Adriana Dadà

From Zapruder
January 30, 2026

Adriana Dadà passed away on January 28. A historian of anarchism, a scholar of opposition to fascism and of migration, and a professor of contemporary history at the University of Florence, Adriana always combined scholarly commitment with that of a longtime anarchist communist militant, a careful and participatory scrutinizer of the present time. It is these traits that have almost naturally brought her trajectory closer to that of “Zapruder” from the very beginning. Although she was never internal to the editorial staff or association structures, in 2013 she used ‘we’ to propose to the Storie in Movimento assembly a monograph on public history, which would actually flow into the 2015 issue 36 she edited with Damiano Garofalo and Andrea Tappi. To underscore that recognition in a common horizon that transcends the particularity of individual paths.

And hers was particularly rich, so much so that it is not easy to summarize it in a few lines.

Re-reading today her synthesis of the history of anarchism in Italy (L'anarchismo in Italia: fra movimento e partito. History and Documents, Milan, Teti 1984), almost forgotten, is interesting for many reasons. Firstly, for the extremely frank reading she makes of this current in the workers' movement, then for her ability to explain its fundamental nodes without fear of making judgments and, finally, for her attention to the reading of the documents, produced by the movement and its opponents, which are offered in an extensive documentary appendix, as was customary at the time. These are traits that can also be found in later works, from those on anti-fascist and internationalist resistance to the works on '68 - including precisely issue 16 of “Zapruder” for the 40th anniversary - or even the more recent studies on migrant women (the nannies, the “barsane” of Lunigiana).

But perhaps more than in the books, her most valuable historiographical contribution should be sought in the multitude of articles and interventions, which will hopefully be brought together and made available to pay tribute to her. More difficult, on the other hand, will be to trace, alongside the articles, the thousands of projects to which she made a contribution, more or less large, mixing her ‘I’ with the ‘we’ that was natural, instinctive to her: from archival and historiographical ones (edizioni Crescita politica, Centro Studi Politico Sociale Archivio il Sessantotto, Museo Archivio della Memoria di Bagnone, Archivi della Resistenza di Fosdinovo, to name but a few) to those more directly related to political engagement and social intervention (Federation of Anarchist Communists or the more recent Per un'altra città, the path alongside the Senegalese community of Florence after the killing at the fascist hands of Samb Modou et Diop Mor in 2011, the Antifascist Network in the San Jacopino district against Casapound... ).

Always keeping in mind that these two aspects were for her two sides of the same coin.

"They write, dear comrades, what suits them [...] also because the real actors are never there, the masses do not appear, so history is misrepresented and it seems that the conquests that cost rivers of blood were the work of an elite."
- Adriana Dada, “They write, dear comrades, what suits them.” Historical research between papers and living sources, “Zapruder,” no. 7 (2005), pp. 98-101.

Ciao, Adriana.

---------
From Umanità Nova
February 4, 2026

"In popular belief, oral sources are considered last-minute sources, and yet they're increasingly in vogue. In the Florentine environment, where I've just started working in neighborhoods on the relationships that are created with migrants from various communities, research groups, even national ones, are arriving, active in the area. They leave the former tobacco factory (now a coworking complex, ed.) by bike in the morning, ride around, meet people, conduct interviews, and by the end of the evening the investigation is complete. We need to denounce these things that are trendy today and distort the necessarily long-term work we do, because working on oral sources is tiring, and I can no longer tolerate being treated like this. You young people, tell me your point of view. I fight on these things, because funding goes in this direction and it makes you angry; funding rewards immediacy. In other words, quick project, quick result, I pay. If the project, to have good results, has to be long, I don't pay..." (transcription from YouTube: 2025, Florence, AISO Conference, Final debate report, speech by Adriana Dadà , edited by Mario Spiganti).

This is perhaps the last speech at a scientific conference by Adriana, a longtime anarchist-communist activist and former professor at the University of Florence, a longtime anarcho-communist activist, and a member of the FLC-CGIL, who died on January 28th at the age of 78. The topic of the debate, which she addressed succinctly, was close to her heart, and concerned the discriminatory and opportunistic mechanisms prevalent in a feudalized academy incapable of appreciating the in-depth, long-term work necessary to acquire professional skills. Specifically, it concerned the training and funding of so-called "national research groups." And her tone was as combative as ever.

