Contact details
Room 2S11, Arts 1 (Burns) Building
Tel +64 3 479 8605
Email mark.seymour@otago.ac.nz
Academic qualifications
2001: PhD University of Connecticut
1994: MA University of Connecticut
1992: BA(Hons), University of Sydney
Research interests
Mark specialises in modern Italian history (from the 1850s to the 1970s), with a particular interest in the links between personal experience, politics, and the law. His first book, Debating Divorce in Italy (Palgrave, 2006), analysed the long struggle to reform marriage law in Italy, using the question to explore traditional fault-lines in Italian society from new angles. Since then he has published on a wide range of subjects, for example on King Victor Emanuel III's tours of 'Africa italiana', and on homosexual liberation in Italy.
Mark's most recent research makes micro-historical use of a sensational Roman murder trial to examine the way emotions were experienced, expressed, and shaped in the wake of Italian unification. The resulting book is Emotional Arenas: Life, Love, and Death in 1870s Italy, published in Oxford University Press's 'Emotions in History' series (April 2020).
Looking beyond Italy, Mark edited (with Sean Brady of Birkbeck) the volume From Sodomy Laws to Same-Sex Marriage: International Perspectives Since 1789 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019). This pioneering collection offers historical and international perspectives on dramatic shifts in attitudes to same-sex relationships.
Mark was co-editor of the Cambridge journal Modern Italy from 2015-2020. He is currently working with a chapter on the history of marriage law in Italy from 1770 to 2025 for The Formation and Dissolution of Marriage in Europe: Religious Roots and Diverging Histories (Hart Legal Publishing), and a chapter on the cultural construction of masculinity in Italy between 1770 and 1970, for the Routledge Cultural History of Italy.
Courses taught
- HIST 102 The Global Twentieth Century
- HIST 123 Revolutions> (contributor)
- HIST 225 Totalitarian Regimes: Europe 1922-1945
- HIST 242 Histories of Crime and Punishment (contributor)
- HIST 325 Modern Italy
- HIST 452 Rethinking History
Editorial responsibilities
Mark is on the editorials boards of Modern Italy, the Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Italia contemporanea, and Memoria e ricerca.
Areas of research supervision
Europe from 1789; Modern Italy; Italian settlement in New Zealand.
Publications
Seymour, M. (2023). Global happiness: From providential moments to hedonic treadmills? In K. Barclay & P. N. Stearns (Eds.), The Routledge history of emotions in the modern world. (pp. 29-45). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003023326-4 Chapter in Book - Research
Seymour, M. (2020). Emotional arenas: Life, love, and death in 1870s Italy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 256p. Authored Book - Research
Brady, S., & Seymour, M. (Eds.). (2019). From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International perspectives since 1789. London, UK: Bloomsbury, 264p. Edited Book - Research
Guaiana, Y., & Seymour, M. (2019). From Giarre to civil unions: The "long march" for same-sex relationship in Italy. In S. Brady & M. Seymour (Eds.), From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International perspectives since 1789. (pp. 167-181). London, UK: Bloomsbury. Chapter in Book - Research
Seymour, M. (2018). The throne behind the power? Royal tours of 'Africa Italiana' under fascism. In R. Aldrich & C. McCreery (Eds.), Royals on tour: Politics, pageantry and colonialism. (pp. 211-232). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. Chapter in Book - Research