Publications

Books

I comunisti italiani tra Hollywood e Mosca: la sfida della cultura di massa (1943-1991) Giunti, Florence, 1995 (pp.572); English edition (revised and abridged): Between Hollywood and Moscow: The Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91 Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2000 (pp.270)

The Glamour System Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2006 (pp.211) with Clino T. Castelli (75% authored by Gundle)

Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the Cold War Indiana University Press, Bloomington Indiana, 2007; With David Forgacs (50% authored by Gundle); Italian edition published by Il Mulino in 2007.

Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007 (pp.301); Italian edition published by Laterza, 2007; second edition paperback, 2009

Glamour: A History Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008; second edition, paperback 2009 (pp.472).

Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s Canongate, London, 2011 (pp.380). Spanish (Seix Barral) and Italian (Rizzoli) editions were published 2012.

Mussolini’s Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford, 2013 (pp.336)

Fame amid the Ruins: Italian Film Stardom in the Age of Neorealism Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford, 2020 (pp.370)

Edited works

The New Italian Republic: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi Routledge, London, 1995, co-edited with Simon Parker

‘Charisma and the Cult of Personality in Modern Italy’, special issue of Modern Italy, 3:2, 1998 co-edited with Lucy Riall

Assassinations and Murder in Modern Italy: Transformations in Society and Culture, Palgrave, New York, 2007 co-edited with Lucia Rinaldi

Against Mussolini: Art and the Fall of a Dictator Estorick Collection of Modern Art, London, 2010, exhibition catalogue co-edited with Roberta Cremoncini and others

The Cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2013, co-edited with Christopher Duggan and Giuliana Pieri

‘The Cult of Mussolini in 20th Century Italy’, special issue of Modern Italy, 18:1, 2013 co-edited with Christopher Duggan and Giuliana Pieri

‘Rome Open City: Rupture and Return’ special issue of Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 6:3, 2017 co-edited with Louis Bayman and Karl Schoonover

‘Practices and Contexts of the Italian Film Industry’, special issue of Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 40:1, 2020, co-edited with Karl Schoonover and Stefano Baschiera

'Divismo e cultura visuale nella prima meta' del Novecento', monographic issue of Storia e problemi contemporanei 88 (2021), co-edited with Barbara Montesi

Paul Ginsborg and the Historiography of Modern Italy, Palgrave, London 2024, co-edited with john Foot

Book chapters

'Class Politics and the Italian Left', in Neville Woodhead (ed.), Politics and Class, Hesketh, Ormskirk and Northridge, California 1985, pp.85-103

'Urban Dreams and Metropolitan Nightmares: Models and Crises of Communist Local Government in Italy', in Bogdan Szajkowski (ed.), Marxist Local Government in Western Europe and Japan, Frances Pinter, London 1986, pp. 66-95

'The Communist Party and the Politics of Cultural Change in Post‑War Italy 1945 ‑ 1950', in Nicholas Hewitt (ed.), The Culture of Reconstruction: European Literature, Thought and Film in the Years 1945 ‑ 1950, Macmillan, London 1989, pp.12-36

'From Neorealism to Luci rosse: Cinema, Politics, Society 1945 ‑ 85' in Zygmunt Baranski and Robert Lumley (eds.), Culture and Conflict in Postwar Italy: Essays on Mass and Popular Culture, Macmillan, London 1990, pp.195-224

'Cultura di massa e modernizzazione: Vie Nuove e Famiglia Cristiana dalla guerra fredda alla società dei consumi', in Pier Paolo D'Attorre (ed.), Nemici per la pelle: sogno americano e mito sovietico nell'Italia contemporanea, Franco Angeli, Milan 1991, pp.235-68

'Il PCI e la campagna contro Hollywood 1948‑58', in D.W. Ellwood and G.P. Brunetta (eds.), Hollywood in Europa: industria, politica, pubblico del cinema 1945‑1960, La Casa Usher/Ponte alle Grazie, Florence 1991, pp.113-32

'Italy', in David Butler and Austin Ranney (eds.), Electioneering, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992, pp.173-201

'The Italian Communist Party, Gorbachev and the End of "Really Existing Socialism"', in David S. Bell (ed.), Western European Communists and the Collapse of Communism, Berg Publishers, Oxford 1993, pp.15-30

