Researching Italian Youth History between popular culture, subcultural identity and impegno

This seminar will explore various approaches to researching the history of Italian youth, starting from two recently published monographs on the subject: Cecilia Brioni’s Fashioning Italian Youth: Young People's Identity and Style in Italian Popular Culture, 1958-75 (Manchester University Press, 2023) and Alessia Masini’s Siamo nati da soli: Punk, Rock e Politica in Italia e in Gran Bretagna (1977-1984) (Pacini, 2019). Drawing on their respective approaches, the two authors will discuss key aspects of Italian youth cultures, including the relationship between mainstream culture and youth subcultures, the transnational dynamics shaping a ‘youth’ identity in Italy, elements of identification for young people such as style, music, “revolution” and impegno [political engagement], and questions of periodisation. Additionally, the discussion will touch on the relationship between youth history and mainstream history in the Italian context, as well as consider the future direction of this area of study. 

Cecilia Brioni is a Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen. Her research explores how representations of bodily practices and style in popular culture have shaped ideas around age, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in Italy. In particular, she has focused on representations and self-representations of Italian youth in the 20th and 21st centuries across various popular media, including film, television, popular press, and social media. Her most recent publications include the monograph Fashioning Italian Youth: Young People's Style and Identity in Italian Popular Media, 1958-75 (Manchester University Press, 2023), which won the 2023 American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize for First Book.

Alessia Masini is Research Fellow at the University of Turin, where she is working on the PRIN project ‘Atlas of the Antagonist Discography in Italy 1958-1980’. Her research focuses on popular music, the history of youth and social movements, European political and social history between the 1960s and the 1980s, and the cultural history of the Left and the Italian Communist Party after WW2. Beyond academia, she is part of the Public History project ‘Vanloon’ broadcast by Radio Città Fujiko (Bologna) and has contributed to TV and radio programmes by RAI Storia and Radio Tre. She wrote Siamo nati da soli: punk, rock e politica in Italia e in Gran Bretagna, 1977-1984 (Pacini, 2019), which was reprinted in 2024.