The Bard Common Courses, Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures Program, History Program Presents

Memory Policies or Political Memory? The De-Ottomanization of History in Communist Albania

This talk examines how communist Albania’s anti-religious propaganda reconfigured national memory to legitimize the regime’s secular ideology. By portraying Islam as a remnant of the Ottoman “dark past,” the state sought to erase Islamic references from Albanian identity through education, historiography, and cultural policies. The talk shows how this process of de-Islamization functioned as a broader strategy to construct a socialist “new man” devoted to science and the nation.

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Gianfranco Bria is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow (MSCA) and Assistant Professor at Roma Tre University. As a Marie Curie Global Fellow, he is currently conducting research as an associate researcher at Columbia University, New York University, and Bard College.

For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 3:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Olin Language Center, Room 115

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