The annual Vico lecture promotes themes of city-building, urban development, and cultural evolution, and Toronto and its outskirts have been shaped by immigration. The series features speakers whose work address principles related to how immigrant and minority groups have affected the development of the Greater Toronto Area, including via culture, labour, business, and more. The Vico lecture honours the cultural and historic contributions of minority communities to civil society and the development of urban space.
2024 Vico Lecture
The Italians Build Houses: Ethnicity vs. Structural Factors in Mass Migrations History – The Case Studies of Italian Economic Niches in 1890s-1920s USA and Post-WW2 Toronto
This lecture is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Gabriele Scardellato.
Date: Monday, October 7, 2024
Speaker: Dr. Stefano Agnoletto, Project Leader of the Via Querinissima international project; Italian historian, economist and activist.
The lecture explores the formation of ethnic economic niches through the case studies of Italian communities in the USA and Canada during the early 20th century and the post-WW2 construction industry in Toronto.
By analyzing the interplay between ethnic/cultural factors and structural influences, the study aims to provide insights into the causes of ethnic specialization and its implications for contemporary societies.
The lecture adopts a multidisciplinary and intersectional approach, integrating economic history, social and cultural history, and migration studies to examine the complex dynamics of ethnic economic niches.
Stefano Agnoletto
Stefano Agnoletto was born in Italy but now lives between Oslo and Bodø, in the Arctic region of Nordland. He is the project leader of Via Querinissima, a European cultural route that connects the south and north of Europe. The European project of Via Querinissima, coordinated by Stefano Agnoletto, brings together partners from all over Europe and aims to build a route following the footsteps of the Venetian merchant Pietro Querini. In the fifteenth century, after a shipwreck, Querini was welcomed by the fishing community of the Arctic island of Røst, where he discovered stockfish. Querini’s adventure is a paradigm of hospitality, solidarity, and encounter between different cultures and, according to tradition, gave rise to the trade of stockfish, a fundamental ingredient of Mediterranean cuisine.
Stefano Agnoletto obtained his first PhD in Economic History at the University of Naples and his second in Migration History at Kingston University in London, UK. He has collaborated with academic institutions in various countries in Europe and North America (Italy, Spain, UK, USA, Canada, Russian Federation, Poland, Austria, and Norway) and has published more than a hundred articles and edited various monographs.
His preferred areas of expertise include contemporary economic and social history, the history of migrations, and the welfare state. He has always combined his research commitment with social activism.
Among his publications, we highlight the volume The Italians who built Toronto. Italian Workers and Contractors in the City’s Housebuilding Industry, 1950-1980 (Peter Lang, 2014 1st edition; 2015 2nd edition)
Why Vico?
The Vico lecture fosters exchange between York University and the wider community, in particular the Italian-Canadian community. The settlement of Italian immigrants fundamentally shaped the nature and development of Toronto and its suburbs over that last 100 years. The Vico lecture’s themes are a nod to these contributions and aim to engage other minority groups, descendants of these groups, and the public in a conversation about space, place, culture, and so much more.
In 2000, Canadian Senator Jerry Grafstein donated two rare Italian volumes of Vico’s works, initially published in 1746, to York University. Senator Grafstein garnered the support of Elvio DelZotto (LLB Osgoode and senior partner of DelZotto, Zorzi), who rallied Italian-Canadian business leaders to fund an annual lecture at York in memory of his law partner Fred Zorzi.
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was an Italian philosopher and author. Vico’s writings sought to understand human history and knowledge and are considered the predecessors of many Enlightenment thinkers. He has been referred to as the father of social science and the first modern historian. The Vico Lecture is organized in collaboration with the Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies.