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 Milena Sabato (University of Salento) on an analytical primary-source collection, Italy from Risorgimento to Refugee Crisis: A History in Documents, 1815-2015, for Bloomsbury Academic.
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
Brady, S., & Seymour, M. (Eds.). (2019). From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International perspectives since 1789. London, UK: Bloomsbury, 264p.
Edited Book - Research
Morris, P., Ricatti, F., & Seymour, M. (Eds.). (2012). Politica ed emozioni nella storia d'Italia: Dal 1848 ad oggi. Roma, Italy: Viella, 310p.
Edited Book - Research
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
Brady, S., & Seymour, M. (2019). From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: Historical transformations. In S. Brady & M. Seymour (Eds.), From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International perspectives since 1789. (pp. 1-14). London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Chapter in 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
Seymour, M. (2004). Till death do them part? The Church-State struggle over marriage and divorce, 1860 -1914. In P. Willson (Ed.), Gender, family and sexuality: The private sphere in Italy, 1860 -1945. (pp. 37-50). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chapter in Book - Research
Seymour, M. (2015). Personal and political: Love’s revolutions in recent historical research: Review essay of The overflowing of friendship: Love between men and the creation of the American republic; Love in the time of revolution: Transatlantic literary radicalism and historical change, 1793-1818; The English in love: The intimate story of an emotional revolution;; Love in the time of communism: Intimacy and sexuality in the GDR. Journal of Women's History, 27(3), 194-203. doi: 10.1353/jowh.2015.0035
Journal - Research Article
Seymour, M. (2013). Contesting masculinity in post-unification Italy: The murder of Captain Giovanni Fadda. Gender & History, 25(2), 252-269. doi: 10.1111/1468-0424.12021
Journal - Research Article
Morris, P., Ricatti, F., & Seymour, M. (2012). Introduction: Italy and the emotions. Modern Italy, 17(2), 151-156. doi: 10.1080/13532944.2012.669210
Journal - Research Article
Seymour, M. (2012). Emotional arenas: From provincial circus to national courtroom in late nineteenth-century Italy. Rethinking History, 16(2), 177-197. doi: 10.1080/13642529.2012.681190
Journal - Research Article
Seymour, M. (2010). Epistolary emotions: Exploring amorous hinterlands in 1870s southern Italy. Social History, 35(2), 148-164. doi: 10.1080/03071021003719139
Journal - Research Article
Seymour, M. (2010). Introduction: Perspectives on Garibaldi and Italian unity. Modern Italy, 15(4), 395-399. doi: 10.1080/13532944.2010.506290
Journal - Research Article
Seymour, M. (2005). Keystone of the patriarchal family? Indissoluble marriage, masculinity and divorce in Liberal Italy. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 10(3), 297-313.
Journal - Research Article
Seymour, M. (2013). [Review of the book The enemy of the new man: Homosexuality in fascist Italy]. American Historical Review, 118(1), 276-277. doi: 10.1093/ahr/118.1.276
Journal - Research Other
Seymour, M. (2012). All roads, different Romes [Review of the books Whispering city: Rome and its histories and Rome]. History Australia, 9(1), 233-236. [Book Review].
Journal - Research Other
Seymour, M. (2019, February). Navigating emotions: From Australasia to nineteenth-century Italy. Keynote presentation at the 10th Biennial (Australasian Centre for Italian Studies) ACIS Conference: Navigazioni possibili: Italies Lost and Found, Wellington, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Seymour, M. (2019, January). Emotional arenas: Shaping and staging feelings between private and public. Verbal presentation at the 133rd American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Il.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Seymour, M. (2018, February). "Arena of desire"? A family circus in 1870s southern Italy. Verbal presentation at the Popular Culture Research Centre Symposium: Tales of the (Un)Popular: Intersections of Narrative, History, and Popular Culture, Auckland, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Seymour, M. (2012, September). After respectability: Women, sexuality and the circus in pre-sexology Italy. Verbal presentation at the Italian Sexualities Uncovered: The Long Nineteenth Century (1789-1914) Conference, Bologna, Italy.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Seymour, M. (2011, December). Dilemmas of virility: National character on trial in liberal Italy. Verbal presentation at the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) Annual Conference: The Italian 'Character': Virtues and Vices, London.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Seymour, M. (2010, July). Emotional arenas: Love, lust and murder between province and capital in 1870s Italy. Verbal presentation at the Emotional Styles: Communities and Spaces Workshop, Berlin, Germany.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Seymour, M. (2014, October). 'Emotional arenas': A new concept for historicizing emotions. Centre for the History of European Discourses, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. [Research Presentation].
Other Research Output
Seymour, M. (2011, June). Feeling Italian? Emotional styles between province and capital in 1870s Italy. Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. [Public Seminar].
Other Research Output