Research Profile

Chiara Bonfiglioli

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Gender & Women’s Studies at University College Cork, where I also coordinate the one-year interdisciplinary Masters in Women’s Studies.

I hold a BA in Political Sciences from the University of Bologna, and an MA and PhD from the Graduate Gender Programme at the University of Utrecht. Between 2012 and 2014, I was a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, within the framework of the CITSEE project (‘The Europeanisation of Citizenship in the Successor States of the Former Yugoslavia’). Between 2015 and 2017, I worked as a NEWFELPRO post-doctoral fellow within the Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism (CKPIS), University of Pula, Croatia. In 2016/2017, I was awarded an EURIAS Junior Fellowship at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna. In 2021, I held a residential fellowship at the Imre Kertész Kolleg, University of Jena. In 2022-23, I will be incoming Senior Fellow within the 
Elisabeth List Fellowship Programme at the University of Graz. 

In the course of my research I have been focusing on transnational women’s, gender and feminist history, adopting an intersectional approach in all my projects and combining archival research with qualitative methods. 

Research Interests

My research focuses on women's, gender and feminist history from a transnational and intersectional perspective. Through in-depth archival research and oral history interviewing, I am attending to the specific historical, political and social relations that made women’s and feminist movements possible in a determinate place and time. In my work I have been intervening, notably, in recent discussion on women’s agency and subjectivity in state socialist or post-socialist settings. 

Transnational women's activism in the Cold War era 
My doctoral dissertation, titled Revolutionary Networks. Women's Political and Social Activism in Cold War Italy and Yugoslavia (1945-1957), aimed to counter the widespread assumption that early Cold War times were characterised by gender conservatism, and challenged the idea that socialist and communist activists were manipulated by their respective party leaders. Despite their lack of political autonomy, internationalist female leaders in Cold War Italy and Yugoslavia had a crucial role in the establishment of women’s new political, economic and social rights after 1945. The dissertation studied notably the Union of Italian Women (UDI), federating communist and socialist women, and the communist-led Antifascist Women’s Front of Yugoslavia (AFŽ), and their activities in relation to wider Cold War disputes such as the Italo-Yugoslav border settlement and the Soviet-Yugoslav split. Transnational connections established between East, West and the ‘Third World’ during the Cold War era remain a prominent research interest. Specifically, I have been exploring such connections through the personal archive of Vida Tomšić, a former partisan and socialist politician who had an important role in the framing of gender and development policies during the UN Decade for Women, in cooperation with women’s organizations in recently decolonised countries. I aim to write a monograph on this theme,  highlighting the role of women’s organisations and female leaders within the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). I recently received a UCC Returners' Scheme to carry out further archival research, and an Enterprise Ireland ERC Support Grant, to submit an ERC Consolidator application (under review). 

Gender, labour and (de-) industrialisation in the Balkans
In parallel with my research on Cold War women’s and feminist activism, in the past five years I have been researching gender and labour history in socialist Yugoslavia and in post-socialist, post-Yugoslav states with a specific focus on women’s work in the garment industry. My forthcoming monograph, under contract with I.B. Tauris, is titled Women and Industry in the Balkans: The Rise and Fall of the Yugoslav Textile Sector. The book builds upon over 60 oral history interviews that I have been collecting in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia with former and current workers in the garment industry, as well as on archive material, including photography. In socialist Yugoslavia, the textile and garment sector thrived, covering approximately 12% of total manufacturing. Textile factories functioned as socialist microcosms, providing workers with welfare services, leisure and housing. Working women received a variety of welfare services as part of the “working mother” gender contract. After the break-up of Yugoslavia and after the transition from market socialism to capitalism, however, privatisation and deindustrialisation deeply affected the textile sector, leading to multiple factory closures, precarious work and widespread unemployment across the region. My main thesis is that workers’ industrial structure of feeling developed during socialism – which was also profoundly gendered - lingers on in the post-socialist present and across the post-Yugoslav region, giving rise to demands for social justice and better welfare and labour conditions. 



