Shifting Borders, Negotiating Places

Maria Galli Stampino has suggested that cultural studies makes a difference in the world of scholarship, and that it promises advantages to teachers and students of l'italianistica (Italian Cultural Studies, Bordighera 2001). The papers included in this volume were presented at the international conference on cultural studies held at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (February 2000) and indicate some of the directions scholars working in cultural studies have taken. The heterogeneity of the topic, coupled with the emergent nature of cultural studies in Italy, produced an air of excitement as well as curiosity about the proposals we received. We also suspected that the ongoing process of European political and economic unification would encourage speculation on issues related to globalization and the place of cultural studies in apprehending and theoretizing transnational change. The phrases "Shifting Borders" and "Mutation of Value(s)" were included in the conference title precisely to invite consideration of the heightened political and cultural stakes both in a newly unified Europe and in a rapidly shrinking world. Cultural studies may have taken hold in Italy later than it did in Great Britain and North America, but Italian academia now includes both many enthusiastic practitioners and a committed audience, as the diverse proceedings of this intellectual satisfying conference indicate. The Organizing Committee and Editors from Loyola University Chicago are Brent Adkins, Anthony Ellis, David Jesuit, Kevin McCruden, Rachel Poulsen, and Jennifer Wozniak; and from the University of Rome are Davide Bennato, Francesco D'Amato, and Donatella Della Ratta.