'La musica leggera', in Paul Ginsborg (ed.), Stato dell'Italia, Il Saggiatore, Milan 1994, pp.606-9

'RAI e Fininvest nell'anno di Berlusconi' in R.Katz and P.Ignazi (eds.) Politica in Italia: edizione 1995, Il Mulino, Bologna 1995, pp.189-209

'The Legacy of the Prison Notebooks: Gramsci, the PCI and Italian Culture in the Cold War Era' in Christopher Duggan and Christopher Wagstaff (eds.), Italy in the Cold War: Politics, Culture and Society, 1948 - 58, Berg, Oxford 1995, pp.131-47

'The Rise and Fall of Craxi's Socialist Party' in Gundle and Parker (eds.), The New Italian Republic, pp.85-98

'The Mass Media and the Political Crisis' in Gundle and Parker (eds.), The New Italian Republic (with Noelleanne O'Sullivan), pp.206-20

'RAI and Fininvest in the Year of Berlusconi' in R.Katz and P.Ignazi (eds.) Italian Politics: the Year of the Tycoon, Westview Press, Boulder 1996, pp.195-218

'Fame, Fashion and Style: the Italian Star System' in David Forgacs and Robert Lumley (eds.), Italian Cultural Studies: an Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996, pp.309-26

'Two Ideas of Stardom' in David Forgacs and Robert Lumley (eds.), Italian Cultural Studies: an Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996, pp.347-49

'La "religione civile" della resistenza: cultura di massa e identità politica nell'Italia del dopoguerra' in Luisa Cicognetti, Lorenza Servetti and Pierre Sorlin (eds.), L'immagine della resistenza in Europa dopo il 1945, Istituto Parri, Bologna 1996, pp.1-39

'Television in Italy' in James Coleman and Brigitte Rollet (eds.), Television in Europe Intellect Books, Exeter 1997, pp.61-76

'Il divismo nel cinema europeo, 1945-60' in Gian Piero Brunetta (ed.), Storia del cinema mondiale, Vol.1 Il cinema europeo, Einaudi, Turin 1999, pp.759-86

'L'età d'oro dello Star System' in Gian Piero Brunetta (ed.), Storia del cinema mondiale, Vol.2 Gli Stati Uniti, Einaudi, Turin 1999, pp.695-744

'Memory and Identity: Popular Culture in Postwar Italy' in Patrick McCarthy (ed.), Italy Since 1945 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000, pp.183-96

'Dive sintetiche: lo star system americano degli anni Quaranta e Cinquanta' in Gian Luca Farinelli and Jean-Loup Passek (eds.), Star al femminile, Transeuropa, Bologna, 2000, pp.134-48.

'Le déesses-marchandises du star system americain des années quarante e cinquante' in Gian Luca Farinelli and Jean-Loup Passek (eds.), Star au féminin: naissance, apogée et décadence du star system, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2000, pp.159-72.

'La Dolce Vita’ in David. W. Ellwood (ed.), The Movies as History, Sutton, Stroud, 2000, pp.132-40

'Il bel paese: Art, Beauty and the Cult of Appearance' in Gino Bedani (ed.), The Politics of Italian National Identity, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 2000, pp.106-36

'Flash Trash: Gianni Versace and the Theory and Practice of Glamour' in Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.), Fashion Cultures, Routledge, London, 2000, pp.331-48 (with Reka Buckley)

'Saint Ingrid at the Stake: Stardom and Scandal in the Bergman-Rossellini Collaboration' in David Forgacs, Sarah Lutton and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (eds.), Roberto Rossellini, BFI, London, 2000, pp.64-79

'Fashion and Glamour' in Nicola White (ed.), The Fashion Business, Berg, Oxford 2000, pp.85-106 (with Reka Buckley)

'Immagini della prosperità’ in Roberto Gualtieri (ed.), Il Pci nell’Italia repubblicana, Carocci, Rome, 2002, pp.253-84

'Visions of Prosperity: Consumerism and Popular Culture in Italy from the 1920s to the 1950s' in Carl Levy and Mark Roseman (eds.), Three Postwar Eras in Comparison: Western Europe 1918 – 1945 - 1989, Palgrave, London, 2001, pp.151-72

'Hollywood Glamour and Mass Consumption in Postwar Italy' in Rudy Kushnar (ed.), Histories of Leisure, Berg, Oxford, 2002, pp.257-77. Also contained in Peter McNeil (ed.), Fashion: Critical and Primary Sources, Vol.4, Berg, Oxford, 2009.

