Mapping Memories
Memories of who we are now, who we were, who we wanted to become, are wrapped up in memories of where we are, where we were, and where we will be (would like to be)
Jones and Garde-Hansen 2012: 4
About
Trained in languages and civilisations of the Mediterranean (modern Hebrew language and literature), as well as in social anthropology, I am interested in performances of memories and identities in the context of postcolonial migrations, in particular from the Middle East and North Africa region. I have a passion for stories and creative mapping, art-based research and co-creation. I am committed to study migrations in the past to better understand contemporary issues of borders and boundaries, human mobility, and multiple belongings.
Click here to download my curriculum vitae
More about me: https://independentscholar.academia.edu/PieraRossetto
Work
RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
GAM – Gender, Ageing and Migration. Memory and Jewish Masculinities from North Africa and the Middle East
How ageing and gender—notably the performance of masculinity—have shaped the process of identification of Jewish migrants from North Africa and the Middle East to Europe in contemporary time? Which patterns of community and the intergenerational transmission of (Jewish) masculinity models and migration trauma can we apprehend by this experience?
MiDSt – Mapping Difficult Stories
In the summer of 1970, almost 20,000 Italian nationals were expelled from Libya and “came back home” to Italy. There, they struggled to reconstruct their lives in patria, a “homeland” that received them with indifference, incredulity, if not suspicion and overt hostility. Fifty years later, this chapter of Italian colonial past remains largely invisible.
EIJM – Europe’s (In)Visible Jewish Migrants
In the wake of decolonisation movements, an impressive number of Europeans and non-Europeans were repatriated to Europe from former colonies, including North Africa. Despite the scale of this phenomenon, the impact that these return migrations had on migrants themselves and on host nations in Europe, remained until recently an “invisible” subject in academic literature as recalled by Andrea Smith [A. Smith (ed.), Europe’s Invisible Migrants, 2003]. Jews were also part of these mass migration movements.
Publications
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Rossetto P., “If the monument could speak: Jewish Italian imaginaries across the Mediterranean,” in Monzali L. and P. Soave (eds.), Italy and Libya. From Colonialism to the Special Relationship (1911-2011) [in press]
Rossetto P. (2022), “Mind the map: Charting unexplored territories of in-visible migrations,” Journal of Jewish Culture and History 23/2: 172-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/1462169X.2022.2062840
Rossetto P., Tartakowsky E. (eds.) (2021), The materialities of belonging: Objects in/of exile across the Mediterranean”, Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal ›mcsj›, issue 7 (pp. 194). https://unipub.uni-graz.at/mcsj/periodical/titleinfo/8082181
Rossetto P., Tartakowsky E. (eds.) (2021), “The materialities of belonging: Objects in/of exile across the Mediterranean. Introduction”, Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal ›mcsj›, issue 7: 7-16. https://unipub.uni-graz.at/mcsj/periodical/titleinfo/8083273
Rossetto P., Melilli M., (2021) “Mapping Memories, Charting Empathy. Framing a collaborative research-creation project”, From the European South 8: 145-151. [Creative Intervention] http://europeansouth.postcolonialitalia.it/journal/2021-8/FES8_10.MelilliRossetto.pdf
Rossetto P. (2021), “‘We Were all Italian!’: The Construction of a ‘sense of Italianness’ among Jews from Libya (1920s-1960s)”, History and Anthropology. DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2020.1848821
Rossetto P. (2020), “Review of The Holocaust and North Africa, eds. Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein”, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History. Journal of the Fondazione CDEC, n. 17: 234-240. DOI : 10.48248/issn.2037-741X/1863
Rossetto P. (2017), “Writings of Jews from Libya in Italy and Israel: between past legacies and present issues”, in Miccoli D. (ed), Contemporary Sephardic and Mizrahi Literature. A Diaspora, (London: Routledge Jewish Studies Series), 69-83. (ISBN 9781138233836)
Rossetto P. (2017), “Dwelling in contradictions: deep maps and the memories of Jews from Libya”, Ethnologies 39/2: 167-187. https://www.acef-fsac.ulaval.ca/sites/acef-fsac.ulaval.ca/files/private/12-rossetto.pdf
