PhD Project: The State memorialization of women fighters across Resistance Networks in Italy and France.
Funding: SWW DTP.
Supervisor: DR Daniela La Penna (Reading).
My name is Martina Biavati and I have started my PhD this September. My research project, funded by the SWW DTP and supervised by Prof. Daniela La Penna here at Reading, looks at the State memorialization of women fighters across Resistance Networks in Italy and in France. I have recently been toying with the idea of looking specifically at non-metropolitan female fighters in the resistance movements. With current World War II historiography (especially in France) moving away from a Western European-centric perspective, this slight shift in focus provides more exciting opportunities and more exciting avenues to explore. Due to its infancy, the research questions I aim to answer in my project are not yet set in stone, but broadly speaking are going to relate to the practices of memorialization of museums and archives: what stories are preserved and promoted and what, instead are hidden? In what ways can local narratives and museum enhance our perception of the broader narrative that has been promoted? How are the memories preserved and how do the different vectors of memory interact with each other and with the broader public?
Twitter: @martibiavati