The Italian Feminist Activist oral histories were collected in two waves, in 2018 and 2019. The activists in the first wave represent a wide variety of women’s rights activism, from participation in the 1970s women’s movements to work with Roma women. The activists in the second wave were affiliated with the Cassero, a local LGBTQ+ resource center, and primarily identify themselves as queer activists.
Alice Biagi
Alice Biagi was born in Modena in 1984. She received her Laurea Triennale in Communication Science at the Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna. She currently works as the school and training coordinator at Cassero, and is also a swim instructor. She has been an activist at Cassero LGBTI center since 2007.
Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, community activism
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English)
Giulia Blasi
Giulia Blasi, born in Pordenone in 1972, is a writer and a feminist activist. She is the author of several novels and short stories, including Manuale per ragazze rivoluzionarie - Perché il femminismo ci rende felici (2018), Rivoluzione Z - Diventare adulti migliori con il femminismo (2020), and Brutta - Storia di un corpo come tanti, all published by Rizzoli. She is the creator of the #quellavoltache campaign, a hashtag used in Italy at the end of 2017 to open a conversation on sexual harassment and abuse. She lives in Rome.
Keywords: media, community activism, intersectionality, LGBTQ+ rights, art/writing as activism
Angela Tullio Cataldo
Angela Tullio Cataldo was born in 1985 in Rome. She received a Master’s degree from Roma Tre University and works as a researcher, studying the Roma.
Keywords: international rights, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Carla Catena
Carla Catena was born in Ancona in 1963. She graduated in literature from the University of Bologna and works as a marketing project manager. She is active with the Lesbian Association Bologna.
Keywords: community activism, LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Elisa Coco
Elisa Coco was born in Catania, Sicily in the late 1970s. She graduated in communication science from the University of Bologna. She helped create and works for a marketing and communication agency called “Comunicattive” focusing on gender-related communication. They deal with themes like violence against women, and lesbian and queer activism.
Keywords: feminist conferences, LGBTQ+ rights, community activism
Media: Transcripts (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Valentina Coletta
Valentina Coletta was born in Campania, a region of Naples in 1985. She identifies as trans and intersex. She graduated with a degree in psychology from a university in Rome. She works with the Transsexual Identity Movement (MIT) to fight for transgender rights, including with migrants.
Keywords: gender and health, LGBTQ+ rights, reform of domestic/family roles, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Elisa Dal Molin
Elisa Dal Molin was born in Feltre, in the province of Belluno, in 1975. She obtained a four-year degree in oriental languages and literature (Chinese). She has worked for many years as the regional representative for Famiglie Arcobaleno. Since the fall of 2018, she has worked as the Secretary of the Famiglie Arcobaleno (national directive).
Keywords: politics and the law, LGBTQ+ rights, community activism, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Anita Lombardi
Anita Lombardi was born in Vittorio Veneto in 1988. She graduated from college with a degree in Philosophy and works as a freelancer. She works as the Secretary of the Board of the Lesbian Association in Bologna.
Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, intersectionality
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Elisa Manici
Elisa Manici was born in La Spezia in 1975. She received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Bologna. She works as a penniless journalist and temporary librarian. She has been involved in various groups, including Leftist Youth, ArciLesbica, and Cassero.
Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, intersectionality, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Lia Migale
Lia Migale, writer and economist, was born in 1949 and lives in Rome, where she was a professor of Business Economics at the “La Sapienza” University in Rome until the 2014/2015 academic year. She was a consultant on issues of the economics of art and planning and business strategy for Italian and international organizations. She also worked as an economic editor in the national press for a long period and published various economic essays. Feminist since the 1970s, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Casa internazionale delle Donne di Roma from 2014 to 2019. She has published several works on Italian feminism, including “Piccola storia del femminismo in Italia” (Empiria, Roma, 2016), and “Imprenditoria femminile e sviluppo economico”, (Nuova Italia Scientifica, Roma, 1996). She has also published novels, short stories, and other essays. With the novel L’innumerevole uno (Iacobelli Editore, Roma, 2018) she was the winner of the 2018 Capalbio Award. Her latest novel, “Incontri all’angolo di un mattino” was published in 2018 (La Lepre Edizioni Roma) and received one of the awards from L’IGUANA, Castello di Prata Sannita in 2019.
