I never knew Chris Rea’s dad was Italian! Unclear how the family ended up in Middlesborough but they ran coffee bars and ice cream shops like so many of their compatriots in Britain. www.independent.co.uk/life-style/t...

There are FIVE MORE DAYS to get your abstract submissions in for our forthcoming conference on Food and Nutrition in Wartime in the Modern World! Based on submissions so far, there's fantastic research going on in the field and we're excited about bringing scholars together on this topic.

Italian cuisine has been awarded world heritage status by UNESCO. It is the first time that a national cuisine in its entirety has been added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Italy's greatest soft power weapon.

We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social 'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.

This is the kind of statistic that never cuts through into public debate, more’s the pity.

Are you working on literature and culture in the First World War? have you considered submitting to First World War Studies? meet our Associate Editor @afrayn.bsky.social who is keen to receive more submissions in these fields!

Funded PhD opportunities at QUB: 'Childcare provision in late twentieth-century Northern Ireland (1960s-1990s)' www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post...

An excellent PhD opportunity for someone to work on family separation during WW1 or WW2. I've done some research on Italian emigrant families separated when the father was serving in the Italian Army and it's a really fascinating area of study. royalhistsoc.org/calendar/phd...

Fascinating to see the impact of Catherine Connolly's Presidency already in terms of the visibility of the Irish language. I can't ever remember seeing RTE print several paragraphs in Irish in a news article (with English translations). Tús maith! www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

On 5 December, I'm organising a workshop entitled 'Exploring the health and wellbeing of Italian migrants in Britain today' feat. contributions from academics, psychologists & community groups. See full programme here. Free but booking required! www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

Every country should conduct their presidential elections as Ireland does.* That apple tart looks delicious. *(or, at the very least, should have elections to vote for a head of state).

This week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about my recent book Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War. If anyone has a commute they'd like to liven up with tales of war, take a listen! newbooksnetwork.com/emigrant-sol...

We are recruiting again. Come join the Trondheim team of BLOCKADE as a 4 year, fully funded postdoc in Modern Economic History - you'll be working with Prof. Jonas Scherner and in one of the most beautiful university towns in Europe (evidence from last visit below)! www.hsozkult.de/searching/id...

Earlier this week, I had a launch at UCL for my book Emigrant Soldiers. I was moved and grateful to see so many friends and colleagues show up to support me. Grazie a tutti. And to Heather Jones who did a wonderful job of contextualising the book (and driving sales!)

In dispatches from insane prices in central London, please say hello to the £12.75 sourdough loaf.

Very glad to have managed to see Thessaloniki in the sunshine after two days of rain! Interesting mix of Byzantine architecture, Roman ruins and container ships heading into the port! It’s been a great location for the First World War Studies conference with wonderful hospitality.

Was very sorry to miss the inaugural meeting of the new IHR Migration and Mobility seminar series (greetings from Greece!) but glad to see that it got off to such a cracking start. Looking forward to the rest of the events this year.

Very pleased to be officially beginning my Leverhulme Research Fellowship year at the International First World War Studies conference in (a rainy) Thessaloniki. Three days of talk about war at sea!

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the Danish newspaper Politken about the memory of Fascism in Italy today, inspired by the debut of Mussolini's great-grandson's in the Serie A (paywalled unfortunately). politiken.dk/internationa...

A great roundtable about how we teach and assess public history in UK universities today. I definitely agree that it’s easier to do public history if your specialism is the country in which you work. Trying to find the Italian angle for UK institutions is often a challenge!

This book by the excellent @selenadaly.bsky.social, published with @universitypress.cambridge.org, looks really interesting. Come celebrate its launch! @uclselcs.bsky.social, @artshumsucl.bsky.social

Please spread this far and wide! I’m on the convening team of this exciting new IHR seminar series and we are looking forward to hearing about all the cutting-edge research being done by ECRs across the country!

I’m en route to Oxford to present one of the keynotes at this conference on return migration to Italy. Alice Gussoni & Fanny Clemente have curated an excellent programme full of papers I’m excited to hear. It promises to be a stimulating couple of days! migration.web.ox.ac.uk/event/return...

Today is the first time in 10 years that I’m not about to start a new year of teaching as I’m starting a year-long Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. Strange not to be in the thick of induction but very grateful to have my first uninterrupted research time in a decade!

Registration closes 7 Sept. 35th Irish Conference of Historians, 12-13 Sept. @maynoothuniversity.ie Please share widely. @muahi.bsky.social @muresearch.bsky.social @mu-ssi.bsky.social @mulibrary.bsky.social @tlrhub.bsky.social @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social @qubhistory.bsky.social

Good morning! If you want to start your week listening to my thoughts on Mussolini, and why wouldn't you, you can hear me chat with Iain Dale on his Presidents, Prime Ministers, Monarchs and Dictators podcast here or wherever you usually find your podcasts podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...

