work concerned the integration of traditional historical methods with digital humanities approaches. Digitised newspapers were organised into a searchable digital corpus that supports close reading, comparison across titles and regions and long-term reuse. This infrastructure not only underpins the project’s own analyses but also establishes a durable research resource for future scholarship.
Overall, the main achievements of the project lie in the creation of a substantially enlarged and previously inaccessible corpus of sources, the development of new analytical insights into the educational and cultural functions of the Italian-language press in the American South and the establishment of a robust digital foundation that supports both current and future research on migration, race and identity.
The project has generated results that go beyond the current state of the art in the study of European migration and ethnic press by fundamentally rethinking the role of Italian-language newspapers in the American South. Previous scholarship has largely treated the migrant press as a source of community news or cultural preservation. This project demonstrates instead that these newspapers functioned as active instruments of education, social instruction and racial positioning, shaping how migrant communities understood language, citizenship, and belonging within a segregated society.
One major result is the systematic identification and analysis of the pedagogical function of the Italian-language press. The project shows that newspapers explicitly taught migrants how to behave, speak, educate their children (and adults in their communities) and situate themselves within local racial hierarchies. This finding reframes the ethnic press as a central site where racial awareness and notions of “whiteness” were learned and negotiated, rather than passively absorbed. This insight advances existing historiography by linking migration history, the history of education and racial studies in a single analytical framework.
A second result lies in the expansion of the chronological and geographical boundaries of research on Italian migration in the South. By identifying and analysing previously unknown or underutilised newspapers, the project demonstrates that Italian editorial activity and cultural mediation began earlier than commonly assumed and operated across state boundaries. The evidence reveals a dense network of cultural and editorial exchange among Italian communities in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee, challenging city-based or state-based interpretations and supporting a regional perspective that has been largely absent from the literature.
The project also advances the state of the art through its methodological integration of archival research and digital humanities. By transforming fragile and dispersed newspapers into a structured, searchable digital corpus, the project enables new forms of comparative and longitudinal analysis that were not previously possible. This digital foundation supports transparency, reproducibility and future scholarly reuse, thereby extending the impact of the results beyond the project’s immediate objectives.
In terms of potential impact and further uptake, the results point to several key needs. Further research can build on the expanded corpus to explore comparative cases across other migrant groups and regions. The digital infrastructure created by the project provides a scalable model that can be extended to additional collections and integrated into teaching and research environments. Ensuring long-term accessibility and sustainability of digitised sources remains essential for maximising scholarly and educational impact.
Overall, the project’s results offer a more nuanced understanding of how migration, education and race intersect historically. In addition, they provide both conceptual tools and empirical foundations for future research addressing issues of identity, inclusion and cultural transmission.
One major result is the systematic identification and analysis of the pedagogical function of the Italian-language press. The project shows that newspapers explicitly taught migrants how to behave, speak, educate their children (and adults in their communities) and situate themselves within local racial hierarchies. This finding reframes the ethnic press as a central site where racial awareness and notions of “whiteness” were learned and negotiated, rather than passively absorbed. This insight advances existing historiography by linking migration history, the history of education and racial studies in a single analytical framework.
A second result lies in the expansion of the chronological and geographical boundaries of research on Italian migration in the South. By identifying and analysing previously unknown or underutilised newspapers, the project demonstrates that Italian editorial activity and cultural mediation began earlier than commonly assumed and operated across state boundaries. The evidence reveals a dense network of cultural and editorial exchange among Italian communities in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee, challenging city-based or state-based interpretations and supporting a regional perspective that has been largely absent from the literature.
The project also advances the state of the art through its methodological integration of archival research and digital humanities. By transforming fragile and dispersed newspapers into a structured, searchable digital corpus, the project enables new forms of comparative and longitudinal analysis that were not previously possible. This digital foundation supports transparency, reproducibility and future scholarly reuse, thereby extending the impact of the results beyond the project’s immediate objectives.
In terms of potential impact and further uptake, the results point to several key needs. Further research can build on the expanded corpus to explore comparative cases across other migrant groups and regions. The digital infrastructure created by the project provides a scalable model that can be extended to additional collections and integrated into teaching and research environments. Ensuring long-term accessibility and sustainability of digitised sources remains essential for maximising scholarly and educational impact.
Overall, the project’s results offer a more nuanced understanding of how migration, education and race intersect historically. In addition, they provide both conceptual tools and empirical foundations for future research addressing issues of identity, inclusion and cultural transmission.