Research Grants

 ProjectFunding
Body
Start DateEnd DateAward
Internationalism duriing the Cold War (WO-NAM - Women's Non Aligned)Enterprise Irl21-OCT-2120-OCT-22€10,596.00
UCC Returners Scheme CACSSSMiscellaneous01-JAN-2130-JUN-22€4,358.00

Publications

Books

 YearPublication
(2019)Women and Industry in the Balkans: The Rise and Fall of the Yugoslav Textile Sector.
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2019) Women and Industry in the Balkans: The Rise and Fall of the Yugoslav Textile Sector. London: I.B. Tauris. [Details]

Edited Books

 YearPublication
(2017)Socialism: Construction and Deconstruction [Socijalizam: Izgradnja i razgradnja]
Chiara Bonfiglioli and Boris Koroman (Ed.). (2017) Socialism: Construction and Deconstruction [Socijalizam: Izgradnja i razgradnja] Zagreb/Pula: Srednja Europa/University of Pula. [Details]
(2009)La Straniera: informazioni, sito-bibliografie e ragionamenti su razzismo e sessismo
Chiara Bonfiglioli, Lidia Cirillo, Laura Corradi, Barbara De Vivo, Sara R. Farris (Ed.). (2009) La Straniera: informazioni, sito-bibliografie e ragionamenti su razzismo e sessismo Rome: Edizioni Alegre. [Details]
(2006)La Planete Altermondialiste. Guide Critique de la pensee de
Chiara Bonfiglioli and Sebastian Budgen (Ed.). (2006) La Planete Altermondialiste. Guide Critique de la pensee de Paris: Textuel. [Details]

Book Chapters

 YearPublication
(2023)'Transnational feminist interventions on gender-based violence during the Bosnian War: representational dilemmas in activism, advocacy, and art'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara (2023) 'Transnational feminist interventions on gender-based violence during the Bosnian War: representational dilemmas in activism, advocacy, and art' In: Mandolini, Nicoletta; Williamson Sinalo, Caroline (eds). Representing Gender-Based Violence: Global Perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave. [Details]
(2022)'Representing Women’s Non-Aligned encounters: a view from Yugoslavia'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara (2022) 'Representing Women’s Non-Aligned encounters: a view from Yugoslavia' In: Stubbs, Paul (eds). Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: Social, Cultural, Political, and Economic Imaginaries. York: McGill-Queen’s University Press. [Details]
(2020)'Workers' Discontent, Gender and Consumption in Socialist Yugoslavia: The Case of Women Working in the Garment Industry'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2020) 'Workers' Discontent, Gender and Consumption in Socialist Yugoslavia: The Case of Women Working in the Garment Industry' In: Labor in State Socialist Europe after 1945: Contributions to Global Labor History. Budapest: Central European University Press. [Details]
(2020)'Communisms, Generations, and Waves: The Cases of Italy, Yugoslavia, and Cuba'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara (2020) 'Communisms, Generations, and Waves: The Cases of Italy, Yugoslavia, and Cuba' In: Mrozik, Agnieska; Artwinska, Anna (eds). Gender, Generations, and Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond. London: Routledge. [Details]
(2016)'AFŽ Activists’ Biographies: an Intersectional Reading of Women’s Agency'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2016) 'AFŽ Activists’ Biographies: an Intersectional Reading of Women’s Agency' In: Andreja Duganđić and Tijana Okić (eds). The Lost Revolution: the Antifascist Women’s Front of Yugoslavia Between Myth and Oblivion [Izgubljena revolucija: AFŽ između mita i zaborava]. Sarajevo: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation/CRVENA. [Details]
(2016)'Cold War Gendered Imaginaries of Citizenship and Transnational Women’s Activism: The Case of the Movie Die Windrose (1957)'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2016) 'Cold War Gendered Imaginaries of Citizenship and Transnational Women’s Activism: The Case of the Movie Die Windrose (1957)' In: Anne Epstein and Rachel G. Fuchs (eds). Gender and Citizenship in Historical and Transnational Perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan. [Details]
(2016)'Nomadic Theory as an Epistemology for Transnational Feminist History'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2016) 'Nomadic Theory as an Epistemology for Transnational Feminist History' In: Bolette Blagaard and Iris van der Tuin (eds). The Subject of Rosi Braidotti. London: Bloomsbury. [Details]
(2013)'Cold War Internationalisms, Nationalisms and the Yugoslav – Soviet Split: the Union of Italian Women and the Antifascist Women’s Front of Yugoslavia Before and After 1948'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2013) 'Cold War Internationalisms, Nationalisms and the Yugoslav – Soviet Split: the Union of Italian Women and the Antifascist Women’s Front of Yugoslavia Before and After 1948' In: Francisca de Haan, Margaret Allen, June Purvis and Krassimira Daskalova (eds). Women’s Activism: Global Perspectives from the 1890s to the present. London: Routledge. [Details]

