My research investigates migrants' movements as an extreme case for the study of collective memory and the role it plays in strengthening group boundaries and collective identities. The work asks how people with very heterogeneous life trajectories, who do not share a common social past nor long standing political traditions, get together through practices of collective memory building. This is based on extensive fieldwork in Italy and combines life history interviews with participant observation of three diverse political groups of migrants who started mobilising in different moments in time across the last twenty years in three different cities: Rome, Naples and Bologna.

Bridging the literature on Memory studies and Social movement studies, my contribution sheds light on how migrants’ groups interact as affective communities to engage in practices of memory building. On one hand, emotions and affective ties stir reminiscences that compose the ‘political biographies’ of participants and, on the other, practices of memory work turn those biographies into a collective memory, providing super diverse groups with a shared heritage that enables action.  

Angela is a PhD candidate at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence) who is visiting The School of Social Sciences, Education and Social work and the Mitchell Institute.

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