'Film Stars and Society in Fascist Italy' in Piero Garofalo and Jacqueline Reich (eds.), Re-viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema 1922-43, University of Indiana Press, Bloomington, 2002, pp.315-39

'Il divismo femminile italiano del dopoguerra in Gran Bretagna e Gli Stati Uniti’ in Il Cinema italiano nel mondo, Premi internazionali Flaiano, Pescara, 2003, pp.113-26

'Sophia Loren, Italian Icon’ in Lucy Fischer and Marcia Landy (eds.) Stars: the Film Reader, Routledge, London, 2004, pp.77-96

'Le origini della spettacolarità nella politica di massa’ in Maurizio Ridolfi (ed.), Propaganda e comunicazione politica, Bruno Mondadori, Milan, 2004, pp.1-24

'Miss Italia in Black and White: Feminine Beauty and Ethnic Identity in Modern Italy’, in Sandra Ponzanesi and Daniela Merolla (eds.), Migrant Cartographies: New Cultural and Literary Spaces in Post-Colonial Europe, Lexington Books/ Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham MD, 2005, pp.253-66

'Hollywood, Italy and the First World War: Italian Responses to three film versions of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms’, in Guido Bonsaver and Robert Gordon (eds.), State, Culture and Censorship in Twentieth-Century Italy, Legenda, Oxford, 2005, pp.98-108

‘Lo spettacolo e la merce: consumi, industria culturale e mass media’, in Stefano Cavazza and Emanuela Scarpellini (eds.), Il secolo dei consumi: dinamiche sociali nell’Europa del Novecento, Carocci, Rome, 2006), pp.175-96

‘La culture de masse en Italie fasciste’, in Jean-Yves Mollier, Jean-François Sirinelli, François Vallotton (eds.), Culture de masse et culture médiatique en Europe et dans les Amériques 1860-1940, PUF, Paris, 2006, pp.259-73

'Signorina buonasera: images of women in early Italian television’, in Penelope Morris (ed.), Women in Italy 1946-60, Palgrave, New York, 2007, pp.65-76

‘Fashion Victims: the Gucci and Versace Murders’ in Gundle and Rinaldi, Assassinations and Murder in Modern Italy (with Lucia Rinaldi), pp.181-92

‘The English Rose and the Bella Italiana: Reflections on Two National Typologies of Feminine Beauty’ in Manfred Pfister and Ralf Hertel (eds.), Performing National Identity: Anglo-Italian Cultural Transactions, Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2008, pp.137-55

‘Les communistes italiens et la culture de masse américaine’ in Jean-François Sirinelli and Georges-Henri Soutou (eds.), Culture et guerre froide, PUPS, Paris, 2008, 39-51

‘Un Martini per il Duce: l’immaginario del consumismo in Italia negli anni Venti e Trenta’ in Anna Villari (ed.), L’arte della pubblicità: il manifesto italiano e le vanguardie 1920-1940, Silvana editoriale, Milan, 2008, pp.46-69

‘Il fascino cromatico: partiti politici, consumismo e colori tra l’Ottocento e oggi’ in Stefano Pivato and Maurizio Ridolfi (eds.), I colori della politica: passioni, emozioni e rappresentazioni nell’età contemporanea, Quaderni del Centro Sanmarinese di Studi Storici, n.27, San Marino, 2008, pp.25-48

‘Sogni e ambizioni: la persuasione visiva in Italia tra la fin-de-siècle e la nascita della società dei consumi’ in Anna Villari (ed.), Manifesti: pubblicità e vita italiana, 1895-1945, Allianz/Silvana editoriale, Milan, 2009, pp.86-125

‘Berlusconi, il sesso e il mancato scandalo mediatico’ in Marco Giuliani and Erik Jones (eds.), Politica in Italia: edizione 2010, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2010, pp.73-93.

‘Berlusconi, Sex and the Avoidance of a Media Scandal’ in Marco Giuliani and Erik Jones (eds.), Italian Politics: Managing Uncertainty, Berghahn, Oxford, 2010, pp.59-75.

