On the 9th of October at 12h, PhD researcher Lorenzo Galvagno will give a talk on his research Private Papers, Public Pasts: A Sicilian Winemaking Family's Archive, from Agrarian Estate to Petrochemical Corridor (Syracuse, 1909–1980).
Short bio
Lorenzo Galvagno is a PhD student in Sciences for Cultural Heritage and Production at the University of Catania (Sicily, Italy). He holds a Master's degree in Digital Humanities and a Bachelor's degree in Sciences and Languages for Communication. His research focuses on the contemporary industrial and environmental history of south-eastern Sicily and on digital public history. His broader interests include the history of the European Union, artificial intelligence, and ontologies and the Semantic Web. He is currently a visiting PhD researcher at the Department of History of Ghent University (September–December 2026), within the Public History group and the Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities, under the supervision of Prof. Julie M. Birkholz.
Abstract
This talk traces the history of the Pupillo family of Syracuse, today known for its wine production, from the acquisition of the Targia estate (in Syracuse) in 1909 to the decline of its entrepreneurial activities in the 1980s. Drawing on the family's private archive, inventoried and analysed as part of this research, together with oral history interviews, it follows the family through the Fascist period, when it played a prominent role in the provincial Fascist establishment. It then examines the family's post-WW2 reinvention as industrial entrepreneurs, just as a petrochemical complex was emerging on its doorstep: a pole born of private initiative, regional incentives and national development policy. Finally, the talk reflects on what it means to turn a private family archive, including its most uncomfortable pages, into shared public heritage through public history and digital methods.