Excited to be part of the convening team of this new IHR seminar on Migration and Mobility History. It’s a great team of colleagues from all career stages with a huge disciplinary, geographical and temporal range of expertise. Congrats to Kathleen for bringing us all together.

I’ve just been told that my book has its own little display in the window of the CUP bookshop in Cambridge! Not something i ever thought would happen! @universitypress.cambridge.org

It's officially publication day! Hooray! Thanks to all who helped me get Emigrant Soldiers out into the world. :-)

Very pleased to see this article appear in the July issue of @historytoday.com The article explores the clash between expectation and reality for Italy's emigrant soldiers when they returned to fight in the First World War. Pick up a copy of History Today to find out more!

The Italian author of this article has two unhappy children, a son in Dublin, a daughter in London. The son wishes the British would invade Ireland, though based on his sister's experience, the vegetables would still be tasteless & the climate certainly wouldn't improve www.ilpost.it/2025/06/07/c...

So excited to see this finally out in print! If you're interested in the global history of the First World War, in migration history, or in the many variants of Italian identity, you should pre-order this right away!

It exists! I finally got my unboxing moment today! A short article to introduce my book Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War. Available for pre-order now. www.linkedin.com/pulse/emigra...

Check out the call for papers for this exciting conference in beautiful Boulogne-sur-Mer in March next year on 'Women in War in France, Britain and Ireland'. It should be a fascinating event. femmescombattantes.univ-littoral.fr/en/call-for-...

Trying to find something Tajani (I think) said, after the new citizenship law for Italians abroad was passed in March, about the threat posed by the Italian diaspora of 80 million & the need to avoid all of them being able to claim citizenship. I can't find this anywhere now! Can anybody help me?

Amidst piles of marking, it was a pleasure yesterday and today to attend a workshop at Senate House on approaches to uncovering the afterlife of the Italian empire, featuring academics, artists, writers and curators. Lots of rich discussions and best practice examples.

On Monday, I welcomed 6 amazing scholars to London to discuss my trade book about the global history of Italian emigration. Grazie to @royalhistsoc.org for the funding and to @footymac.bsky.social @efbond.bsky.social @leol.bsky.social @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social Maddalena Tirabassi & Stefano Luconi

Very pleased to launch my new website with info about my publications, books and current projects. 👉 selenadaly.com

It's been 9 years in the making so I'm very excited that my book, Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War, now has a cover, a webpage and a publication date (June for online, July for print!). 🥳 A steal at only £35! www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Yes, mobility in the early months of the war has been hugely overlooked. In my book (out in July!), I write about the Italian refugee crisis in Aug-Sept 1914 when 500,000 Italian emigrants fled the war in France, Belgium and Germany. Looking forward to reading your book!

So many memories of being in St Peter’s square (and even receiving Communion) at the funeral of Pope John Paul II 20 years ago. We slept overnight in streets nearby to be assured of being in the piazza for the service. Unforgettable. RIP Francis.

A little travel tip from me about an anti-mafia walking tour in Palermo - Addiopizzo do a great job in supporting businesses who refuse to pay the 'pizzo' - protection money extorted by the mafia. www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Today in #AHAPerspectives, a few quick tips for historians getting started writing op-eds. 🗃️

Lovely to see Buzzati’s work in new English translations. I have a soft spot for him as I read him as a 2nd-year undergraduate in Italian and felt huge accomplishment when I figured out the language in his surreal stories for myself!

The contrast between these two poster campaigns marking 80 years since the fall of Fascism - one from the city of Rome, one from Meloni’s government - will both be making their way into my Memories of Fascism module!

📣Call for participants for oral history project! “Ito ang aming mga kwento”: building an oral history archive of Filipino migration to Britain, 1974-present 📜 👉Led by Francesca Humi (@francescahumi.bsky.social) 🌟Looking for interviewees & volunteers Read more: socialhistory.org.uk/shs_exchange...

Looking for people's favourite examples of historians exploring their own family history (e.g. Jablonka, History of the Grandparents I Never Had or Clair Wills's Missing Persons) or of historians who explicitly address their own positionality when writing academic works. Thank you!

Italy has the dubious honour of being the only country in Europe to have experienced temperatures both above 48 and below 48 degrees Celsius. 🥶🥵

Wow… Prepare for Confederate and Columbus statues to be re-erected across the US…

Never a huge amount in my case (maybe because most of my stuff is now open access?) but a nice little spring present nonetheless!