With this research, I aimed to go beyond entrenched national, hierarchical, state-centric, and gender normative interpretations.
Rather than following the traditional comparative and parallel approach between state models of transition, I focused on a transnational analysis of border areas within the Alps-Adriatic macro-region. In doing so, I shifted attention from states and well-defined national societies to borderlands and border societies, considering borders both as dividing lines and porous spaces of crossing and mutual exchange. My transnational microhistorical approach revealed significant continuities with the Habsburg era and challenged nation-centred views of post-Habsburg transitions. Using an interdisciplinary framework, I examined local-level activities, including medical and psychiatric practices, as well as the lived experiences of border populations, who often continued to seek cross-border health services despite geopolitical fragmentation. At the same time, I explored the severe impact of innovations brutally imposed by new political regimes, such as Italian fascism in the former Habsburg areas of the Upper Adriatic.
Based on numerous documents from Italian, Slovenian, and Austrian archives, I reconsidered the concept of “biopolitics”, which is often overused in literature to explain historical processes related to physical and mental health. While applicable in some contexts, “biopolitics” did not function in an absolute or linear manner. Additionally, the concept remains centred on the state (and, by extension, the nation), portraying individuals as decentralised and passive subjects. In many cases, it failed to capture the complexity of interactions between local societies, individuals (the “patients”), and the authorities of the new states, prompting me to integrate other interpretative concepts from the interdisciplinary intersection of public health history, cultural and medical anthropology, and sociology. As a result, “public health” emerged as a broader space of interaction among various actors, rather than merely serving as a tool for state control, the implementation of state policies, or the imposition of identities. Local communities frequently demonstrated self-governance in their relations with central states, opting for unorthodox and plural medical practices beyond state-recognised medicine, thus positioning themselves as active participants in negotiations with the states. This revealed the limitations of the successor states and challenged traditional state-centric narratives.
In my research, I also examined the psychological impact of the First World War on local populations, focusing on the area of the former Isonzo front. By studying women’s hospitalisations in the newly Italian Province of Gorizia, I challenged the conventional focus on soldiers in wartime trauma, highlighting the significant physical and psychological damage endured by civilians, especially women. This approach questioned paternalistic, nationalistic narratives that marginalise the civilian and women experience in war.
