A specialist in questions of dictatorship and genocide in the modern era, Marla Stone's work emphasizes the relationship among culture, politics, and the state in the 20th century.
Professor Marla Stone is professor of history at Occidental College where she served as Department Chair from 2000-2004 and 2015-2019. For the 2021-2024 academic years, she will be the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at the American Academy in Rome.
A specialist the history of fascism and in questions of dictatorship and genocide in the modern era, Professor Stone’s work emphasizes in particular the relationship among culture, politics, and the state in the 20th century. She has published on a variety of topics in European history, including Italian Fascist cultural politics, anti-communism, the contemporary far right in Europe, Italian Holocaust memory culture, and the role of the American media in forging public consent for NATO intervention in Bosnia. In addition to Italian history, Professor Stone publishes and teaches in the field of genocide studies. Professor Stone is the author of The Patron State: Culture and Politics in Fascist Italy (Princeton University Press, 1998), When the Wall Came Down: Responses to German Reunification (edited with Harold James, Routledge, 1993), and The Fascist Revolution: Society, Politics and Culture in Mussolini’s Italy (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012). The Patron State was awarded the Howard Marraro prize for best book in Italian history by the Society for Italian Historical Studies in 2000.
Professor Stone has been a fellow at the European University Institute (2017), the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2011/2012), the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University (2007), the American Academy in Rome (1995/1996), and the Wolfsonian Foundation (1995). Her research has also been supported by the Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation, the Italian Academy at Columbia University and the Eli Lilly Foundation.
In addition to contributions to a number of essay collections, Professor Stone has published articles in Constellations, The Journal of Contemporary History, The Journal of Hate Studies, The Journal of Modern Italian Studies, and Memoria e ricerca.
Professor Stone is writing a book-length study of the role of anti-Communism in Italian politics and culture from Fascism through the First Republic entitled, The Enemy: The Politics and Propaganda of Anti-Communism in Italy. She has taught at Occidental College since 1994 and received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University.
Jump to: Appointments | Fellowships, Grants & Awards | Publications | Professional and Administrative Experience | Human Rights/Civil Liberties Work | Invited Lectures | Conference Papers & Panels | Courses Taught | Affiliations & Memberships
Appointments
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA,
Department Chair, Professor of History Spring 2014 – Present
Professor of History Spring 2006 – Spring 2014
Associate Professor of History Spring 2004 – Spring 2006
Department Chair, Associate Professor of History Spring 1999 – Fall 2003
Assistant Professor of History Spring 1994 – Spring 1999
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Lecturer in European History Fall 1990 – Summer 1993
Assistant in Instruction Spring 1986 – Fall 1989
University of Tuzla, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Professor July 1996, July 1998, July 2000
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Visiting Assistant Professor Fall 1992
Fellowships, Grants & Awards
Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow, European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization, Spring 2017
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 2011/2012
Fellow, Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University, Fall/Winter, 2007
University of Freiburg Faculty Fellow, European-American Relations in the Wake of 9/11, June 12 – 22, 2004
Lilly Foundation Course Development Grant, Occidental College, Fall 2003 and Fall 2005
Visiting Capstone Professor, Pitzer College in Parma, Italy, May 2000
Visiting Scholar, Havens Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, March 2000
Howard R. Marraro Prize for Best Book in Italian History, 1999
Hillberg Seminar for Professors of the Holocaust, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, June 1999
Fellow, Italian Academy, Columbia University, Winter/Spring 1998
Rome Prize Fellowship in the History of Art, Mellon Postdoctoral Grant, American Academy in Rome, 1995 – 1996
Senior Fellow, Wolfsonian Foundation, Miami, Florida, Summer 1995
Best Unpublished Manuscript, Society for Italian Historical Studies, 1991
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Research Grant, 1989 and 1991
Princeton University Graduate Fellowships, 1984 – 1988
Princeton University Italian Studies Research Grant, Summer 1986 and 1988
Publications
Books and Edited Collections
The Enemy: The Politics and Propaganda of Anti-communism in Italy (in progress).
Naming the Enemy: Anti-communism in Transnational Perspective , special issue of the Journal of Contemporary History, eds., Marla Stone and Giuliana Chamedes, Vol. 53, no. 1, January 2018.
The Fascist Revolution , The Bedford Series in History and Culture, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012.
The Patron State: Culture and Politics in Fascist Italy , Princeton University Press, 1998.
When the Wall Came Down: Responses to German Reunification , Marla S. Stone and Harold James, eds., Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1992.