Keywords: media, community activism, intersectionality, LGBTQ+ rights, art/writing as activism
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Michela Murgia
Michela Murgia was born in 1972 in Sardinia. She worked as a writer, blogger, playwright, literary critic, and television and newspaper columnist with the Gedi Group. She has won several awards for her fiction, in particular for Accabadora, for which she received the Campiello prize, and also for non-fiction, for Ave Mary and Istruzioni per diventare fascisti, with the publisher Einaudi in Turin. Already a supporter of Sardinian independence and politically active on the left, she was also committed to women’s rights. Michela Murgia passed away on August 10, 2023.
Keywords: art/writing as activism, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Antonia Peressoni
Antonia Peressoni was born in San Daniele del Friuli in 1978. After graduating with a degree in Public Relations (advertising) she moved first to Piedmont and shortly after to Bologna. She works as the press office manager for a record company and also freelances. With her arrival in the capital of Emilia Romagna, she dedicated herself to activism in the LGBTQ world, first as a volunteer for Pride in 2008, organized by the Arcigay “Cassero” and then within the Bologna Arcigay association. In 2012 she created Indie Pride, a live event with the intention of involving the musical world in saying NO to homophobia, bullying, and sexism. After four years Indie Pride became an independent organization sponsoring its annual festival, and also satellite events like talks, workshops, meetings, and awareness campaigns. In recent years she has collaborated with national and international networks, like Eqauly and Keychange, which deal with gender equality and the gender gap within the music market.
Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law, art/writing as activism
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Samanta Picciaiola
Samanta Picciaiola was born in 1976. She received her research doctorate in Italian studies at Sorbonne Paris IV and the University of Florence and a degree in philosophy from University of Bologna. She has worked full time as a public primary school teacher since 2005. She is an activist for the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
Keywords: community activism, education, gender-based violence
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Bianca Maria Pomeranzi
Bianca Maria Pomeranzi was born in 1950 in Arezzo. She has been a part of the Roman Feminist Movement of Via Pompeo Magno since the mid-1970s. With the group Vivere Lesbica she organized the first Italian Lesbian Feminist Conference in 1981. As an expert on gender and development issues, she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Development Cooperation. She served as an Expert on the Commission of the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Women, CEDAW. She is vice president of the Association for the Renewal of the Left and politically active in the Wednesday Feminist Group and the Alma Sabatini Feminist Studies Center.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Camila Ranauro
Camilla Ranauro was born in 1994, and has been a LGBTI+ activist and feminist since the age of 17. She has been active in both collectives and formal associations. She is currently the vice president of Cassero LGBTI+ Center in Bologna, Italy. Her principal interests are education, political protest, and planning and preparation of European project proposals.
Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, intersectionality, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Valeria Roberti
Valeria Roberti was born in 1984 and has been an activist for the rights of LGBTQI+ people for years. She is the facilitator of the Centro Risorse LGBTI, an organization that promotes the full equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, and intersex people. She works to promote Education about Differences with adolescents and teachers through non-formal education techniques and has collaborated with various organizations already active in this field. In 2017 she completed the course for professional development on “Gender Perspectives in Teaching Pedagogy” at the University of Bologna. She is the coauthor of the book “Una scuola arcobaleno. Dati e strumenti contro l’omotransfobia in classe” published by Settenove Edizioni in 2021.
Keywords: LGBTQ+ rights, politics and the law, education
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
Maddalena Vianello
Maddalena Vianello was born in 1978 in Turin. She graduated from the La Sapienza University of Rome with a Modern History degree and holds a Masters degree in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a professional in cultural planning and organization, an expert in gender policies and in the field of male violence against women. And she is a feminist activist. She currently works as an expert on gender policies for the Lazio region of Italy. With other women, she conceived and organized inQuiete (https://www.inquietefestival.it/), a festival of writers in Rome, to give voice to women’s writing, in many ways still considered minor literature in Italy. With some partners, she keeps the blog “Femministerie” https://femministerie.wordpress.com/. She has collaborated with various periodicals and has published “Fra me e te” (Edizioni et al., 2013), co-written with her mother, Mariella Gramaglia, and “In fondo al desiderio” (Fandango, 2021), dedicated to the theme of medically assisted procreation.
Keywords: reform of domestic/family roles, politics and the law, art/writing as activism
Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)
