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Areas of expertise
Biography
Football, languages, literature, architecture and cinema have led my interest towards the modern era in European history. I’m especially interested in the cultural history and the experiences of individuals during this era. History of Italy has interested me even more since my exchange period in Pavia, and already in my master’s thesis, I studied the experiences of two Finnish writers, V. A. Koskenniemi and Tatu Vaaskivi, during their stays in Fascist Italy. That left me enthusiastic to further study the same era, and in the dissertation I focus on it through the experiences of Italians themselves.
Research
My dissertation engages with the local and regional identities in the Fascist Italy by focusing on the context of football. Through the cases of Florence, Pistoia, Naples and Salerno, I study, how these identities were expressed in football pitches and stands, as well as in the urban spaces outside the stadiums during the match days between 1926 and 1934.
Football’s popularity exploded in the aftermath of World War I, and since the late 1920’s the Fascist regime sought to exploit it for propaganda purposes. Together with the success of the Italian national football team, this led to the foundation of the national football league and to the widespread stadium-construction. Meanwhile, the parochial attitudes, known by the notion of campanilismo, took a central role in the football’s culture. Phenomena such as violence and public disorder became part of everyday life in stadiums, challenging the conception of united nation-state promoted by the regime. By focusing on the lived spaces of football, the dissertation studies the societal and cultural pluralism behind the totalitarian system.