‘Le glamour et la presse féminine’ in Claire Blandin and Hélène Eck (eds.), “La vie des femmes”: La presse feminine aux XIX et XX siècles, Editions Panthéon-Assas, Paris, 2010, pp.69-84

‘Satire and the Destruction of the Cult of the Duce’ in Gundle and others, Against Mussolini: Art and the Fall of a Dictator, pp.15-35.

‘Mass Culture and the Cult of Personality’ (pp.72-90), ‘Mussolini’s Appearances in the regions’ (pp.110-28) and ‘The Aftermath of the Mussolini Cult: History, Nostalgia and Popular Culture’ (pp.241-56) in Gundle, Duggan and Pieri (eds.), The Cult of the Duce

‘Neorealism and Left-Wing Culture’ in Peter Bondanella (ed.), The Italian Cinema Book, BFI-Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2013, pp.77-83

‘Cinema and Television' in Erik Jones and Gianfranco Pasquino (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics, OUP, Oxford, 2015, pp.569-82.

'Interpretare il dittatore: le rievocazoni di Mussolini al cinema e in televisione' in Monica Jansen and Maria Bonaria Urban (eds), Televisonismo: narrazioni televisive della storia italiana negli anni della seconda Repubblica, Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venice, 2015, pp.

'Guai ai vinti: from novel to film' in Sharon Wood (ed.) Annie Chartres Vivanti: Transnational Politics, Identity and Culture, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2016 (with Simona Storchi), pp.

‘The Question of Italian National Character and the Limits of Commedia all’italiana: Alberto Sordi, Federico Fellini and Carlo Lizzani’ in Frank Burke (ed.), A Companion to Italian Cinema, Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, 2017, pp.198-214

'The enduring glamour of the Parisienne' in Alastair Phillips and Ginette Vincendeau (eds), Paris in the Cinema: Beyond the Flaneur, BFI/Palgrave, London, 2018, pp.166-78.

'Melato, Muti & Antonelli: dive e divismo nel cinema italiano degli anni Settanta' in M. Casalini (ed.), Donne e cinema: immagini del femminoile dal fascismo agli anni Settanta Viella, Rome, 2016, pp.149-72

‘From Mussolini to Berlusconi: Masculinity and Political Leadership in Post-War Italy’ in Christopher Fletcher et al. (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Political Culture in Europe, Basingstoke 2018, pp.435-55

‘Cinema e mondo dei consumi’ in Stefano Cavazza and Emanuela Scarpellini (eds) I consumi, Storia d’Italia, Annali 27, Einaudi, Turin, 2018, pp.546-64

‘”Hollywood sul Tevere” e lo star system’ in Chiara Ottaviano (ed.), Bulgari – una storia italiana: ricerche, Rizzoli Electa, Milan 2019, pp.234-45

‘The Five Faces of the Italian Femme Fatale’ in Joseph Luzzi (ed.), Italian Cinema: From the Silent Screen to the Digital Image, Bloomsbury, London, 2020, pp.123-40

Refereed journal articles

'A Critique of Structuralist State Theorizing', Contemporary Crises, 6:2, 1982 (with James Petras), 161-82

'L'americanizzazione del quotidiano: televisione e consumismo nell'Italia degli anni cinquanta', Quaderni storici, 21:61(2), 1986, 561-94

'Sophia Loren, Italian Icon', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 15: 3, 1995, 367-85

'The Crisis of 1992-94 and the Reform of Italian Public Broadcasting', Modern Italy, I:1, 1995 (with Noelleanne O'Sullivan), 70-81

'The Americanization of Daily Life: Television and Consumerism in Italy in the 1950s', Italian History and Culture, 2, 1996, 11-39

'Carisma, teatralità e immagine nella storia politica italiana', Almannacchi nuovi, 3:8, 1997/98, 114-33

'The Death (and Re-Birth) of the Hero: Charisma and Manufactured Charisma in Modern Italy', Modern Italy, 3:2, 1998, 173-89

'Mapping the Origins of Glamour: Giovanni Boldini, Paris and the Belle Epoque', Journal of European Studies, 29:3, 1999, 269-95

'Feminine Beauty, National Identity and Political Conflict in Postwar Italy, 1945-54', Contemporary European History, 8:3, 1999, 359-78

'The “Civic Religion” of the Resistance in Postwar Italy', Modern Italy, 5:2, 2000, 113-32

'Hollywood Glamour and Mass Consumption in Postwar Italy', Journal of Cold War Studies, 4:3 Fall 2002, 95-118.