A student of Gino Cerrito and custodian of his invaluable archive, she belonged to that large (now dwindling) group of historians of Italian anarchism who, in their thirties—between the 1970s and 1980s—had debuted works that remain remarkable today. This was an era when the so-called historiography of affiliations was still in force, and her book, "Anarchism in Italy between Movement and Party: History and Documents of Italian Anarchism" (Teti, 1984), remained a generous attempt to reclaim a space of its own for the narrative of the political events of the libertarian movement in our country, perhaps alongside that of other historiographies of the left. With the cultural shift of the 1990s, her research interests shifted elsewhere, particularly to social history, gender, and emigration. Traditional event history, based primarily on archival documents and the primacy of political and military perspectives, was being superseded by field research, a focus on relational and experiential dimensions, and attention to individual agency and life stories. Her research on wet nurses and "barsane" (street vendors from Lunigiana, her homeland) is memorable.

Dear Adriana, we haven't seen each other much over the last fifty years, but I fondly remember our brief exchanges, often polemical but rich in humanity. I was pleased by your interest in my studies on libertarian currents in Italian trade unions after World War II. My heartfelt thoughts go out to those who loved you, to Andrea and Michela.

Giorgio Sacchetti

---------
From Blog della BFS
January 29, 2026

Yesterday, January 28, 2026, after a brief illness, Adriana Dadà passed away.

A committed companion since her university years, she framed her political and trade union activities through a materialist, class-based, and libertarian approach. Originally from Lunigiana, she devoted years to historical research at the University of Florence, distinguishing herself for her studies on female emigration and political movements.

In the first phase of her career, Adriana focused on the history of political parties and movements, with a specific interest in Italian anarchism between the 19th and 20th centuries and its diffusion in Italian-American communities. Among her most significant works from this period are: Anarchism in Italy between Movement and Party: History and Documents of Italian Anarchism (Milan, Teti, 1984) and the editing of Gli anarchici nella Resistenza apuana by Gino Cerrito (Lucca, M. Pacini Fazzi, 1984) and Anarchist Antifascism: 1919-1945: to those who remained by Nino Malara (Rome, Sapere 2000, 1995).

Since the 1990s, her focus has shifted to the history of migration, particularly the flows into and out of Tuscany. Her work has been pioneering in highlighting the invisibility of women in migration processes, adopting a gender perspective that has given voice to historically suppressed figures. Her research, often described as a "stratigraphic excavation," has drawn on a cross-section of sources: archival documents, family correspondence, and, above all, oral histories.

Thanks to the latter, Adriana has reconstructed the stories of:

wet nurses and seasonal migrants, considered archetypes of today's domestic workers;
barsane, the street vendors of Lunigiana;
family groups who emigrated to California.

These investigations have given rise to a "choral memory" that explores the transformations of female identity and the impact of migration on host societies. In addition to her academic output, Adriana has translated her research into multimedia tools, exhibitions, and video documentaries. Her video " Le Barsane" won the 2009 video research award from the Oral History Association. She has also served as a consultant for the Tuscany Region and has actively collaborated with schools and local institutions to promote educational programs on the themes of multiculturalism, peace, and anti-racism. In recent years, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of 1968, she has devoted herself to reconstructing the history of the Florentine student movement, curating publications on the visual imagery of the protest.

Bibliography dedicated to migratory phenomena

a) volumes

People of Tuscany. Our Stories in the World (scientific advice and excerpts from the volume), Florence, Regional Council of Tuscans Abroad, 2000, p. 192.

Wet Nursery Work: Memory and History of Female Emigration from Ponte Buggianese in the 20th Century, Pacini, Pisa, 1999, p. 126.

History and stories of the Bisenzio Valley and Corsica. Travagliu annantu à u terrenu etnograficu corsu – toscanu, edited by Adriana Dadà, Prato, 2000, p. 64.

Paths of Research, History, and Life. Ten Years of the Franca Pieroni Bortolotti Prize, edited by Adriana Dadà, Florence, 2000, p. 109.

Welfare Institutions and Private Individuals in Tuscany between the 17th and 20th Centuries, Florence, 2002, p. 160.

Migrant Women and Men: Yesterday and Today, Prato, Province of Prato, 2002 (with attached DVD), p. 16. Towards Other Worlds: Migrant Women and Men, Pisa, Pacini, 2004, p. 144.

Migrant Women and Men: The Social Value of Memory, Prato, Province of Prato, 2006, p. 48 (with attached DVD)

America. Bagnone, Tuscany – California: Women and Men Who Go and Who Stay, Florence, 2006, p. 94.

