30 April - 1 May 2026, University of Cambridge
Cambridge Intesa Sanpaolo Annual Conference
Convenors: Erica Bellia and Robert Gordon (Italian, MMLL, Cambridge)
Day 1: Thu 30 April
Performances
Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio (Faculty of English, Sidgwick Site)
14:45-15: Welcome & Introduction
15-16: Performance Mining Memories, Digging Words
(Elisa Biagini, David Cain, Marta Gentilucci)
16-16:30: Tea & coffee
16:30-18: Book discussion & music
Giulio Carlo Pantalei, Una lingua per cantare. Gli scrittori italiani e la musica leggera (Einaudi, 2025)
[Please note that the Drama Studio is in the basement.
There is a lift but please do get in touch if you have any concerns about accessibility]
Day 2: Fri 1 May
Conference
Room SG2, Alison Richard Building (Sidgwick Site) & online
9-11: Panel 1 | Bodies at work, voices at work
Rachel Love
Giovanna Daffini’s Labour in Song
Rachel Haworth
La Biblioteca di Studio Uno (1964) and the Unseen Labour of Bringing
Literature and Music to the Italian Small Screen
Silvia Garzarella
“Practical Instructions” for Poetry and Dance:
Machinic Composition in the Work of Nanni Balestrini
and Valeria Magli
Elisa Biagini and Marta Gentilucci
Exploring Mines, Collecting Memories
11-11:30: Tea & coffee
11:30-12:30: Keynote Lecture
Alessandro Portelli
Roma forestiera. Migrant Music as the New Folk Music of Italy
12:30-14: Lunch break
14-15:30: Panel 2 | Experimenting within and beyond the factory
Jonathan Impett
Music and Class – The Naïve and the Sublime
Olivier Tonneau
Music, Work and Transgression : Christophe Dejours and the
New Italian Musical School
Ilaria Favretto and Nico Pizzolato
Towards an Auditory History of the Factory:
Sonic Experience and Struggle on the Shopfloor
15:30-16: Tea & coffee
16-18: Panel 3 | Material and immaterial archives within and beyond Italy
Salvatore Morra
Foreboding in the Song “Tripoli 1969” as Italian Refugees
Jacopo Tomatis
The Atlas of Antagonist Discography. Italy: 1958-1980
Ed Emery
Understanding my Record Collection:
Italian Political Vinyl of the 1960s and ‘70s
Erica Bellia
Fabbrica––Foresta:
Notes on Work from Nono's Archive
Festa (details to be confirmed)
The event is free of charge and open to all, but please let us know if you plan to attend one or both days in person by registering here:
- Day 1 (30 Apr): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1984477104440?aff=oddtdtcreator
- Day 2 (1 May): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1984608538563?aff=oddtdtcreator
The conference (day 2) can also be attended remotely via Zoom. Please contact theconvenors if you would like to receive the Zoom link.
Bursaries of up to £100 may be made available to unwaged and postgraduate delegates who are not based in Cambridge. Please get in touch by 1 April if you would like to be considered: Erica Bellia (eb692@cam.ac.uk) and Robert Gordon (rscg1@cam.ac.uk)
These events are generously sponsored by the Cambridge Intesa Sanpaolo Fund, ASMI (Association for the Study of Modern Italy) and the Gulbenkian Early-Career Research Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities at Churchill College. They are organised in collaboration with OBERT (Observatoire Européen des Récits du Travail / European Observatory of Labour Narratives).