Italian Studies, Italian Theory and the politics of trans-lation

Italian Theory has emerged as the result of the search for new conceptual frameworks in the face of a series of international political events concerning not only the proliferation of states of exception but also of new forms of politicization of life related to biomedical science and the biosecurization of spaces. In this essay, I consider how Italian Theory has come into existence in Western academia and beyond through its productive travels among area studies, the humanities, and the social sciences. In particular, I reflect on how US-based Italian Studies—joining forces with scholars in other fields on the two sides of the Atlantic—engage in practices of trans-lation that fundamentally contribute to the “packing” of contemporary Italian political philosophy as “Italian Theory”. Such practices have significantly impacted on Human Geography and the social sciences in general, and influenced how highly theoretical work originated outside the Anglophone “academic core” is (re)produced, legitimated, and circulated internationally.