Adriatic Perspectives: Memory and Identity on a Transnational European Periphery

Project Information

ADRIA

Grant agreement ID: 655609

DOI

10.3030/655609

Project closed

EC signature date 20 April 2015

Start date 1 February 2016

End date 29 January 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 172 477,20

EU contribution

€ 172 477,20

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ADRIA (Adriatic Perspectives: Memory and Identity on a Transnational European Periphery)

Reporting period: 2016-02-01 to 2018-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project Adriatic Perspectives: Memory and Identity on a Transnational European Periphery has analysed the construction of identities and territorial belongings through the examination of the monumental landscape. It concentrated on selected monuments and the built environment in the historical region of the northern Adriatic that today is shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. The links between historical memory and modern forms of identification are most complex and unstable in ethnically mixed regions with a long record of political and symbolic border shifts. These questions represent one of the pivotal debates in European society, that is, how to better understand the history and meaning of Europe. Even as European integration has progressed in commercial, financial, and political terms, the member-states of the European Union continue to educate their citizens based on national narratives dating from the nineteenth century. After successful enlargements over the past two decades, the EU is now home to an astonishing variety of national cultures of remembrance. Therefore, this project combined the tools of different disciplines in order to understand how the politics of memory are formed, intertwined and overlapped in transnational areas. Thus, it revealed the impact of these politics on local forms of remembrance and how they relate to State, regional, local and transnational actors.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Initially, I have analysed collective memories in this region from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present by investigating the memory landscapes of three northern Adriatic port-cities: Trieste/Trst in Italy, Koper/Capodistria in Slovenia, and Rijeka/Fiume in Croatia. The first phase was aimed at familiarize with the relevant secondary literature, while the second phase was mostly dedicated to archival research. The first results have revealed the inadequacy of a strict urban perspective. Therefore, I have enlarged my analytical approach, to include a larger portion of the region which includes urban and non-urban or semi-urban areas. Especially in an area where historiography has often adopted strict ethnic and territorial divisions, this vision demonstrates the fruitfulness of an entangled approach. Thus, I have approached local cultures of remembrance and national politics of memory from a comparative and transnational perspective. In terms of content I have concentrated mainly on three subgroups of memory sites linked to three different historical moments: Imperial Sites of Memory, Sites of Memory of World War I and Sites of Memory of World War II.
Methodologically I have linked memory and border studies which proved to be especially useful. The continuous territorial rearrangements and national affiliations of the northern Adriatic throughout the twentieth century and the constant change of its population revealed the necessity to revisit traditional methodological frameworks. This precarious institutional setting throughout the twentieth century produced an overlapping of collective identifications, individual memories, invented traditions and contrasting symbols that shaped the local memoryscapes. I have collected these data especially through archival material and primary literature related to personal memories. Giving voice to these memories has shown continuities and ruptures of remembering as well as forgetting by different groups and individuals.
These results have been included in my book (Borderlands of Memory, Peter Lang, Oxford, 2019), articles and book chapters. Special emphasis was dedicated to the dissemination of my work at international workshops and conferences (Memory studies association, Madrid 2019, Association for Borderlands Studies World Conference, Vienna/Budapest 2018, etc.), seminars (South-East European Studies Seminar at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London 2018, etc.) and talks (EUI Florence 2017, TUFS Tokyo 2018) in the region (Koper, Trieste, Rijeka, Pula, Zadar) and outside it (Rome, Padua, Genoa, Washington, Göttingen, Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo). However, following the trend of public history, particular attention was given to non-academic public; therefore, I have participated in the education of schoolteachers and in several roundtables organized by NGO’s and cultural associations. Moreover, I’ve presented my work on radio, TV and local newspapers in both, Italy and Slovenia. Thus, I've disseminated the results of my work in the academic sphere and among the general public.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Along with ongoing demographic reconfiguration, the local population experienced various different regimes and changing political symbols. This produced not only feelings of a distant, often mythologized and dreamed past, but resulted also in various types of social agency in the present. Furthermore, the research has shown that identifications do not necessarily coincide with changes in political regimes and territorial affiliations. The versatility of symbols in this politically unstable borderland revealed how supposed collective identities, in fact, have to negotiate with different spheres of identification, which opens new questions about feelings of belonging, nationality and the symbols used to invoke them. These findings show how past reminiscences touch not only on realms of memory but represent or wish to represent concrete and on-going political resources, which represents the main progress beyond the state of the art.
With these results I have contributed to a more nuanced and complex understanding of the region and of the European past in general. My approach was intentionally inclusive and aimed at involving a large and differentiated population in terms of age, gender, nationality, citizenship, scale of schooling etc. Moreover, I used a multilingual approach to present my work, which contributed to maximize the social impact of the project results.
From a professional point of view my work at the host institution proved to be especially fruitful. I have increased my historical expertise, my research and language skills, and enlarge my professional network, which will have long-term effects on my integration in the international scientific community. Moreover, a continuous cooperation has been established with my tutor, which will continue also at my home institution after the end of the project. This will ensure a long-term impact of the project even in structural terms.

Tokyoseminar2018