Articles and Book Chapters
“Ways of Seeing: The Cult of Display in Fascist Italy,” Arti in Italia, 1918 – 1943, Prada Foundation: Milan, 2018.
“America’s Populist Billionaire Outsider,” The Huffington Post, March 7, 2016.
“Italian Fascism’s Soviet Enemy and the Propaganda of Hate, 1941–1943,” Journal of Hate Studies: Hate and Political Discourse, Vol. 10, 2012.
“Race, Faith and Family: Depicting the Enemy in Fascist Italy” in Fears Past, Michael Laffan and Max Weiss, eds., Princeton University Press, 2012.
“The Art of War: The Exhibition of Italian Soldier-Artists,” Artistes et parties. Esthetique et politique, 1900 – 1945 , Les presses du reel, Paris, France 2010.
“Potere e spiritualità: La Mostra degli artisti italiani in armi del 1942,” Memoria e ricerca , Vol. 33, April 2010.
“What Have We Learned from Culture: The Turn to Culture in Fascist Historical Studies,” ¨, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen and Jacob Wamberg, eds., Editions Tuscalanum, 2010.
“The Changing Face of the Enemy,” Constellations , Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2008.
“A Fascist Theme Park,” Visual Sense: A Cultural Reader , Elizabeth Edwards and Kaushik Bhaumik eds., Berg, 2008.
“Primo Levi, The Truce, and the Politics of Holocaust Representation,” The Legacy of Primo Levi , Stanislao Pugliese, ed., Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005.
“La Biennale di Venezia,” “Mostre artistiche,” “Mostra della rivoluzione fascista,” “18BL” -- entries in Il fascismo: Un dizionario critico , Victoria de Grazia and Sergio Luzzatto, eds., Giulio Einaudi: Turin, 2003.
"When Memory Makes Policy: Bosnia, Kosovo and the Holocaust," New England Journal of History , Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter 2003.
“The Last Film Festival: The Venice Biennale Goes to War,” (Re)viewing Fascism: Fascism and Film , Jacqueline Reich and Piero Garofalo, eds., Indiana University Press, 2002.
“A Flexible Rome: Fascism and the Cult of Romanità, Roman Presences: Receptions of Rome in European Culture 1789-1945 , Catherine Edwards, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1999.
“Challenging Cultural Categories: The Transformation of the Venice Biennale Under Fascism,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies , Vol. 4, No. 2, 1999.
“The Left and Kosovo,” co-authored with Josh Wick, Tikkun , July/August 1999.
“Kosovo: A Round Table,” Los Angeles Weekly , May 7, 1999.
“Making Official Culture: State Patronage in Fascist Italy” Fascist Visions , Mark Antliff and Matthew Affron, eds., Princeton University Press, 1997.
“Bosnia’s Untenable Peace,” Tikkun , March/April 1996.
“Mussolini’s French Connection: The Sternhell Debate Redux,” Radical History Review , Spring 1996.
“The Defeated in Mostar,” Il Manifesto , December 20, 1995.
“The Politics of the Dead,” Tikkun , May/June 1995.
“Staging Fascism: The Show of the Fascist Revolution,” Journal of Contemporary History , Vol. 28, No. 2, April 1993.
“Nationalism and Identity in Former East Germany,” Tikkun , November/December 1992.
Book Reviews
Darrio Gaggio, The Shaping of Tuscany: Landscape and Society between Tradition and Modernity, Journal of Modern History , Vol. 90, no. 3, September 2018.
Giulia Albanese , Dittature Mediterranee: Sovversioni fasciste e colpi di Stato in Italia, Spagna e Portogallo, Journal of Modern Italian Studies , Vol 22, no. 4, Fall 2017.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema, Journal of Modern History , Vol. 88, no. 4, December 2016.
Romy Golan, “Walls Between the Wars,” Muralnomad:The Paradox of Wall Painting, Art Journal , Vol. 71, no. 1, Spring 2012.
Adam Hochschild, To End All Wars, The Los Angeles Times , July 3, 2011
Steven Ricci, Fascism in Cinema, European History Quarterly , 41 (1), 2011
Michael Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom, H-Diplo-net , November, 2011.
Megan Stack, Every Man in this Village is a Liar, The Los Angeles Times , June 20, 2010.
Roger Griffin, Fascism and Modernism, Modernism and Modernity , Volume 16, Number 2, 2009.