The Barsane: Street Vendors from Tuscany to Northern Italy, Florence, 2008, p. 96.

b) essays

Emigration and Historiography. Initial Results of Research on Tuscany, “Italia Contemporanea,” 1993, 192, pp. 487-502.

Introduction to the essays on emigration, “Documents and studies”, edited by Adriana Dadà, 1993, 14/15.

From Lunigiana to 'Barsana': the process of transformation from seasonal agricultural workers into specialized street vendors, “Bollettino di Demografia Storica”, 1993, 19, pp. 111-133.

Workers from the Tuscan Apennines in Corsica in the 19th Century, “Altre Italie”, 1995, no. 12, pp. 6-38 (special issue dedicated to “Italians in the Mediterranean”).

Leaving for Another's Child: Tales of Twentieth-Century Wet Nurses, in Altrove. Women's Journeys from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century, edited by Dinora Corsi, Rome, 1999, pp. 111-134.

Regions and Migration Areas. Tuscany and the Pistoia Area, “Tuscan Emigration Notebooks,” No. 2, edited by Adriana Dadà, Florence, 2001, pp. 3-10.

Roads and Professions of Emigrants from the Tuscan Apennines, in The Mediterranean Mountains: A Factory of Men? Mobility and Migration in a Comparative Perspective (15th-20th Centuries), Turin, Gribaudo, 2000, pp. 153-64.

Rereading Franca Pieroni Bortolotti today, in Devouring the Infinite, edited by K. Franceschi, Florence, Morgana, 2001, pp. 6-13.

Territory and Memory: Between Genres and Generations, “La Nuova Città”, June 2003, pp. 22-28.

Wet Nursery Work in Valdinievole, in Women's Work. Women's Activities in Valdinievole between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Buggiano (Pistoia), 2004, pp. 83-126.

Migrant women and men, in Journey into the interpretation of the city, Prato, 2004, pp. 52-59.

The Memory of Migrant Women, Yesterday and Today, paper presented at the conference on “Oral Sources,” Rome, May 2003, now in “Class Memories,” Rome, 2005. Migrant Women and Men. Paths of Research and Social Action, Massa, 2006.

Internal Migrations / Foreign Migrations. Bagnone, Lunigiana 1840-1940, paper presented at the SIDES conference: The Major Transitions between the 19th and 20th Centuries. Population, Society, Economy. Pavia, 28-30 Sept. 2006, Udine, 2008.

Migrations of “invisible” women: servants and wet nurses between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Women travelling, women’s journeys, edited by Rita Mazzei, Florence, Le Lettere, 2009.

Wet Nurses, Servants, and Weavers, in History of Italy. Annals: Migrations, Turin, Einaudi, 2009.

c) exhibitions, CD-ROMs, videos, DVDs

People of Tuscany. Our Stories in the World, scientific consultancy for the exhibition of 45 panels and CD-ROM (with printed catalog and CD-ROM), Florence, Regional Council of Tuscans Abroad, 2000.

Wet Wet Nurses: Welfare Institutions and Private Individuals in Tuscany between the 17th and 20th Centuries, 43-panel exhibition, Tuscany Region – Municipality of Ponte Buggianese, Istituto degli Innocenti of Florence, Florence, 2001-2002 (with printed catalogue and 10-minute video).

Migrant Women and Men: Yesterday and Today, 35-minute video, Prato, Province of Prato, 2002 (with attached 16-page booklet).

America. Bagnone, Tuscany – California. Women and Men Who Go and Who Stay, 7-panel exhibition, Florence, Regional Council of Tuscany – Municipality of Bagnone, Florence, 2004.

Women, Men and Children at War, 37-minute video, Municipality of Bagnone – Florence, Regional Council, 2004.

Women of Lunigiana in the twentieth century, part I, 45-minute video, Tuscany Region – Municipality of Bagnone Portofranco – Province of Massa, 2006.

Bagnone-Losanna-Casablanca: from Bruno to Omar, 90 minute video 8 and shortened version of 35 minutes) made with filming in Bagnone, Lausanne and Casablanca, Tuscany Region, Municipality of Bagnone, 2007.

Migrant Women and Men: The Social Value of Memory, DVD (attached to the volume), Prato, Province of Prato, 2007.

Women of Lunigiana in the twentieth century, part II, 65-minute video, Tuscany Region – Municipality of Bagnone – Province of Massa, 2007.

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
W
&
C
V
L
Z
w
e
Enter the code without spaces.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.