Imagining the Italian Colonial Empire

CYCLE: Lost Horizons
SPEAKER: Valeria Deplano (University of Cagliari)
DATE: October 20, 2025 - 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: VIVE - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, Sala del Refettorio (Palazzo Venezia)

Every colonial project needs imaginaries, ideas, sometimes dreams, capable of convincing both the soldiers who must carry it out and the civilian population who must support it from home. The lecture will illustrate how Italians learned to imagine Africa—even without ever seeing it—from the 19th century up to the establishment of the empire under Fascist Italy.

Valeria Deplano is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Cagliari. She specializes in the history of Italian colonialism, its cultural impact and its legacies in the present, as well as in post-colonial migrations and mobility.
Her publications include La Madrepatria è una terra straniera. Libici, eritrei e somali nell’Italia del dopoguerra (Le Monnier 2017) and Storia del colonialismo italiano. Politica, cultura e memoria dall’età liberale ai giorni nostri (with A. Pes, Mimesis 2024).

Free admission subject to availability.

Reservations at the following link.