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| Society for Italian Historical Studies | |
|---|---|
| Name | Society for Italian Historical Studies |
| Formation | 20th century |
| Purpose | Historical research and promotion of Italian studies |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Region served | International |
| Language | English, Italian |
| Leader title | President |
Society for Italian Historical Studies The Society for Italian Historical Studies is a scholarly association dedicated to the study of modern and premodern Italy and Italian-related topics, connecting specialists in Renaissance, Counter-Reformation, Italian unification, Risorgimento, Fascism and related fields. Founded by scholars active in American institutions such as Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Yale University and Princeton University, the Society serves as a nexus among historians working on subjects ranging from Medici and Borgia families to twentieth-century figures like Benito Mussolini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and Vittorio Emanuele II.
The organization emerged in the late twentieth century amid growing interest in Italian studies fostered by conferences at Institute for Advanced Study, symposia at Villa I Tatti, and collaborations among centers including Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress, with early membership drawing from faculty at University of California, Berkeley, Rutgers University, Brown University, Northwestern University and Duke University. Founding moments echoed debates over interpretations of Italian Renaissance historiography influenced by scholars of Niccolò Machiavelli, Girolamo Savonarola, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti as well as analysts of World War II and Cold War Italy. Over decades the Society responded to shifts caused by archival access in repositories such as the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Vatican Secret Archives, Archivio Centrale dello Stato and new editions of sources including the Letters of Galileo Galilei and diplomatic papers on the Congress of Vienna.
The Society promotes research on topics spanning Early Modern Italy, Baroque culture, Napoleonic Wars, Italian-American migration, and comparative studies linking France and Spain to the Italian peninsula, encouraging work on figures such as Gioachino Rossini, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, Petrarch and Alessandro Manzoni. Activities include sponsoring panels on themes from Italian Fascist Party studies to investigations of the Italian Republic, organizing workshops tied to collections at institutions like Getty Research Institute, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and launching collaborative projects with museums such as the Uffizi Gallery and Galleria Borghese.
Membership comprises tenure-track historians, emeriti, independent scholars, graduate students and curators affiliated with universities including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Toronto, Sapienza University of Rome and Università di Bologna. Governance is typically by an elected board with officers drawn from departments of History at places like London School of Economics and research centers such as Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies; committees oversee nominations, program planning, and editorial direction, liaising with societies like the American Historical Association, Modern Language Association, Italian Cultural Institute and the European History Association.
The Society oversees peer-reviewed outlets, edited volumes, and newsletters that disseminate scholarship on figures like Giovanni Gentile, Antonio Gramsci, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and texts such as The Prince and The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi). Its publication program often features special issues on archival discoveries from the Archivio di Stato di Roma or new documentary editions relating to the Treaty of Campo Formio and the Treaty of Versailles (1919–1920), and collaborates with university presses including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Harvard University Press, Princeton University Press and Routledge to produce monographs and source collections.
Annual meetings are held in conjunction with major academic gatherings at venues such as American Historical Association conferences, panels at Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, and satellite workshops hosted by the Johns Hopkins University and Brown University Pembroke Center. The Society has convened symposia on topics from the Italian Wars and Thirty Years' War to twentieth-century studies of Partito Comunista Italiano and transnational projects involving Migration archives and oral history projects tied to immigrant communities in New York City, Buenos Aires, Toronto and Sydney.
The Society adjudicates prizes for best book, best article, and graduate dissertation, recognizing work on subjects like Renaissance humanism, Counter-Reformation papacy, Catholic Reformation, and studies of cultural figures including Giuseppe Verdi, Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco and Primo Levi. Grant programs fund archival research in repositories such as the Vatican Apostolic Library and support fellowships at centers like Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and research stays at the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento.
The Society maintains formal relationships with academic presses, research institutes, and cultural institutions including the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani, Istituto Luigi Sturzo, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, and international partners such as Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, and the European Research Council. Collaborative projects have linked scholars working on the Medieval period to colleagues studying Modern Italy and resulted in joint grants with organizations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Science Research Council.
Category:Historical societies Category:Italian studies