JAm It - Journal of American Studies in Italy

16/07/2025

The CFP for the next issue of JAm It! is now available. We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages. Please share this widely!

Call for Papers: JAm It! Journal of American Studies in Italy #11 (General Issue) 2025-07-16 JAm It! Journal of American Studies in Italy invites submissions for its 2026 issue (no. 11). This open call welcomes contributions on any topic within the purview of American Studies, with no thematic restr...

06/05/2025

We’re pleased to share that JAm It! has been officially recognized as a scientific journal by ANVUR in Disciplinary Areas 10 (Antiquities, Philological‑Literary & Historical‑Artistic Sciences) and 14 (Political & Social Sciences).

Watch this space for our call for proposals for the 2026 issue and other exciting news from our Editorial Boards! AISNA Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord Americani AISNA Graduates

22/07/2024

On the latest issue of our journal, Pilar Martinez Benedi (Università degli Studi dell'Aquila) reviewed Cody Marrs's book "Melville, Beauty, and American Literary Studies: An Aesthetics of All Things" (Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press), 2023).
You can read it at this link.

Melville, Beauty, and American Literary Studies An Aesthetics of All Things Pilar Martinez Benedi DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2612-5641/10677 Keywords: Melville, Beauty, Review Abstract Cody Marrs, Melville, Beauty, and American Literary Studies: An Aesthetics of All Things. Oxford: Oxford Univers...

16/07/2024

In "(Re-)Narrating Transgender Pasts, Presents, and Futures in Casey Plett's 'Little Fish'", Steph Berens (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) explores how cisnormative narrations of transness and transitioning hold trans subjectivities in a constant temporal bind and how "Little Fish" interrogates this bind through a (re-)narration of transgender pasts, presents, and futures.
Read it online from the latest issue of our journal at this link.

(Re-)Narrating Transgender Pasts, Presents, and Futures in Casey Plett's Little Fish Steph Berens Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2612-5641/7686 Keywords: transgender literature, Casey Plett, q***r temporality, de-subjugation, trans archives Abstract In Casey Plett...

12/07/2024

In "The Trope of Africanism to Address Homos*xuality in Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin", Francesca Scaccia (Università di Roma Tor Vergata) analyzes how – and why – James Baldwin makes use of Africanist, or Africanlike, characters (e.g., the Italian immigrant Giovanni) to explore topics that otherwise would have been taboo, which means homos*xuality and even bis*xuality in the American society of the 1950s.
You can read this essay, from our latest issue, at the following link.

The Trope of Africanism to Address Homos*xuality in Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin Francesca Scaccia PhD in Comparative Studies, Department of Philosophy Literature Art, University of Rome Tor Vergata DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2612-5641/7660 Keywords: homos*xuality, q***r, Africanism, self-i...

10/07/2024

In "Let Me Get this Q***r. Recognition of Age and S*xuality in Grace and Frankie", Daniele Atza (Università degli Studi di Torino) examines how older q***r identities are represented in the contemporary American sitcom Grace and Frankie (2015 – 2022). By analyzing this TV show through Tison Pugh's book "The Q***r Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom" (Rutgers University Press, 2018), this paper argues that different, unsung q***r realities are starting to get more recognition in the U.S. television system.
Read the essay from our latest issue at this link.

Let Me Get this Q***r Recognition of Age and S*xuality in Grace and Frankie Daniele Atza Università degli Studi di Torino DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2612-5641/7629 Keywords: q***rness, recognition, sitcom, aging, s*xuality Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine how older q***r identiti...

08/07/2024

In "Subverting Same-S*x Couples’ Equal Dignity. The Perpetuation of a System of Double Binds", Anthony Castet (Université de Tours) aims to explore how originalist justices have framed marriage equality as a way to shift the burden of discrimination onto religious conservatives who claim their right not to recognize LGBTQ+ citizens by invoking religious freedom (First Amendment) and direct democracy.
Read the article, from the latest issue of JAm It - Journal of American Studies in Italy, at this link.

Subverting Same-S*x Couples’ Equal Dignity The Perpetuation of a System of Double Binds Anthony Castet University of Tours DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2612-5641/8141 Keywords: Double Binds - LGBTQ Equality - Religious Freedom - Substantive Due Process - Unequal Treatment Abstract Justice Anthony...

05/07/2024

In "Q***ring American History. New Perspectives and the Impact of Archival Activism", Emanuele Monaco (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna) considers the scholarship that sees q***r as much as a methodological intervention as an epithet by focusing on the way q***r history has been defined by academia, what it means to q***r our understanding of American history, what it means to preserve the memory of discriminated communities and individuals.
Read it at the following link.

Q***ring American History New Perspectives and the Impact of Archival Activism Emanuele Monaco University of Bologna DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2612-5641/8222 Keywords: Q***r, Q***r History, American History, Community Archives Abstract In the 1620s, Thomas Morton broke from Plymouth Colony and f...

03/07/2024

"Q***ring America Today. Reflections and Practices for Social Change" is the title of the introduction to our latest issue, n. 9. In it, the editors of this issue Francesco Bacci (Freie Universität Berlin), Emanuele Monaco, and Chiara Patrizi (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna) explains that they aspired to provide the readers with current critical practices and debates within various fields that use q***rness as a critical lens.
https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/jamit/article/view/10678

01/07/2024

We are happy to announce that the latest issue of JAm It - Journal of American Studies in Italy has been published. Volume 9 has been edited by Francesco Bacci, Emanuele Monaco, and Chiara Patrizi and it is entitled "Q***ring America: Gender, S*x, and Recognition". This issue of our journal investigates the multiple ways in which history, literature, political science, and the arts explore the interplay between gender, s*x, and recognition. You can read it online at the following link!

On December 1, 1952, World War II veteran Christine Jorgensen became the first American to undergo s*x reassignment surgery. Her long-standing legacy has helped reignite a fundamental debate on gender, s*x, and recognition. Indeed, as historian Joanne Meyerowitz notes in How S*x Changed: A History o...

17/05/2024

Congratulations to our editor Marco Petrelli on the publication of issue n. 14 of "From the European South" journal, which he co-edited with Anna Scacchi, entitled "On the beat: Owning/Reclaming Time against White Chronocentrism".
https://www.fesjournal.eu/numeri/on-the-beat-owning-reclaiming-time-against-white-chronocentrism/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3u5J4gKPFVVMbofV4JkBnnMWUfBn26Q8fvPPCv_LDGaDrctrctqLqLbXA_aem_AaByKaj8m06AdA6H0zGd4VUIuhUwwA0OiFq3XG5j9ld6wwH9xCAgarHJEa4f5kc44jIaR-cXexQgUHtWjD65MIrk

14 (2024) On the beat: Owning/reclaiming time against white chronocentrism One of the most pervasive and still relatively understudied effects of European colonialism is the way in which it has used time as a tool of oppression and racialization. Colonial historiography and anthropology have indeed....