Rossetto P. (2017), “Composer les mémoires et recomposer les identités: être ‘juif de Libye’ à Rome”, Communications 100 : 41-55. (ISBN 9782021340600) https://www.persee.fr/doc/comm_0588-8018_2017_num_100_1_2825
Rossetto P. (2016), “On pensait revenir à la fin de l’été » : le départ des juifs de Libye en 1967, entre rupture et continuité”, Diasporas. Circulations, migrations, histoire, 27: 91-100. (ISBN 978-2-8107-0467-5) https://doi.org/10.4000/diasporas.450
Rossetto P. (2015), Memories of Diaspora, Diaspora of Memories. The Jews from Libya between Israel and Italy, from 1948 to present, [in French] PhD Dissertation (Venise et Toulouse : Université Ca’ Foscari and EHESS). (pp.371)
Rossetto P. (2015), “Note ai margini di una migrazione: donne ebree dalla Libia tra Israele e Italia”, in Chemotti S. and La Rocca M.C. (eds.), Il genere nella ricerca storica, Atti del VI Convegno della Società Italiana delle Storiche, (Padova: Il Poligrafo), 190-200. (ISBN 978-88-7115-847-1)
Rossetto P., Spadaro B. (2014), “Across Europe and the Mediterranean: Exploring Jewish Memories from Libya”, Annali di Ca’ Foscari 50: 37-52. (ISSN 1125-3789) http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-3042/3p
Rossetto P. (2014), “Juifs de Libye. Notes pour une «cartographie» des lieux migratoire”, Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo 16/1 : 87-99. (ISSN 2038-3215) (DOI: 10.7432/AAM160106) http://www.archivioantropologicomediterraneo.it/riviste/estratti_16-1/06.pdf
Rossetto P. (2013), “Displaying Relational Memory: Notes on Museums and Heritage Centres of the Libyan Jewish Community”, in Trevisan Semi E. et al. (eds.), Memory and Ethnicity: Ethnic Museums in Israel and the Diaspora, (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing), 77-95. (ISBN 1-4438-5252-X)
Trevisan Semi E., Rossetto P. (eds) (2012), “Memory and Forgetting among Jews from the Arab-Muslim Countries. Contested Narratives of a Shared Past”, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History 4. (ISSN: 2037-741X) [pp.180] https://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/?issue=04
Rossetto P. (2012), “Memory and Forgetting among Jews from the Arab-Muslim Countries. Contested Narratives of a Shared Past”, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History 4: 6-14. (ISSN: 2037-741X) DOI : 10.48248/issn.2037-741X/19
Rossetto P. (2012), “Space of Transit, Place of Memory: Ma’abarah and Literary Landscapes of Arab Jews”, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History 4: 103-127. (ISSN: 2037-741X) DOI : 10.48248/issn.2037-741X/797
Rossetto P. (2011), “Coltivare il margine. Defiant gardens e campi di transito”, Lo Squaderno 20: 25-28. (ISSN 1973-9141) http://www.losquaderno.net/?cat=153
Rossetto P. (2011), In Transit: History, Memory and Narrative Places of Arab Jews (1948-1956) [in Italian], MA thesis, (Venice: Ca’ Foscari University). (pp.140)
Rossetto P. (2008), Storm among the Palm trees. Notes on the History and Identity of Iraqi Jews: Sami Michael a Witness [in Italian], BA thesis (Venice: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). (pp.89)
RESEARCH-CREATION & SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
2022
“A Map of Words”, Audio-documentary by Martina Melilli (Original idea & texts), Botafuego (Production & Sound design) and Piera Rossetto (Scientific advice & texts)
“Mapping Roots, Charting Routes. Jewish Migrations from North Africa and the Middle East to Milan (1940s-1970s)”, Digital Visualization by Piera Rossetto (Original idea & scientific data elaboration), Sara Radice (User experience & interface design) and Fabio Sturaro (Software design & development) https://www.cdec.it/mappingroots/
2020
“Ze hayah be-leil Shabbat – The eve of the Shabbat.” Creative map based on the lifestory of Ms. R. Messika. Martina Melilli (Art direction and Texts), Michela Nanut (Graphic design and illustrations), Piera Rossetto (Scientific advice).
“Digital visualisation based on the Storyboard of R. Abravanel by Martina Melilli,” Piera Rossetto (scientific advice), Verena Resch (Graphic design),
“Storyboard of Ms. R. Abravanel.” Martina Melilli (Art direction), Piera Rossetto (scientific advice).
See: https://memories.hypotheses.org/creative-mapping
2019
Academic Blog “Be-longing. Roots, Routes, and Memories Across the Mediterrenean”, https://memories.hypotheses.org/
News
Mind the Map
Visibility and invisibility represent crucial categories of analysis in migration studies. However, the multiple manifestations of in-visibility can make it difficult to precisely define them. This article suggests reconsidering these categories not so much in [...]