CMSV Assistant Professor of Modern Languages Dr. David Aliano Publishes Book on Mussolini’s National Project in Argentina
9/18/2012
Riverdale, N.Y. – University of Mount Saint Vincent Chair & Assistant Professor of Modern Languages Dr. David Aliano’s book on Mussolini’s National Project in Argentina was recently published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
The book explores the theoretical questions surrounding the promotion of a national project within another nation-state. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mussolini’s regime attempted to promote fascist Italy’s national project in Argentina, bombarding the republic with its propaganda. Although politically a failure, this propaganda provoked a debate over the idea of a national identity outside of the nation-state and the potential roles that citizens living abroad could play in their country of origin.
Using the experiences of Mussolini’s efforts in Argentina as its case study this book demonstrates how national projects take on different meanings once they enter a contested public space. It details how both members of the Italian community as well as native Argentines reshaped Italy’s national discourse from abroad by entangling it with Argentina’s own national project.
In exploring the way in which nations are imagined, constructed, and recast both from above as well as from below, Mussolini’s National Project in Argentina offers new perspectives on the politics of identity formation while providing a transatlantic example of the dynamic interplay between the Italian state and its emigrant communities. It is in short, a transnational perspective on what it means to belong to a nation.
Dr. Aliano drew inspiration from living and working in NYC for his book, he says.
“Living and working in New York City, surrounded by so many different nationalities, has made me especially interested in understanding how national projects are negotiated within emigrant communities outside of the nation-state,” he says. “By exploring the historical case of the Italian community in Argentina and its interaction with the Italian fascist regime, my study seeks to shed light on the deeper question of entangled national identities among migrants in an increasingly globalized world.”
More information on the book can be found online: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781611475760.
About the University of Mount Saint Vincent
The University of Mount Saint Vincent is an academically excellent, authentically inclusive, Catholic and ecumenical liberal arts college. It combines a strong core curriculum with a full array of majors in the liberal arts and selected professional fields of study, including accounting, business administration, education, and nursing. Through its School of Professional and Continuing Studies, the College extends its primary undergraduate mission by offering high quality graduate studies in business, education and nursing and an array of undergraduate and certificate programs serving non-traditional students. Mount Saint Vincent is located on a pastoral campus in New York City, with easy access to all the educational, cultural, and recreational opportunities that the City affords.