'La modernité italienne et l’image de l’Amérique’, Le Banquet, 21, 2004, 107-26

'Adriano Celentano and the Origins of Rock and Roll in Italy’, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 11:3, 2006, 367-86

‘Lo stile e la merce: la ricezione della moda italiana in Gran Bretagna e negli Stati Uniti’, Memoria e ricerca , n.23, 2006, 95-116

‘”Venus on Earth”: Lina Cavalieri and the Professionalisation of Italian Beauty between the Fin-de–Siècle and the Belle Époque’, Italian Studies, 62:1 Spring 2007, 45-60

‘Identity, Place and Culture: Patrick McCarthy’s articles for the Bologna pages of La Repubblica’, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 14:1, 2009, 82-95

‘Anecdotes and historiography: From Traiano Boccalini’s strange death to Benito Mussolini’s sexual proclivities’, Incontri: rivista europea di studi italiani, 24:1, 2009, 101-8.

‘Alida Valli in Hollywood: From Star of Fascist Cinema to “Selnick Siren”’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 32:4, 2012, 559-87

‘Playing the Dictator: Re-enactments of Mussolini in Film and Television’, Modern Italy, 18:1, 2013, 177-95

‘How Berlusconi Will Be Remembered: Notoriety, Collective Memory and the Mediatization of Posterity’, Modern Italy, 20:1, 2015, 91-109

'Italian Cinema at the Oscars: Explaining the Success of a Nostalgic National Image', Memoria & Ricerca, 2: 2016, 243-260

‘Teniche e pratiche di pubblicità nel cinema italiano tra gli anni 30 e gli anni 50’, Quaderni del CSCI: rivista annuale di cinema italiano, n.13, 2018, 33-43

‘Glamour Studies: The State of the Field’, Fashion, Film and Consumption, 8:1, 2019, 9-16

‘”We Have Everything to Learn from the Americans”: Film Promotion, Product Placement and Consumer Culture in Italy, 1945-1965’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 40:1, 2020

‘Alessandro Blasetti and the Rise of the Italian Film Industry, 1929-1959’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 40:1, 2020 (with Michela Zegna)

Encyclopedia entries

In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture (Routledge, London, 2001): Baudo, Pippo; Canzonissima; Carrà, Raffaella; Costanzo, Maurizio; Mina; Milva; Santoro, Michele.

In The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature (Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming 2002): Communism; Comics; Popular song; Television; Fotoromanzo; Bocca, Giorgio; Botteghe Oscure; Cantautori; Longanesi, Leo; Rinascita; Società; Alicata, Mario; Il Contemporaneo; De André, Fabrizio; La Domenica del Corriere; Gassman, Vittorio; Togliatti, Palmiro; Totò.

In Dizionario del fascismo (Einaudi, Turin, 2002): Calamai, Clara; divismo, Nazzari, Amedeo; Valli; Alida

Book reviews

For the following journals: Journal of Communist Studies, Italian Studies, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Communist Affairs: Documents and Analysis, Newsletter of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, Modern Italy, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Times Higher Education, English Historical Review, History Today, Journal of Cold War Studies

Conference papers

'Themes in the Cultural Policies of the French and Italian Communist Parties 1945 ‑ 1954': Seminar on Politics, Culture and Society in Post‑War France and Italy, Open University 25 February 1987

'The Communist Party and the Politics of Cultural Change in Post‑War Italy 1945 ‑ 1950': Conference on the Culture of Reconstruction in France, Italy and Germany 1945 ‑1950, Warwick University, 2‑4 May 1987

'Cinema, Politics and Society 1945 ‑ 1985', Turbulent Transitions: a Conference on Popular and Mass Culture in Post‑War Italy, Reading University, 23‑24 October 1987

'La linea culturale del PCI e la sfida del cinema americano': Conference on 'Hollywood in Europe 1945‑60' organised by International Association for Visual Media Historical Research and Education and Ente Teatro Romano, European University Institute, Fiesole, 16‑18 March 1989

