Posted on 20 November 2017
The Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre successfully organized its first workshop of its new seminar series on 17 November 2017 on the topic ‘Europe and the Nuclear Scare of the Eighties: The European debate on the nuclear issue and antinuclear movements’.
Angela Santese, adjunct professor in the History of European Integration, teaching assistant of contemporary history and Post doctorate Fellow at the University of Bologna, was the main speaker at this event. Santese is also the recipient of a Vibeke Sørenson Grant for research on primary sources at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence.
Santese says: “Presenting my new research as a part of the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre’s Seminar Series was a great opportunity to receive feedback, comments and suggestions on a topic that I just started to deal with.”
Her research aims to explore the following subjects: the impact of antinuclear activity at a European level, the transnational character of the nuclear movement, the environmental connotation of the antinuclear movement, and the impact of anti-nuclear movement on European public opinion. She expects the archives to give her a better idea of the situation, particularly the European parliamentary debates and the Western European Assembly.
She says she received vital feedback, which will impact her research: “In particular my fellow colleagues suggested that I widen my search to other primary sources - not just European and National Archives - by consulting the archives of the Vatican, the papers of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and the personal papers of people involved in the antinuclear movement, such as Carlo Cassola and Alex Langer.”
“They recommended that I include France in my analysis and to investigate in particular why in this country, unlike other European nations, no mass antinuclear movement developed in the same time frame. They also suggested that I consider a local case study, by choosing a specific town in order to underline the connection between the local, the national and the transnational dimensions of the antinuclear protest movement,” She adds. “Finally they suggested investigating the influence of the feminist culture in the movement and on the notion of security, and the need to better clarifying the difference between the political strength and the visibility of the antinuclear movement.”
The second seminar of the ADGRC seminar series will be held on the 12th of February 2018 on the topic of “Forging Europe: Vichy France and the Origins of the European Coal and Steel Community”.