The Centre

The Interdepartmental Centre for Research on Utopia was established at the University of Bologna in 1989. In addition to members of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures (now called the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures - LILEC), professors from other departments of the University of Bologna (among them, Italian Studies, History, Political Science, Visual Arts, and Economics), as well as scholars of international renown, have joined the Centre.
The Centre was founded by Vita Fortunati, professor of English Language and Literature, and it became a physical space thanks to the efforts of Fabio Roversi Monaco, Magnifico Rettore of the University of Bologna, who, recognizing its high scientific value, worked to realise this goal.
Since 2013 it has become a Departmental Centre, maintaining its headquarters at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. It was originally directed by founder Vita Fortunati, followed by Giovanna Franci and Roberto Vecchi, and since 2013 the Centre's director is Rita Monticelli.
However, the Centre’s history actually dates back to 1980, when Luigi Firpo, Nicola Matteucci and Vita Fortunati organised the international conference “Utopia and its Forms,” which led to the publication of a volume for the Il Mulino publishing house in 1982. The conference was an opportunity to discuss the possibility of creating an interdepartmental centre for documentation and research on utopia in Bologna. Indeed, the participants glimpsed the possibility of bringing together in a single institution the interest of professors from different academic disciplines, including philosophy and history, linguistic and literary studies, visual arts and humanities.
This led to the organization of a second conference in 1987, “Countries of Cuccagna and Worlds Upside Down,” the proceedings of which were collected by Vita Fortunati and Giampaolo Zucchini in a volume published by Alinea in 1989.

In 1989, to celebrate its formal establishment, the Utopia Study Days were organised, which were attended by Alexandre Cioranescu (University of Santa Cruz of Tenerife) and Raymond Trousson (Université Libre de Bruxelles), among other scholars, as well as numerous students who were specializing on the subject. Since then, the Centre has consistently organised various meetings and events on the topic of Utopia, which have led to the publication of several important volumes on utopian studies.
In May of 1989, Raymond Trousson was invited to hold a series of seminars on Utopia as a literary genre, for students in the Departments of Modern Foreign Languages and Literature and Philosophy and Political Science.
In 1990, in collaboration with the Suor Orsola Benincasa Institute of Naples, in particular with Adriana Corrado, Trousson also organised the III International Conference entitled “For a Definition of Utopia: Comparing Methodologies and Disciplines,” which demonstrated the importance of involving researchers from the fields of economics and law, as well as scientific fields such as biology, physics, engineering and urban planning, in the study of utopia.
In 1993 the IV International Conference “Journeys in Utopia,” took place in Rimini, the proceedings of which were published by the Longo publishing house in Ravenna.
In 1994, in collaboration with the Gramsci Emilia-Romagna institute, the Centre organised the seminar “Dystopia in Literature and Cinema,” which was attended by Vita Fortunati, Franco La Polla, Carlo Pagetti, Carlo Galli, Beatrice Battaglia, and Nadia Minerva, among others.
In 1997 the V International Conference “Lives of Utopia” was held at Gargnano sul Garda (Brescia), which led to a further volume, also published by Longo.
The Centre has formed a wide network of partners, consisting of institutions, associations, similar centres, and individual scholars who have joined in their personal capacity. Participating members have been involved in cultural activities and contributed their publications to enrich the library's collection of materials.
The Centre also produced the study series “Forms of Utopia” for the Longo publishing house, which includes monographs, conference proceedings, and translations of texts from other languages on the subject of Utopia. The scientific committee was composed of scholars of international relevance such as: Vita Fortunati, Director of the series, Bronislaw Baczko (Geneva), Alexandre Cioranescu (Tenerife), Krishan Kumar (Charlottesville, Virginia), Carmelina Imbroscio (Bologna) Nadia Minerva (Perugia), Silvia Rota Ghibaudi (Turin), Giuseppa Saccaro del Buffa (Rome), Lyman Tower Sargent (St. Louis, Missouri), and Raymond Trousson (Brussels).
In 2000, the Dictionary of Literary Utopias, edited by Vita Fortunati and Raymond Trousson, was published by Champion-Slatkine in Geneva. The dictionary includes entries devoted to utopian works written between 1516, the year Thomas More's Utopia was published, and 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. The work also includes entries devoted to the foundational concepts of utopia, which are woven into a dense network of intertextual references within the body of the book.
After the publication of the Dictionary, the Centre promoted its dissemination by organizing round tables at various Italian and European universities, including Bologna, Naples, Turin, Milan, and Porto.

In 2016, the Centre collaborated with the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna, to organise the Study Day “Utopia vs Realism?” This event aimed to reflect on the relevance of utopia and its relationship to realism five hundred years after the publication of Thomas More's Utopia. Additionally, the Centre organised an international conference with keynote speaker Marina Warner who delivered a lecture entitled “Losing Home, Finding Words: Voices in Motion,” as well as the International Conference “A Controversial Solitude: Rereading Radclyffe Hall,” with contributions from the International Gender Bender Festival, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Project GRACE (Gender & Cultures of Equality in Europe), the LILEC Department Library, the Salaborsa Library and the National Women's Library.
In 2017, in collaboration with the Centre of Comparative Studies in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Lisbon, The Centre organised the International Study Day “A Utopian Matinée: Projects and Reflections Between Lisboa and Bologna.”
In December 2018, the Centre’s partnership with the Academy of Global Humanities and Critical Theories (University of Bologna, Duke University, University of Virginia) led to the International Conference “Global F(r)ictions,” which featured, in addition to scholars from our University, the notable academics Nancy Armstrong, Paulo De Medeiros and Tim Parks.
This event was followed by the organization of a second International Conference in 2019 entitled “Global F(r)ictions 2. Images and Narratives of Italy in the Global Context,” in collaboration with DamsLab, the Department of the Arts and the Department of Classical Philology and Italianistics.
In 2021, the Centre presented a series of seminars dedicated to “Posthuman, Trans* and Transfeminist Studies” which was held by Angela Balzano (University of Turin), Valentina Greco (independent scholar) and Ludovico Virtù (Radboud University).
In the same year, it organised Rosi Braidotti's lectio magistralis “The Posthuman and the Contemporary Humanities,” with the support of the Doctoral Program in Translation, Interpretation and Interculturality, the Doctoral Program in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures: Diversity and Inclusion, and the GEMMA Master's Program in Women's and Gender Studies.
March 2022 saw the renewal of the collaboration with the Centre of Comparative Studies at the University of Lisbon, which led to the International Utopian Matinée “Utopia and Dystopia in Question. Mapping the Crisis: Theoretical, Critical and Fictional Issues,” along with also FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Projeto UIDB/00509/2020) and the Doctoral programme in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures - EDGES Curriculum - Gender and Women's Studies.
In January 2023, on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, in collaboration with the Centre for Semiotic Studies on Memory - TRAME, the Centre organised the meeting “Contentious Memories, Family Post-Memories: the Legacy of Fascism,” an event which was also sponsored by the Table of Memory coordinated by the Bologna City Council Presidency.
In May 2024, the Centre hosted Lyman Tower Sargent, a leading scholar in the field of utopia and founding editor of the journal Utopian Studies. Sargent delivered a lecture on “Eugenics in Utopia” for the EDGES Women's and Gender Studies Curriculum in the LILEC Doctoral Program as well as the DIT Doctoral Program - Translation, Interpretation and Interculturalism.
In addition to the Centre of Comparative Studies at the University of Lisbon, the Centre collaborates with internationally renowned scholars in the fields of utopia, science fiction and the new humanities, including Rosi Braidotti, Tom Moylan, and Lyman Tower Sargent.