Dr Marzia Maccaferri, BA + MA, Bologna; PhD, Bologna-LUISS Rome

Profile

Prior to joining Queen Mary, I taught at Goldsmiths (University of London), LUISS-Rome, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, University of Bologna.

I completed a PhD in Political History at the University of Bologna in 2005; at Queen Mary I am doing a second PhD on the reception and resemioticisation of Antonio Gramsci’s Notebooks into British Marxism and political discourse.

Teaching

POL110

POL263

Research

Research Interests:

My research interests include:

• Transnational European intellectual history, especially 1970s and 1980s Left and Marxist European intellectual discourse
• Gramsci’s transnational reception (Britain, France and Spain)
• Historical Discourse Analysis in relation to political cultures and populist studies, especially Italian populism and Brexit
• Comparative Italian and British contemporary political history, especially post Second World War political transformations

I am currently completing a second PhD entitled Intellectual and political discourse of Marxism Today (1977-1991). A transnational perspective.

Examples of research funding:

Travel Grant, UACES (2022)

PGR Fund and Award, Queen Mary (2019-2022)

Royal Historical Society (2020)                               

Early Career Research grant, Goldsmiths (2018)               

Postdoc Research Fellowship, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (2010-12)                      

Publications

Journal Articles

‘The UK, the EU and Covid-19: Media Reporting, the Recontextualization of Eurosceptic Discourse, and the fait accompli of Brexit.’ With Paul Copeland. Politics.(2022). doi:10.1177/02633957221122322. 

‘Reclaiming Gramsci’s Historicity. A Critical Reading of the British Appropriation in Light of the Crisis of Democracy.’ Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory Constellations (2022): doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12614

‘From “Old” to “New” Politics: the Politicisation of the Environment in Left-Wing British Intellectual Discourse (1970s-1980s).’ European History Quarterly. 52, 3 (2022): 401-417. doi:10.1177/02656914221103165

‘Populism and Italy: a theoretical and epistemological conundrum.’ Modern Italy. 27, 1 (2022): 5-17. doi:10.1017/mit.2021.66    

From performative anti-fascism to post-fascism: the Lega (Nord)’s political discourse in historical context. Journal of Political Ideologies. (2022) doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2022.2138296

‘The Delegitimation of Europe in a Pro-European Country: “Sovranismo” and Populism in the Political Discourse of Matteo Salvini’s Lega.’ Journal of Language and Politics. 23 (2022): 277-299. doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21066.mac

‘Euroscepticism between populism and technocracy: the case of Italian Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle.’ JCER. Journal of Contemporary European Research. 17: 2 (2019): 239-257 doi.org/10.30950/jcer.v17i2.1184.

‘At the origins of the Political Discourse of the 5-Star Movement (M5S): Internet, the utopia of direct democracy, and the “future of the past”.’ Internet Histories, (2019) doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2018.1457295. 

‘The English Way to Italian Socialism: The PCI, ‘Red Bologna’ and Italian Communist Culture as Seen through the English Prism.’ Modern Languages Open. 1: 4 (2018): 1–14. doi.org/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.172.  

Edited Journals

‘New issues, old political cultures: politicising environment in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s’, edited by Marzia Maccaferri and Lucia Bonfreschi, European History Quarterly, 52, 3 (2022), special issue with intervention of Melanie Arndt, Philippe Buton, Stephen Milder.

‘Promised Land of Populism? ‘Populist’ Culture and Politics in Italy, 1800-2019’, edited by Marzia Maccaferri and Andrea Mammone, Modern Italy, 27, 1 (2022), special issue with intervention of Laura Cerasi, Federico Finchelstein, Enrico Serventi Longhi, Gianluca Fantoni.

Book Chapters

“The East and the Rest: British Marxist Intellectuals” Refashioning of the European Idea at the End of the Cold War,’ in Europe and the East: Self and Other in the History of the European Idea, eds Jan Vermeiren and Mark Hewitson, Routledge (2023).

‘Splendid Isolation Again? Brexit and the Role of the Press and Online Media in Re-narrating the European Discourse.’ in ‘Brexit’ as a Social and Political Crisis. Discourses in Media and Politics, eds Franco Zappettini and Michal Krzyzanowski, London: Routledge 2021.

‘Il referendum costituzionale visto dalla Gran Bretagna fra propaganda politica e cambio istituzionale.’ in 2 giugno. Nascita, storia e memorie della Repubblica 4. L’Italia del 1946 vista dall’Europa, a cura di Patrizia Dogliani e Valeria Galimi, Roma: Viella 2020.

Blog (recent)

‘How Gramsci went global.’ Tribune, 30.11.2021

‘Bloody Sunday: 50 anni fa il massacro che infiammò l’Irlanda del Nord.’ Micromega, 28.1.2022.

‘Can the left really stop Salvini?’ with Andrea Mammone, Social Europe, Politics, Economy and Employment & Labour, 24.2.2020.

‘Splendid Isolation (Again): Europe as Narrated During the Brexit Referendum Campaign,’ LSE Brexit blog, 16.10.2019.

Public Engagement

Co-Convenor for ‘Conversations with Gramsci’, Italian Cultural Institute (London)          

Trustee and Treasurer (2015-2021) for ASMI-Association for the Study of Modern Italy