Anti-Southern Racism and Education in Post-War Italy

In this seminar, De Michele will present her recent book Anti-Southern Racism and Education in Post-War Italy (Routledge, 2023). This book investigates the racism against Southern Italian children attending North-Western primary schools between the 1950s and the 1970s. Turin serves as the main case study, having become the "third Southern city" after Naples and Palermo during the considered period.

Far from being a new phenomenon, racism against Southern Italians gained renewed prominence in the context of the post-war mass internal migrations, becoming one of the pillars of the process of nation-rebuilding. However, in spite of its relevance, it has not received the attention it deserves.
By drawing on a wide range of sources – printed, archival, photographic, and oral – and situating itself at the intersection of the history of racism, of education, of psychiatry, and of psychology, the book aims to fill this gap and to add to the debate on the borders that nation-states establish to control the access to power of the different groups inhabiting their territories. Its interdisciplinarity makes it suitable for students and researchers across a variety of subject areas.


Grazia De Michele is a Knapp Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). She obtained her first PhD from the University of Reading (UK) in 2013. Recently, she successfully completed her second PhD at the University of Genoa (Italy). De Michele is a member of the Centre for the History of Racism and Anti-Racism in Modern Italy (CENTRA).