Marginal Cosmopolitans: Musical Representations of Italian Jewish Identity
Jews have lived in the Italian Peninsula since Roman times, thus before the advent of Christianity, and have participated in many aspects of its culture. Originating in the global diaspora, Italian Jewish culture is equally rooted in Italy's history. In this lecture, Prof. Francesco Spagnolo (UC Berkeley) explores the many dimensions of the cultural identity of the Jews of Italy in the modern period. By combining musical sources (manuscripts and archival recordings) with visual and literary testimonies, the talk will explore the hyper-local, regional, national, and global dimensions of the Italian Jewish experience. Particular attention will be paid to the formation of Jewish ghettos inside Italy's cities, large and small, since the 16th century, and to the Emancipation of the Jews in the 19th century when the Jewish minority achieved full civil rights in the midst of the Risorgimento and Italian unification and independence.
Wednesday, 30 January 2019, 6pm
Arts 1 Building 206 Humanities Room 220
Free Entry
Francesco Spagnolo is a multidisciplinary scholar focusing on Jewish studies, music, and digital media. At the University of California, Berkeley, he is the Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Music. He is also an affiliated faculty with the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Institute of European Studies, the Religious Diversity Cluster of the Haas Institute, and serves on the Digital Humanities Council.
Intersecting textual, visual and musical cultures, he actively contributes to academic and cultural heritage institutions, as well as live and electronic media, in Europe, Israel, and the United States. Hepublishes on topics ranging from music to philosophy, film, and literature, and curates exhibitions and digital programs.
As a scholar, his research interests center on the intersections of music and synagogue life, particularly among Italian Jews, an arena in which Ashkenazi and Sephardic liturgical and popular musical traditions have historically come together in unique ways. As a curator, his focus is on the performative aspects of Jewish material cultures and creative expressions across the global diaspora. Where his scholarly and curatorial work meet is in asking a variety of questions about the nature of (Jewish) cultural heritage, and the role of synagogues, archives, and museums (including their respective "rituals" and performative settings) as communal institutions in the modern period.