'Vie Nuove e Famiglia Cristiana dalla guerra fredda alla società dei consumi': Conference on 'Bosom Enemies: American and Soviet Myths in Contemporary Italy' organised by Istituto Gramsci Emilia‑Romagna and Dipartimento di discipline storiche, Università di Bologna, Gramsci Institute, Bologna, 25‑27 January 1990

'The Reception and Interpretation of Gramsci': Conference on Italy in the Cold War Period, Reading University, 26‑27 October 1990

'I giovani, le subculture politiche e lo "star system"': Conference on Youth and Society in Italy During the Reconstruction, 1948‑60, Gramsci Institute, Bologna, 28 February 1993

'The Role of the Media': 1994 ASMI Annual Conference on 'The Italian Crisis 1989-94, London 25-26 November 1994

'The Communist Challenge for Power in the 1970's'. SIS AGM round table on 'Problems of Italian Democracy in the First Republic', London, 7 January 1995

'Associazionismo contro consumismo: il tempo libero in Italia 1945-95': Conference on 'Strutture e metodi del consenso nell'Italia repubblicana', University of Pisa, Pisa 28-31 March 1995

'Consumerism and Popular Culture in Fascist Italy': Conference of ASMI-ASMCF-GHA on 'The Stabilisation of Europe in Three Postwar Eras', Keele University, 1-3 April 1995

'Il mito della Resistenza nell'arte del dopoguerra' Conference on 'The Image of the Resistance in Europe 1945 - 1960'. Istituto regionale Ferruccio Parri, Bologna, 8 - 10 May 1995

'Berlusconi and the Italian Star System', Conference on the Construction of Identities in Contemporary Italy, Warwick University, 14 October 1995

'Culture and National Identity in Italy 1930s - 1950s', 1995 ASMI Annual Conference on 'Formations of Italian National Identity', London, 10-11 November 1995

'Film Stars and Social Change', Institute of Romance Studies Symposium on 'Italian Culture From Fascism to the Republic', 19 January 1996

'Giovanni Boldini and the Origins of Glamour', Society for Italian Studies Conference, Glasgow University, 17-19 April 1997

'La sfida del glamour: il fascino, la bellezza e il consumismo di massa nell'Italia del dopoguerra', Conference on 'Italia e Stati Uniti a 50 anni dal Piano Marshall', Centro Studi Americani, Rome 26-28 March 1998

'The Beauty Question 1900-50', Society of Italian Studies Symposium on 'Feminine Beauty and Italian Culture', Italian Cultural Institute, 9 January 1999

'La sinistra e la società dei consumi in Italia ed Europa’, Conference on 'Il PCI nell’Italia repubblicana, Palazzo Montecitorio, Rome, 25-26 May 2000

'Miss Italia in Black and White: Feminine Beauty and Ethnic Identity in Modern Italy’. Writing Europe 2001: Migrant Cartographies, Universities of Amsterdam and Leiden, 22-24 March 2001

'Cultura di massa e propaganda politica: consumismo, pubblicità e divismo nelle campagne elettorali del secondo dopoguerra’, Conference on 'Linguaggi della politica nel '900’, University of Viterbo, 3-5 April 2001

'Glamour et propagande: les concours de beauté communistes des années Cinquante’, Conference on 'Propagande et Contre-propagande en Italie de 1945 à nos jours’, Italian Cultural Institute, Paris, 22-23 November 2001

'After the Fall of the Ideologies: Left and Right In Britain, Italy and Europe’ International seminar for British and Italian Press, Fondazione Cini, Venice, 8-9 March 2002

'Dive e divismo’ conference on 'Il cinema italiano nel mondo’, Premi internazionali Flaiano, Pescara, 11-13 July 2002

'Signorina buonasera: images of women in early television’, conference on 'Women in Italy 1946-60’, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 20-21 September 2002

'Hollywood, Italy and the First World War: Italian Responses to the 1932 and 1957 versions of A Farewell to Arms’, conference on 'Culture and the State in Italy’, Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, 20-21 October 2002

'Corpi pubblici, corpi privati: famiglia, intimità e tempo libero in Italia tra gli anni 30 e gli anni 50’, conference on 'Famiglia, Stato e società civile in Europa’, University of Florence, 12-13 March 2004

