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. Rarely have the memories by Italian repatriates from Libya been made the object of social interest and/or academic scrutiny.

Mapping Difficult Stories (MiDSt) aims at creating an interdisciplinary model of exploration, visualisation and interpretation of the “difficult heritage” represented by Italian postcolonial repatriations. More concretely, MiDSt takes, as a case study, the performances of memories by Italian women who repatriated from Libya to Italy during the second half of the 20^th century (and in particular in 1970).

By adopting creative forms of data analysis and visualisation, the goal is a) to reassess processes of citizenship and belonging; b) to rethink interpretative paradigms; c) to explore transmission of disrupted memories. This should provide – in European policies terms – “a richer understanding of the past,” which – in its turn “may contribute to changing the debate on migration in European societies, opening new opportunities for a successful integration of migrants.”

GLOBAL_AT_VENICE – Research and training for Global Challenges” Marie Skłodowska-Curie – COFUND Fellowship, P.I., Ca’ Foscari University of Venice : DECLINED