Transnational Modern Languages: Exhibitions for impact

Since its inception in 2014, Transnationalizing Modern Languages (TML), one of three large grants in the AHRC's Translating Cultures scheme, has been conducting research into the communities of the Italian diaspora. The research concentrates on cases representative of the geographic, historical and linguistic map of Italian mobility: Italian communities in the UK, the US, Australia, and South America; colonial settlement within Africa and the Mediterranean; migrant communities within contemporary Italy. The focus of the research is on the forms of representation (journals, newsletters, literature, life stories, photographs, collections of memorabilia, rituals and festivals) that have been produced by these communities and which exemplify the extent of their transcultural nature.

The project has engaged with cultural associations, schools, policy makers and individuals in an exploration of heritage, cultural memory, and educational practices. Intensive engagement with diverse collaborators has illuminated how linguistic and cultural identity are cultivated and expressed across the globe. The project has developed methodologies aimed at embedding the awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity within educational practices, from primary to higher and adult education. Within Higher Education the project is drawing on its primary research to produce a new transnational framework for the study of Modern Languages as a disciplinary field.

An important element of the project is the organization of two exhibitions, one at the British School at Rome (October - November 2016) the other at the Italian Cultural Institute (December 2016 to January 2017). Through the use of photography, audio and visual recordings, art installations and other material, the exhibitions display examples of people's experiences from across the globe and show Italian culture in transnational perspective. The exhibitions show the evolution of the project, its range of methodologies and the principle of co-produced research that lies at its core.

Impact follow-on funding allows the exhibition to be mounted in augmented reality at CO.AS.IT in Melbourne, at the Calandra Institute in New York, and at the Italian Cultural Institute in Addis Ababa.

Mounted in different sites across the globe, the exhibits do not simply offer a visual display but a demonstration of the evolution of the research project, its methodological framework and the principle of co-production that it exemplifies. They produce a dynamic research tool that shows how work on the transnational can be accomplished within Modern Languages. They demonstrate the complexity of interaction between researchers and curators and the nature of the work that the collaboration gives rise to. The exhibits, with associated publications, exemplify how research and curation interact to address issues of pressing topicality. They visualize the research and collaboration processes at the core of TML practice, making them accessible to broader audiences.

Working closely with the institutions where the exhibits are staged, the project team will organize a series of events around the exhibitions: these will include events with artists and writers; visits from local schools; events with migrant communities; meetings with representatives of educational authorities and with policy makers. The exhibits will draw on the work of local artists and will display visual and artistic material with significant local connections. The exhibits will not only disseminate the research of the project but foster new opportunities for the development of educational impact of the project.

The aim of the application for follow-on funding is to bring the exhibition Beyond Borders. Transnational Italy, one of the central outputs of the large grant 'Transnationalizing Modern Languages' (TML), to as wide an audience as possible around the globe. Showing the exhibit in different sites around the world will allow the research methodology and the model of inter-cultural understanding that lies at the heart of TML to reach very different audiences all of which are profoundly interested and invested in cross-cultural exchange.

The application is based on close collaboration with the following institutions: CO.AS.IT (Melbourne), the Calandra Institute (New York), the Italian Cultural Institute (Addis Ababa). Each institution will ensure that groups from schools in the cities where the event is staged will see and interact with the exhibit; they will ensure that the exhibition is seen by as wide a public as possible; they will liaise with migrant associations and organise special events with them; they will encourage the participation of locally based writers and artists whose work addresses similar themes; they will set up meetings with representatives of educational authorities and policy makers.

The proposed exhibits will be open to communities from which much of the research material of TML was gathered. Local exhibitions will allow communities to see and engage with their histories in the global context of Italian migration and experience interactively the cross-cultural and cross-linguistic dimensions of human mobility. The exhibits will address audiences largely made up of people from Australia, the United States and Ethiopia.

Taking the exhibits to the communities from which TML drew material is essential in both academic and cultural terms. It will allow the project team to gather feedback on the exhibition itself which has become a major project output. It will also allow the project team to analyse both audience response to the exhibition experience and the efficacy of the exhibition as a modality of communicating academic research. The analysis of audience responses to the exhibition will be an important part of the TML's process of self-evaluation.

The related event at the Creative Exchange in Edinburgh that will be organized during the same period as the exhibits in different parts of the world will allow the TML team to actively set up a programme of skill development with local pupils (some of whom contributed to the exhibition) and media professionals. One aim of this collaboration is the exhibit in Edinburgh but also to develop of another ItunesU course on how to plan and stage an exhibit of this type.

The exhibitions will also trial the use of video installations that can be offered to any number of venues in the future. TML will actively seek additional venues in order to disseminate both the project and the exhibition as a medium of research in MLs. The following institutions have already expressed interest in staging the exhibition: the Museum of Immigration in Buenos Aires; the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto; the Centro AltreItalie in Turin with support of the regional council of Piedmont. This series of exhibits are important in their own right but also offer a testing ground for the development of a fully portable exhibition that will have an afterlife long after TML has closed.

The article that will be written by members of TML and by the curators of the exhibition will serve as an important tool in disseminating within the academic community how this kind of research, with clear impact for very wide audiences, can be achieved.