Inha Park ‘28 is a third-year Ph.D. student in Italian Studies. This summer, with support from the Nanovic Institute, Park traveled to Milan and Bolzano to explore the emergence of the Corea (Korea) and and Sciangai (Shanghai) neighborhoods peripheral to major Italian cities.
Before traveling to Italy, I anticipated directly linking my summer research to my dissertation project. My dissertation, provisionally entitled “Moving Images and Analogical Imagination: Renegotiating National Identities between Italy and Korea during the Cold War (1950-1963),” examines Italian and Korean culture’s role in redefining postwar Italy and South Korea. This summer, my independent research, “Decentering Italy’s European Cities: Italian Slums, Korean Ruins, and Blackness,” uncovered the evolution of white Eurocentric urban spaces, which absorbed “Others” like Asia and Africa. Through analysis of mediums, such as newsreels and periodicals, I demonstrated how the humble living conditions of Italian migrants in northern industrial cities (1950-1960) can be compared to widely-circulated images of devastation from the Korean War. Notably, many residents of these neighborhoods were southern Italians, who were often racialized with associations of blackness and Africanness. In this context, Corea and Sciangai neighborhoods embody intersections of Southernness, Koreanness, and Blackness, radically opening up questions regarding the concepts of ‘race’ and ‘periphery’ within Italy.
Since beginning my dissertation research in 2023, I have developed my project largely through online research, which requires further archival investigation in a variety of areas. However, because my summer project investigated the mutual cultural relationships between Italy and Korea, which has never been examined and explicated in any comprehensive sense, it required archival research of numerous primary materials. My daily routine in Milan and Bolzano involved visiting archives, photographing sites, and organizing primary materials and documents, and connecting with local archivists. The specific archives, libraries, and museums I visited in Milan include Centro Pime (to explore how Asia has been represented in Italy), (Bibliolavoro (to consult newspapers and periodicals), Biblioteca Sormani (for books, booklets, and historical materials), Fototega Gilardi (for photographs, magazines, and periodicals), and the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea (for photography).
As an Italian Studies student, I am deeply appreciative to have received the opportunity to examine the less-studied relationship between Italy and Korea. My archival research allowed me to excavate unexamined materials directly related to my dissertation topic, ultimately facilitating and reinforcing my project. I hope the existence of neighborhoods like Corea prompts academics to rethink postwar Italy’s national identity.
If these neighborhoods are not Koreatowns and Chinatowns in the traditional sense, then what are they—and how should we understand them?
In my future studies at Notre Dame, I look forward to continue immersing myself in investigations of Italy’s distinctive East Asian place names.