Peer Reviewed Journals

 YearPublication
(2022)'Working Class Women’s Activism in Socialist Yugoslavia: An Exploration of Archives from Varaždin, Croatia'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara; Žerić, Sara (2022) 'Working Class Women’s Activism in Socialist Yugoslavia: An Exploration of Archives from Varaždin, Croatia'. Comparative Southeast European Studies, 70 (1):80-102 [Details]
(2022)'State socialist women’s organizations within Yugoslav factories: a case study of local activism in the Duga Resa cotton mill'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara (2022) 'State socialist women’s organizations within Yugoslav factories: a case study of local activism in the Duga Resa cotton mill'. Social History, 47 (1):85-104 [DOI] [Details]
(2020)'Post-Socialist Deindustrialisation and Its Gendered Structure of Feeling: The Devaluation of Women’s Work in the Croatian Garment Industry'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara (2020) 'Post-Socialist Deindustrialisation and Its Gendered Structure of Feeling: The Devaluation of Women’s Work in the Croatian Garment Industry'. Labor History, 61 (1):36-47 [Details]
(2020)'Women's internationalism and Yugoslav-Indian connections: From the Non-Aligned Movement to the UN Decade for Women'
Bonfiglioli, Chiara (2020) 'Women's internationalism and Yugoslav-Indian connections: From the Non-Aligned Movement to the UN Decade for Women'. Nationalities Papers, 49 (3):446-461 [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
(2018)'Feminist translations in a socialist context: the case of Yugoslavia'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2018) 'Feminist translations in a socialist context: the case of Yugoslavia'. Gender & History, [Details]
(2016)'On Vida Tomšič, Marxist Feminism, and Agency'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2016) 'On Vida Tomšič, Marxist Feminism, and Agency'. Aspasia, 10 :145-151 [Details]
(2015)'Introduction, Transformations of Gender, Sexuality and Citizenship in South East Europe'
Chiara Bonfiglioli, Katija Kahlina, Adriana Zaharijevic (2015) 'Introduction, Transformations of Gender, Sexuality and Citizenship in South East Europe'. Women's Studies International Forum (WSIF), 49 :43-47 [Details]
(2011)'Compagna Donna/Drugarica Žena: la conferenza internazionale di Belgrado del 1978'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2011) 'Compagna Donna/Drugarica Žena: la conferenza internazionale di Belgrado del 1978'. Genesis, X (2):83-104 [Details]
(2016)'The first UN world conference on women (1975) as a cold war encounter: Recovering anti-imperialist, non-aligned and socialist genealogies'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2016) 'The first UN world conference on women (1975) as a cold war encounter: Recovering anti-imperialist, non-aligned and socialist genealogies'. Filozofija i Društvo, 27 (3):521-541 [Details]
(2015)'Gendered citizenship in the global European periphery: Textile workers in post-Yugoslav states'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2015) 'Gendered citizenship in the global European periphery: Textile workers in post-Yugoslav states'. Women's Studies International Forum (WSIF), 49 (March April):57-65 [Details]
(2014)'Red Girls’ Revolutionary Tales. Antifascist Women’s Autobiographies in Italy'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2014) 'Red Girls’ Revolutionary Tales. Antifascist Women’s Autobiographies in Italy'. Feminist Review, 106 :60-77 [Details]
(2014)'Gender, labour and precarity in the South East European periphery: the case of textile workers in Štip'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2014) 'Gender, labour and precarity in the South East European periphery: the case of textile workers in Štip'. Contemporary Southeastern Europe (CSE), 1 (2):7-23 [Details]
(2014)'Women’s Political and Social Activism in the Early Cold War Era: The Case of Yugoslavia'
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2014) 'Women’s Political and Social Activism in the Early Cold War Era: The Case of Yugoslavia'. Aspasia, 8 :1-25 [Details]

Electronic Article

 YearPublication
(2017)A Working Day that has no End: The Double Burden in Socialist Yugoslavia.
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2017) A Working Day that has no End: The Double Burden in Socialist Yugoslavia. Electronic Article   [Details]
(2016)Partizanke. Their dangerous legacy in the post-Yugoslav space.
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2016) Partizanke. Their dangerous legacy in the post-Yugoslav space. Electronic Article   [Details]
(2012)“An Age Fated to Vanish”: Vera Stein Erlich's anthropological records of interwar Yugoslavia.
Chiara Bonfiglioli (2012) “An Age Fated to Vanish”: Vera Stein Erlich's anthropological records of interwar Yugoslavia. Electronic Article   [Details]

Professional Activities

Education

 YearInstitutionQualificationSubject
2012University of Utrecht, Research Institute for History and Culture, Graduate Gender Programme PhDRevolutionary Networks. Women's Political and Social Activism in Cold War Italy and Yugoslavia (1945-1953)
2008University of Utrecht, Research Institute for History and Culture, Graduate Gender Programme Research MasterGender and Ethnicity
2005University of Bologna, Faculty of Political Sciences Bachelor degreeCultures and Human Rights

