Seton Hall Welcomes Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow From the European Commission

Seton Hall University is delighted to welcome Matteo Brera, Ph.D., as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Research Fellow holding a three-year personal grant funded by the European Commission.

Brera’s research project is titled "A Darker Shade of Whiteness: The Italian Ethnic Press in Louisiana and the Making of Racial Awareness in The Gulf South" (1877-1945). Focusing on both the study and preservation of important Italian language ethnic newspapers, such as La Voce Coloniale (New Orleans, circa 1881-circa 1955), L’Italo-Americano (New Orleans, 1884-circa 1920) and II Gladiatore (Birmingham, AL, circa 1921-circa 1938), the project promotes a comprehensive framing of the Italian diasporic presence in the racialized geographical, social and cultural context of the Gulf South.

At Seton Hall, Brera will work under the supervision of Professor William Connell, Ph.D., Department of History and La Motta Endowed Chair in Italian Studies, and he will liaise with the University Libraries and the Archives and Special Collections for the development of a digital database showcasing the invaluable archival documents he will gather (and discover) in the course of his research. In Italy his project is supervised by Professor Stefano Luconi of the University of Padua.

Brera is studying how Italians in Southern states negotiated their "whiteness" through the public discourse that emerges in yet understudied newspapers and periodicals. He aims to preserve and to make available through digital means otherwise perishable documents for the study of Italian immigration. He plans to create a fully searchable online newspaper collection and a bilingual interactive exhibition on the Italian migrant experience in the Gulf South.

The holder of multiple degrees from the universities of Pavia (Italy), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Utrecht (The Netherlands), he received his doctorate at Utrecht with a thesis on the cultural and political impact of the Index of Prohibited Books in the twentieth century. His first monograph – "Novecento all’Indice" (2016) – offers a historical overview of the policies (and politics) of Vatican book censorship, while shedding light for the first time on the multiple "trials" and bans that targeted the production of Gabriele d’Annunzio during the clash of powers between the Church of Pius XI and Mussolini’s regime. His other publications cover a wide range of topics, including the translation into Italian of English poetry (Shakespeare and Milton), Italian literature and Fascism, the literature of incarceration, and the history and literature of Italians in the United States and Canada.

Brera previously worked in the United Kingdom (Edinburgh University), in the Netherlands (Utrecht University), in Canada (University of Toronto, York University and Western University), and in the U.S., where he directed the Center for Italian Studies at Stony Brook University.

Brera will be a guest at Seton Hall until October 2025. He has a workspace in the Walsh Library (Carrel 354), and he looks forward to meeting with students and faculty. All who are interested are welcome to introduce themselves through email: [email protected] or by visiting the Italian Studies Office, Walsh Library, Room 324, (973) 275-2967.

Categories: Arts and Culture, Research