Claudia Lazzaro and Roger Crum, eds., Donatello Among the Blackshirts: History and Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy, American Historical Review , Vol. 110, 2005.
Antonio Costa-Pinto, The Blue Shirts: Portuguese Fascists and the New State, Journal of Modern History , Vol. 75, No. 3, September 2003.
Rossana Bossaglia, L’arte nella cultura italiana del Novecento, Journal of Modern Italian Studies , Vol. 7, No. 3, 2002.
Richard Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship, American Historical Review , Vol. 105, No. 10, June 2000.
Peter Novick, “Holocaust Infatuation,” The Holocaust in American Life, Tikkun , September/October 1999.
Reading Between the Lines in Schindler’s List, Tikkun , November/December 1998.
Mabel Berezin, Making the Fascist Self and Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle, Journal of Modern Italian History , Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1998.
Gianni Isola, Cari amici lontani e vicini, Journal of Modern History , Vol. 69, No. 4, December 1997.
Ester DaCosta Meyer, The Work of Antonio Sant’Elia, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Vol. 56, No. 3, September 1997.
“Art and Power,” Review of the Exhibition “Art and Power,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Vol. 55, No. 4, December 1996
David Kertzer, Sacrificed for Honor, Journal of the History of Sexuality , Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1995.
“Kitsch as Kitsch Can,” The Nation , August 12/19, 1991
Professional and Administrative Experience
President, Society of Italian Historical Studies , 2019 – , Vice President, 2017 – 2019
Chair, Cappadoccia Prize for Best Unpublished Manuscript in Italian History, Society of Italian Historical Studies , 2016 – 2018
Chair, Research Network on the Historical Study of States and Regimes, Council for European Studies , 2014 – 2017
Chair, Department of History, Occidental College, 1999 – 2004, Spring 2014 – present
Faculty representative to the Occidental College Board of Trustees, 2013 – 2016
Chair, Search Committee for a Historian of Modern China, Occidental College, 2012 – 2013
Executive Board of the Society of Italian Historical Studies, 2012 – present
Conference Committee, Council for European Studies, 2009 – 2010, Program Committee, 2013 – 2014
Co-organizer, “The Sacred in Italy Across Time, Place, and Discipline.” California Consortium on Italian Studies , annual conference, April 24 – 25, 2015
Program Committee Chair, Society of Italian Historical Studies, 2006 and 2009
Juror, Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History, 2008 – 2010
Juror, George Louis Beer Book Prize of the American Historical Association for European International History, 2009 – 2011
Juror, Howard R. Marraro Prize of the Society of Italian Historical Studies , 2010 – 2013
Faculty advisor to the National Awards and Fellowships Office, Occidental College, 2008 – 2011
Chair, Search Committee for a Historian of the Middle East, Occidental College, 2008 – 2009
Faculty Advisor to the Study Abroad Office, Occidental College, 2003 – 2006
Department Chair, Department of History, Occidental College, 2000 – 2003
Lily Foundation Grant Committee, 2000 – 2003
Chair, Search Committee for a Historian of Early America, Occidental College, 1998 – 1999
Chair, Intellectual Life Committee, Occidental College, 1997 – 1999
Human Rights/Civil Liberties Work
Board Member and Executive Committee Member, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Southern California , 2015 – present.
Board Member, American Civil Liberties Union , Southern California , 2005 – present.
Chair, Religion and the Constitution Committee, Board Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union , Southern California , 2008 – present.
Faculty Member, University of Tuzla, Bosnia International Summer University, July 1996, 1998, and 2000.
Election Supervisor, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , Bosnia-Herzegovina, September 1997.
Participant, Aspen Institute , Seminar on Reconstruction and Reconciliation in the Former Yugoslavia, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, June 1998.
Co-founder and Executive Board Member, Jews Against Genocide , 1994 – 2000.
Television Commentator on the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War for KCAL , Channel 9 and Fox 11 in Los Angeles and the Fox Cable News Network in New York, 1994, 1995 and 1999.
Invited Lectures (Selected)
“Matteo Salvini, Global Populism and the Crusade Against Enemies,” Symposium on Fascism, America, and Human Rights, University of Oklahoma Humanities Forum , November 10, 2018.
“The Revolt Against Tolerance and Democracy: National Populism and the Far Right in Italy,” Scripps College , September 20, 2018.
“Anti-Communism from Dictatorship to Democracy: The Italian Case,” Jacob Talmon Annual Lecture, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem , Jerusalem, May 11, 2017.