Employment

 EmployerPositionFrom / To
University College Cork Lecturer09-OCT-17 /
University of Pula Post-doctoral fellow01-FEB-15 / 30-OCT-17
University of Edinburgh Research fellow01-SEP-12 / 30-NOV-14
University of Utrecht AIO (Assistent in Opleiding)01-SEP-08 / 30-AUG-12

Honours and Awards

 YearTitleAwarding Body
2021Imre Kertész Fellowship Imre Kertész Kolleg, University of Jena
2016EURIAS Junior Fellowship European Commission
2015Newfelpro post-doctoral grant Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND
2013Rubicon post-doctoral fellowship Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
2012AWSS Graduate Essay Prize Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS)
2012Premio Franca Pieroni Bortolotti Regional Council of Tuscany and Society of Italian Women Historians

Languages

 LanguageReadingWritingSpeaking
Italian FluentFluentFluent
Croatian FluentFluentFluent
French FluentFluentFluent
English FluentFluentFluent

Outreach Activities

 Description

Co-organization of seminar series Global Feminisms, in cooperation with the Casilac Research Cluster on Violence, Conflict and Gender, which included distinguished international guests such as Prof. Charles Ngwena, Prof Akwugo Emejulu, Dr Francesca Sobande and Dr Carmen Romero Bachiller.

Organiser of webinar series Women and Activism in Ireland: Profiling Leaders and Change-Makers 2020/2021: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlP8un2wcdN_py3aW2oKgA

International conference Communists and Communist Parties: Policies, Actions and Debates, CKPIS, University of Pula, 28-30.9.2017 (co-organiser)

Workshop Researching Labour History in Post-socialist Contexts, IWM Vienna, 21.6.2017 (co-organiser)

International conference Socialism: Construction and Deconstruction, CKPIS, University of Pula, 1-3.10.2015 (co-organiser).

Journal Activities

 JournalRoleTo / From
East European Politics And Societies Referee-
Aspasia Referee-

Teaching Activities

Teaching Interests

UCC: At University College Cork, I am teaching several classes within the interdisciplinary MA in Women’s Studies, from research skills sessions to sessions covering various theoretical and methodological issues in women’s and gender studies. As the Coordinator of the programme, I am also in charge of designing and reviewing the Masters’ curricula in cooperation with the members of the Board of Women’s Studies and the Teaching Team. I am also coordinating and teaching a very successful university-wide PG module titled 'Researching through a gender lens: an interdisciplinary introduction' which is open to PhD students in all the schools and departments at UCC. I am also a guest-lecturer for the School of Government and Politics. I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2019). 

Other institutions: Before joining UCC, I taught several guest-lectures on issues of gender history in the post-Yugoslav region at the University of Pula, the University of Rijeka, the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb (Croatia), the University of Urbino (Italy), the University of Graz and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Austria) between 2015 and 2017. I was also a guest-lecturer within the Summer school on Language Gender and Sexuality - The Balkan Experience organized by the University of the Aegean (Greece) in 2013. In the course of my doctoral studies at Utrecht University, I also taught a course on Women, Welfare and Globalisation at Utrecht University (2011), as well as several guest-lectures on post-colonial and post-socialist feminism. I continue to be a guest-lecturer for the University of Pula, the University of Graz, and the University of Vienna. I was recently a lecturer for the Feminist Critical Analysis summer school organized at the Interuniversity Center in Dubrovnik.

Teaching interests and areas
  1. Research skills (academic writing, presentation skills, etc.)
  2. Methodologies in gender, women’s and feminist history  
  3. Qualitative methods and oral history
  4. Intersectionality as theory and methodology
  5. Transnational women’s activism
  6. Post-colonial and post-socialist feminisms
  7. Gender, labour and globalization

Supervision: I would be interested in supervising MA or PhD dissertations in these areas of research, as well as in the field of gender history, labour history and Italian and (post-) Yugoslav history more generally. I have been supervising dissertations on various themes, ranging from the Repeal the 8th Movement to gender based violence, to an oral history of women and displacement during the Troubles to sex workers and care in Ireland. I was internal reviewer for a PhD dissertation on the alterglobalization movement in the School of Government and Politics.

Supervised and co-supervised MA dissertations
Khadijha Soliman (on-going), Laura McCarthy (on-going), Vicki Magee (on-going), Susan Harris (2021), Maggie O’Sullivan (2020), Doris Murphy (2019), Keelin Cox (2018)
Co-supervised PhD dissertations: Doris Murphy (on-going).


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