Jennifer Gugliemo, William Paterson University

In the post-World War II period, Italians in New York came to signify the quintessential blue-collar white ethnic conservative, as the vast majority abandoned an earlier affinity with leftist politics to defend anti-communism, protest racial desegregation, and support right-wing political leaders.  Guglielmo, who teaches history and women’s studies at William Paterson University, will examine this period of transition from the perspective of Italian immigrant women and their daughters, demonstrating how this process was not inevitable but rather highly contested.