Pasta and Panic: Tangible and Intangible Heritage as Vehicles for Mobilizing Earthquake Recovery Efforts in Central Italy

Pasta and Panic: Tangible and Intangible Heritage as Vehicles for Mobilizing Earthquake Recovery Efforts in Central Italy

UMD Heritage Lectures*

February 26, 2020 

4:00 pm in Woods Hall, Room 1102

Lecture by: Michael A. Di Giovine

Associate Professor of Anthropology, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

This talk examines the prominent ways in which tangible and intangible heritage was affected, revitalized, and deployed as vehicles for mobilizing recovery efforts and negotiating changing identity in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that hit Central Italy in 2016-2017. The talk sheds light on the politics and economics behind the rather slow recovery and restoration effort—which are not as straightforward as they may seem—and also will particularly focus on the utilization of traditional foodways and food practices to create solidarity movements and negotiate social tensions. Also, while tangible structures, particularly highly valued religious edifices, have all but been erased from the visible fabric of the earthquake region, the food producers who remain have become the new vehicles of community solidarity, and the source of spontaneous “solidarity tourism.”

*Supported by the Department of Anthropology and the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.