Gramsci e la questione meridionale – Centenary Conference

Prof. Peter Mayo was invited speaker by the GramsciLab at the University of Cagliari at the International Conference marking the Centenary of Antonio Gramsci’s writing of a very important essay: Alcuni Temi sulla Quistione Meridionale.  This was his last piece of writing before his arrest by the repressive forces of the Italian Fascist Regime led by Benito Mussolini.

Prof. Mayo addressed the theme of the 'Southern' Question, the Mediterranean and a Decolonising Education - a hundred years later. In his address he alternated between English and Italian. Other speakers at the Conference included Guido Liguori, Francesco Giasi,  Peter D. Thomas, Neelam Srivastava, Mauro Pala, Paolo Desogus, Pietro Maltese, Gianni Fresu,  Miriam Abu Samra and Alessandra Marchi. 

In Prof. Mayo's panel on, 'Dialectic of Emancipation. Rethinking the North/ South Divide', the question of and situation in Palestine was a recurring theme mainly addressed by Palestinian, Miriam Abu Samra, who gave an impassioned speech underlined by 'pain' (as once expressed by bell hooks), and Sardinian academic Alessandra Marchi, professor at the host insitution and who previously worked at the Museo Casa Gramsci in her home locality of Ghilarza, where Gramsci was raised as a child. Palestine also featured in Prof. Mayo's talk where the opening served as a 'segue' to the preceding presentation by Marchi and Abu Samra.

An Italian version of Prof. Mayo's paper will hopefully be included in the proposed Conference proceedings book.

He is also about to publish Maltese and English versions of the paper by the University of Malta's Faculty of Education in its well established monograph series. This monograph will be bilingual (Maltese and English) throughout.