“The Enemy: The Emergence and Evolution of Anticommunism in Fascist Italy,” Works in Progress lecture series, European University Institute , Florence, March 10, 2017.
“The End of the World As We Know It? The Global Rise of National Populisms,” The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies , The Graduate Center, City University of New York, December 8, 2016.
“Making War Sacred,” The Sacred in Italy Across Time, Place, and Discipline, University of California, Los Angeles , April 24 -25, 2015.
“Imagining War, Imagining the Enemy: Italian Fascist Combat Film,” University College London , June 20, 2014.
“Mussolini Modern: Art and Graphics on Paper in Fascist Italy,” Colophon Club , Berkeley, CA, October 8, 2013.
“Naming the Enemy: Anti-communism in Transnational Perspective,” Occidental College, November 30, 2012 (organizer and presenter).
“Fascist Italy’s Communist Enemy and the Politics of Hate,” American University School of Law , September 27, 2012.
“Italian Fascist Anti-communism,” Department of History, Stanford University , April 25, 2012.
“Historians Look Ahead,” Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavorial Sciences , October 12, 2011
“An American Perspective on 1848: Margaret Fuller and the Roman Revolution,” National Endowment for the Humanities , Rome, December 4, 2011.
“The Art of War: The Exhibition of Italian Soldier-Artists,” City University of New York , October 28, 2011.
“The Communist in the Fascist Imaginary: From Defeated Internal Enemy to Global Threat,” Columbia Seminar in Modern Italian Studies , April 3, 2009.
“Race, Faith, and Family: Depicting the Enemy in Fascist Italy,” Davis Center for Historical Studies , Princeton University, November 29, 2007.
“The Hegemony of Culture: The Culturalist Turn in Fascist Historical Studies,” University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, April 27, 2007.
The Multiple Faces of Fascist Modernism, School of the Visual Arts , New York, October 19, 2006.
“Di Razza Ebraica,” Respondent, Symposium on Fascism, Jews, and Intellectuals, UCLA Center for Jewish Studies , March 4, 2006.
“When Memory Shapes Policy: Bosnia Through the Lens of the Holocaust,” Bellarmine Forum on Violence and Society , Loyola Marymount University, November 10, 2004.
“Fascism and the Cult of Romanità,” National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar , American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, July 5, 2004.
“Primo Levi, Roberto Benigni, and the Politics of Holocaust Representation,” California Consortium on Italian Studies , University of California, Los Angeles, March 10, 2003.
Authors’ panel on (Re)viewing Fascism , Casa Italiana , New York University, May 8, 2002.
“The Venice Biennale Goes to War: Gender, War and Film,” New York Area Europeanists Colloquium , Fordham University, November 10, 2000.
Colloquium on Peter Novick’s The Holocaust in American Life , Department of Jewish Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, January 25, 2000.
“The Past in the Present,” European Fascism Symposium , Trinity College, Hartford, CT, October 16, 1999.
“Kosovo: The Meanings of Ethnic Cleansing,” University of California, Irvine, May 11, 1999.
“Kosovo, Bosnia and the Holocaust: The Power of Historical Analogy,” Jewish Studies Lecture Series, University of California, Los Angeles, May 10, 1999.
“The Patron State,” European Studies Colloquium , Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, March 25, 1999.
“The Politics of Italian Fascist Spectacle,” American Academy in Rome, New York, NY, April 9, 1998.
“Making Peace Last: Postwar Reconstruction in Bosnia,” DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, Convocation Series , February 19, 1998.
“Why Bosnia Matters: War, Genocide and the American Brokered Peace,” Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, International Affairs Speakers Series, March 3, 1997.
Hitler's Willing Executioners: Perspectives on the Goldhagen Controversy, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, May 30, 1996.
“Memorie della Shoah e identità collettiva statunitense,” Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Turin, Italy, May 24, 1996.
“Sfidi ai limiti della cultura,” Università di Torino, Department of History, Turin, Italy, May 23, 1996.
“The Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution,” Dutch Institute of Rome, Rome, Italy, May 15, 1996.
“Challenging the Social Boundaries of Culture,” American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, May 9, 1996.
“Fascism and Visual Culture,” Wolfsonian Museum, Miami, FL, June 27, 1995.
“Hegemonic Pluralism: State Patronage of the Fine Arts in Fascist Italy,” Getty Center for the History of Art , Los Angeles, CA, October 14, 1994.
