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Emanuel Rota

Profile picture for Emanuel Rota

Contact Information

2090 FLB
M/C 158
Urbana, IL 61801
Director (on leave 2023-24)

Biography

Emanuel Rota is Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian and an affiliate in the Jewish Studies Program, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory and the Department of History. He holds a PhD in History from the University of California (Berkeley), a Master in History from the University of Oregon and a Laurea from the Università di Pavia. He wrote his Tesi di Laurea on the Italian Communist Party and the process of European Unification and his MA thesis on the Europeanist projects of the anti-liberal Left and the anti-liberal Right in Europe in the 20s and 30s. Europe and its identity have always been at the center of his research. His first book, A Pact with Vichy, examines the intellectual trajectory of one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party from socialism to collaboration with fascism. He has published articles on radicalism, colonialism, and biopolitics. He is completing a monograph on the history of the capitalist work ethic and its relationship with colonialism, racism and European Identity, tentatively titled “A History of Laziness: Natives, Southerners, Workers and the Modern Work Ethics.”