'La culture de masse dans l’Italie fasciste’, conference on 'Culture de masse et culture médiatique en Europe et dans les Amériques, 1880-1940’, University of Lausanne, 22-24 September 2004

‘The Origins of Glamour’, conference on ‘Glamour: Theory and Practice’ at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 25-26 February 2005

‘Elvis in Europe’, conference on ‘Europeanization and Americanization: rival projects or synonyms?’, European Studies Consortium, St Anthony’s College, Oxford 15-16 April 2005

‘Yearning for the 1950s? Nostalgia and Escapism in Contemporary Italy’, conference on ‘Where is Italy going? Problems and prospects of a resilient democracy 1994-2005’, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford 10-11 May 2005

‘”The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”: Lina Cavalieri, the Original Italian Diva’ conference on ‘Cherchez la femme: the cinematic femme fatale’ University of Exeter, 2-3 September 2005

‘Lo spettacolo e la merce: la moda italiana in Gran Bretagna e gli Stati Uniti’, conference on ‘Storia dei consumi e identità collettive nel secondo dopoguerra’, ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption Programme, Dipartimento di studi storici, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, 7 October 2005

‘Les communistes italiens et la culture américaine’, Conference on: ‘Culture et guerre froide des années 1940 aux années 1980’, Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne, 20-21 October 2005-10-25

‘Dreams and desires: the culture of consumption in postwar Italy’, Conference on ‘After the Deluge: Comparative perspectives on the Post World War Two Era’, Princeton University, 17-18 March 2006

‘The Via Veneto: myth, cinema, reality’, Society of Italian Studies Interim conference on ‘Public and Private Spaces in Italian Culture’, IGRS, 21-22 April 2006

‘Il fascino dei colori: società e politica nell’Europa contemporanea’, keynote address to Conference on ‘I colori della politica’, San Marino November 2006-12-26

‘Images glamour en politique: la dimension éstetique des croyances sociales’, Conference on ‘Photographie et croyances sociales’, Institut de l’histoire du temps présent, Paris, 8 December 2006

‘Garibaldi: from charismatic hero to movie icon’, ASMI Annual Conference on ‘Garibaldi and the Politics of Radical Fame’, London 23-24 November 2007

‘Popular Passions and Popular Culture’. ‘A Special View of Italy: Conference in Memory of Patrick McCarthy’, Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center, 7-8 March 2008

‘Le sens du “glamour”’, ‘La singularité de la presse féminine’, journée d’études de l’Institut français de la presse, Université de Paris II, 11 April 2008

‘Alida Valli, Fosco Giachetti and the star system in 1948’, Conference on ‘18 April 1948: Italy between Continuity and Rupture’, Reading University and Italian Cultural Institute, London, 18-19 April 2008

‘Nocturnal Fascinations: Roman nights from the Grand Tour to the Dolce Vita’, Workshop ‘Re-thinking the Night’, Warwick University Italian Department, 30 April 2008

‘Glamour comme acception d’une manière d’être’, ‘La société du bien-être’, Université de Paris II – INA, Paris, 28 November 2008

‘The Dictator’s Wardrobe’ at ‘New Perspectives on the Cult of Mussolini’, double panel at Society for Italian Studies, Biennial Conference, Royal Holloway, University of London 16-18 April 2009

‘Mussolini and the mass media: before, during and after Fascism’, ‘The Cult of the Duce’, international workshop, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia, Perth 3 September 2010

‘Berlusconi in Historical Perspective: Masculinity and Political Leadership in Modern Italy’, keynote address to workshop on ‘Masculinity and Political Leadership in Europe’, Institute of Historical Research and Department of History, Birkbeck College, 15-16 December 2010.

