Our podcasts series examines how women’s history and creativity are narrated today.
Podcast
At a time when many more publications on women authors and women’s history are becoming available we ask what methodologies are being used. Are we witnessing a structural change in the narrative of the present and past? Or is the focus given to women a mere adjustment not able to create sustainable changes for the future?
The project is curated by Dr Patrizia Sambuco.
How to narrate women’s history today
An Interview with Prof Silvia Salvatici
Prof Silvia Salvatici (University of Florence) in conversation with Dr Patrizia Sambuco (Dundee) discusses her recent edited volume and the methodology to narrate women’s history today.
Topics discussed:
- interdisciplinarity as a crucial methodology for women’s history
- long-period approach to revisit traditional chronology
- global history to rewrite national history and gendered history
- transnational, national, local, and domestic levels to better capture gendered history
Women Photographers
An Interview with Donata Pizzi
Photographer and collector Donata Pizzi in conversation with Patrizia Sambuco discusses the works and history of Italian women photographers.
Her private collection (Collezione Donata Pizzi) combines photos of more than 90 Italian women photographers from 1965 to the present day. She has collaborated with the Association for the Study of Modern Italy for the Through the Female Gaze exhibitions curated by Maria Chiara Di Trapani and coordinated by Prof Ilaria Favretto (Kingston University) and Dr Nico Pizzolato (Middlesex University).
Points discussed:
- network of women photographers and editors
- reasons for the timeframe of the collection
- political aspects of the collection
- reportage vs abstract photography
The history of women’s Resistance
An interview with Benedetta Tobagi
Writer and historian Benedetta Tobagi in conversation with Patrizia Sambuco discusses her book La Resistenza delle donne (Einaudi 2022), awarded the Campiello prize in 2023.
A specialist of political terrorism, Benedetta Tobagi has published several books on stragismo. Her publications include: Come mi batte forte il cuore. Storia di mio padre (Einaudi 2009 e 2011), Una stella incoronata di buio. Storia di una strage (Einaudi 2013 e 2019), La scuola salvata dai bambini. Viaggio nelle classi senza confini (Rizzoli, 2016), Piazza Fontana. Il processo impossibile (Einaudi 2019), Segreti e lacune. Le stragi tra servizi segreti, magistratura e governo (Einaudi 2023), Le stragi sono tutte un mistero (Laterza, 2024).
La Resistenza delle donne is her first book on women’s history.
Topics discussed:
- Interest in writing about a genealogy of women
- A coral narration but also a specific focus on individual stories of women of all social classes
- Photographs as a narrative tool
- Non-fiction narrative to keep together national history and personal history
- The complexity of Italian women’s Resistance
- Women’s Resistance activities were fundamental to making Italian Resistance possible
Narrative podcast curated by Benedetta Tobagi for Intesa San Paolo:
Sound archive of war experiences narrated by Resistance women
