Carlo De Maria (Bologna, 1974) is Associate Professor in Contemporary History at the Department of History and Cultures of the University of Bologna. He teaches "Contemporary History" in the Degree Course in Foreign Languages and Literatures and "Didactics of History" in the Degree Course in History and in the second cycle degree program in History and Oriental Studies. He is also President of the “Clionet” Association for Historical Research and Cultural Promotion.
After the Degree in Contemporary History at the University of Bologna (2001) and the Ph.D. in the same discipline at the University of Siena (2005), he also specialized in the fields of libraries and historical archives, achieving, in 2009, the Postgraduate Diploma of Librarian at the Special School for Archivists and Librarians of the Sapienza University of Rome.
He was Research Fellow (2006-2015) and then Senior Assistant Professor (2018-2021) in Contemporary History at the University of Bologna. In 2013 (session 2012) he obtained two qualifications for university teaching as Associate Professor in the research areas of Contemporary History and History of Political Doctrines and Institutions. He has taught in several Italian universities: in addition to Bologna, also at the University "Carlo Bo" of Urbino, at the University "Ca’ Foscari" of Venice and at the University of Salento.
Since 2012 is member of international research projects promoted by cultural institutions of Canada, France, Germany and Spain, such as: Itinerarios reformistas, perspectivas revolucionarias, 1909-1949 (leader: Universitat de Girona); L’impact des violences politiques et sociales sur la démocratie italienne (leader: Université Paris 8); 1914. L’Internationale et les internationalismes face à la guerre (leader: Société d’études jaurésiennes); L’Internationale sera le genre humain! De l’Association internationale des travailleurs à aujourd’hui (leader: Université d’Ottawa); Die Jahre 1915 bis 1918. Europa, Menschen, Toleranz. Sammlung von Beiträgen zum Themenbereich Kultur und Leben an europäischen Heimatfronten (leader: Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund).
He participated as lecturer at international conferences in France (Université Paris 8) and Spain (Universitat de Girona). In addition to those already listed, he carried out research activities and established relationships and exchanges with the following cultural institutions: AMI-Association Montessori Internationale (Amsterdam); Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine (Nanterre); Bibliothèque Jean Maitron du Centre d’histoire sociale du XXe siècle (Université de Paris I); CEDIAS-Musée social (Paris); Museu Memorial de l’Exili (La Jonquera, Girona); Maternité Suisse d’Elne (Pyrénées Orientales); Filippo Turati Foundation for Historical Studies (Florence); Lelio Basso and Lisli – Issoco Foundation (Rome); Pellegrini Canevascini Foundation (Bellinzona); Pro Helvetia-Swiss Cultural Foundation (Zürich) and with several universities in the United Kingdom (Newcastle University, University of Lincoln and Sheffield Hallam University).
He founded and directs the editorial series “OttocentoDuemila” (Bologna University Press), and the e-journal of Public History “Clionet. For a sense of time and places”. He is member of the scientific committee of the Filippo Turati Foundation for Historical Studies (Florence).
On behalf of the Municipality of Forlì (Unit for European Projects and International Relations), he took part (during the three-year period 2017-2019) in the scientific committee of the “Hub Santarelli”, urban project for the recovery of the “Former Asilo Santarelli” building (1937) and its re-use as modern library, cultural hub for the knowledge of the XXth century and innovation center for culture and tourism.
Among the awards obtained for his scientific activity are the ANCI-History 2009 Award, for the book Alessandro Schiavi. Dal riformismo municipale alla federazione europea dei comuni (Clueb, 2008), assigned by the National Association of Italian Municipalities, in collaboration with SISSCO, and the previous Piancastelli Award 2005, for the research Forme e realizzazioni del mutuo soccorso in Romagna dall’Unità alla Prima guerra mondiale, published three years later by Clueb (Bologna).
His main publications of the last years are: the monographs Andrea Costa e l’Italia liberale (Bononia University Press, 2021); Una famiglia anarchica. La vita dei Berneri tra affetti, impegno ed esilio nell’Europa del Novecento (Viella, 2019); and the curatorship of the miscellanies: Genere, salute e lavoro dal fascismo alla Repubblica. Spazi urbani e contesti industriali (Bradypus, 2020, with E. Betti); Genere, lavoro e formazione professionale nell’Italia contemporanea (Bononia University Press, 2021, with E. Betti).
Cultural Heritage and its enhancement are an integral part of his curriculum, with particular competence in the fields of libraries and historical archives, education and pedagogical circuits, biographies and epistolaries, private archives and documentary collections. For many years he has dealt with history of municipalism, urban history, history of social and territorial autonomy and local cultural history, according to long-term perspectives related to the XIXth and XXth century and through an interdisciplinary approach aimed at enriching the historical investigation on the methodological, thematic and interpretative level. He has carried out an intense activity of cultural promotion, organizing conferences and seminars of international, national and regional/local importance.
Research topics:
1) the history of Italian and European socialism, with particular attention to the biographical method, generational scansions and gender studies;
2) the rules and statutes of the laic and catholic associations in the XIXth-XXth centuries;
3) the models of social and pedagogical intervention and community work in Europe between the two World Wars and after the Second World War;
4) the local autonomies and the “territories of political action” in contemporary Italy;
5) the crisis of the welfare state, the third sector and subsidiarity between the XXth and XXIst centuries;
6) aspects of the institutional and social history of the fascist regime, such as the administration of the libraries, the development of the industrial-technical institutes and the administrative channels of the anti-Jewish persecution.