‘Laughing Under Fascism: Comedy, Jokes and Ridicule in Italy, 1922-1943’, opening paper at ‘Sanctioned Laughter: Humour, War and Dictatorship in Twentieth Century Europe’, Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and The Wiener Library, London, 10 May 2013

'Images and Lifestyles of Producers', at 'Film producers and Production Practices in Italian Cinema', AHRC project workshop, Warwick University, 15 June 2016

‘How Movie Stars Become National Icons’ keynote address at ‘Icons of Italy’ conference, University of Hull, 6-7 September 2016

‘Trasformazioni e continuità nello star system italiano tra guerra e dopoguerra’, keynote address at ‘Stardom and Peformance in Post-War Italian Cinema, 1945-54, University of Turin, 17-18 May 2018

‘Historical Stereotypes and Marketing Clichés in the Foreign Consumption of Italian Cinema’ keynote address at ‘Made in Italy: la circolazione internazionale dell’audiovisivo italiano come prodotto culturale’, University of Bologna, 19-20 June 2018

‘La mascolinità del leader politico: problemi, contesti e confronti difficili’ at ‘Elette e eletti: rappresentanza e rappresentazioni di genere nell’Italia repubblicana’, Historical Archive of the Presidency of the Republic, Rome, 21-22 February 2019

‘Reading Italian Film Credits’ at ‘Women in Italian Film Production’, AHRC project workshop, Warwick University 15 March 2019

‘Modèles étrangers sur la longue durée: les cultures états-unienne, française et italienne sous influence, XIX-XXeme siècle’ keynote address at ‘L’etranger comme modele: source d’inspiration et vecteur d’utopies en Europe occidentale depuis 1917’ Ecole normale supèrieure, Paris, 2-4 June 2019

‘Exemplary Anecdotes and petite histoire: Mussolini between Hero-Worship and Trivialisation’ at ‘Fascist Exemplars: Past and Present’, Cambridge, 5 July 2019

‘The Denis Mack Smith and Renzo De Felice TV Debate’ at ‘Conference in Memory of Denis Mack Smith’ Italian Cultural Institute, London, 25 October 2019

‘Icons, Media and Time: La Dolce Vita, Nation Brands and…Mussolini’ at ‘Workshop on ‘Mediating Icons’ University of Hull, 10 January 2020

Exhibition curated

‘Against Mussolini: Art and the Fall of a Dictator’, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 22 September – 19 December 2010

‘Dream Makers: Italian Cinema and Its Great Producers’, Sala Borsa, Bologna, 20 June – 15 September 2018

Selected invited lectures

'The Mass Media and Italian Society', four lectures in the Department of Italian, University College London, January-February 1996

'Italian Cinema Since 1945', two lectures in the School of Languages, Coventry University, March 1996

'Divismo e americanismo nell'Italia repubblicana', lecture in the Department of History, University of Venice, 21 May 1996

'Culture and Society in Postwar Italy', four lectures in the Faculty of Modern Languages, Oxford University, October-November 1996

'The Origins of Glamour', Max Mara lecture, Kingston University 16 March 1998

'Visual Seductions: Beauty, Glamour and Publicity in Postwar Italy’, Estorick Collection of Italian Art, London 18 October 2003

‘La Dolce Vita and Rome in the 1950s’, Fellini Study Day, National Film Theatre, 18 September 2004

‘Glamour and Modernity: Wealth and Sex Appeal in Europe and America 1800-1960’, Guildford Museum, 9 December 2004

Presentation of Francesco Barbagallo, Enrico Berlinguer (Rome: Carocci editore 2006), Sala della Protomoteca in Campidoglio, Rome, with Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome, 24 March 2006

‘Beauty Wars: the Aesthetic Politics of Feminine Beauty from the Risorgimento to the Present’, keynote address to the American Association of Italian Studies, Colorado Springs, 4 May 2007

‘Feminine Beauty and the Image of Italy’, British Italian Society, London, 11 October 2007

‘Glamour’, Cambridge Festival of Ideas, Cambridge, 20 October 2009

‘Fashion and Glamour’, Runneymede Literary Festival, Egham, Surrey, 20 March 2010

‘Glamour and the Mystique of Fashion’, School of Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2 September 2010

‘Mussolini’s Ghost: The Aftermath of a Personality Cult’, British Library Annual Italian Studies lecture, 21 June 2012

‘Remembering Anita Ekberg and Virna Lisi’, public lecture at Italian Cultural Institute, London, 27 February 2015

‘La Dolce Vita: Federico Fellini’ public lecture as part of the Laterza series on ‘Il carattere degli italiani’, Auditorium, Rome 24 March 2019 (repeated Genoa 27 October 2019; recording broadcast on TV channel RAI Storia, 30 November 2019)

Film and Television Studies