“Myth and the Bosnian War” (a series of talks at Los Angeles area university campuses), April 1 – May 15, 1994.
Conference Papers & Panels (Selected)
“Historians and the Life/Work Balance.” American Historical Association , Denver, Colorado, January 7 – 9, 2017.
“Anti-communism without Communists: Silvio Berlusconi’s Red Scare,” Council for European Studies Conference , Washington D.C., March 15, 2014.
“Shirkers and Cowards: Fascism’s Early Crusades Against Socialism,” Council for European Studies Conference , Amsterdam, June 26, 2013.
“If Not for the March on Rome, There Would Be No March on Moscow,” American Historical Association , January 7, 2012.
“Books in Conversation: New Directions in Studying the Old and New European Right,” Council for European Studies , Barcelona, Spain, June 26, 2011
“Rising Above Oppression,” The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books , April 24, 2010
Roundtable on William Hitchcock’s The Bitter Road to Freedom Council for European Studies , Montreal, April 17, 2010
“Alexander De Grand and the Fascist Style of Rule,” American Historical Association, January 8, 2010.
“History: Crisis Points,” The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books , April 23, 2009.
“The Defeated Enemy: Fascist Anti-communism in the 1930s,” Social Science History Association , Miami, FL, October 22, 2008.
“The Shifting Politics of Holocaust Memory in Italy,” International Association of Genocide Scholars , Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, July 13, 2007.
Author meets critics panel on Wendy Lower’s Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine , Social Science History Association , Minneapolis, MN, November 2, 2006.
“Moving Twentieth-Century Italy from the Periphery to the Center of European History,” American Historical Association , Philadelphia, PA, January 6, 2006.
Roundtable with author on Kristin Monroe’s Hand of Compassion: Rescuers and the Holocaust , Social Science History Association , Portland , OR, November 4, 2005.
“Enemies in An Age of Ideology: Anti-Communism in Italy,” Social Science History Association , Chicago, IL, November 20, 2004.
“Teaching the Holocaust in the 21st Century, Roundtable,” Social Science History Association , Baltimore, MD, November 16, 2003.
“Primo Levi, Roberto Benigni and The Politics of Holocaust Representation,” The Life and Legacy of Primo Levi , Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, October 23, 2002.
“Writing on Fascism in the Wake of the Cold War,” American Historical Association , San Francisco, CA, January 5, 2002.
“From Mothers to Goddesses: Representations of Women in Fascist Art,” Women, Gender and the Extreme Right in Europe , University of Cardiff, Wales, July 1, 2001.
“Between Perpetrators and Victims: Film and the Holocaust in Italy,” American Association of Italian Studies , New York, NY, April 12, 2000.
“The Politics of Holocaust Representation: The View from Italy,” Social Science History Association , Fort Worth, TX, November 13, 1999.
“The Americanization of the Holocaust,” Social Science History Association , Chicago, IL, November 22, 1998.
“Bosnia and the Holocaust: The Power of Historical Analogy,” International Genocide Conference , Sacramento, CA, October 23, 1998.
“The Last Film Festival: War, Culture and National Identity in Fascist Italy,” American Association of Italian Studies , Chicago, IL, April 2, 1998.
“Mass Culture Meets High Culture: The Venice Biennale Film Festival,” American Association of Italian Studies , Winston-Salem, NC, February 21, 1997.
“Women and Postwar Reconstruction in Bosnia,” Frontline Feminisms , University of California, Riverside, January 16, 1997.
“Fascism, Tourism and the Fine Arts,” Social Science History Association , New Orleans, LA, October 11, 1996.
“Political Appropriations of Rome,” Lleverhume Trust Conference , University of Bristol, Bristol, England, March 25, 1995
“Gangs and Parties: Contemporary Fascism in Europe,” Tikkun Conference , New York, NY, November 5, 1994.
“The State As Patron: Cultural Politics in Fascist Italy,” International Symposium on Italian Fascism , Stanford University, Stanford, CA, October 25, 1993.
“Historical Analogies: Bosnia and the Holocaust,” Tikkun Conference , New York, NY, April 18, 1993.
Courses Taught
History of the Mediterranean
Comparative Fascism & Authoritarianism
Modern Italy from the Rise of the National Idea to the Present
Official Culture and Its Discontents: Art and the State
Italian Fascism: Politics, Society, and Culture
The Age of the Dictators: Fascism and Nazism
Culture and Dictatorship in the Twentieth Century
The Holocaust: History and Memory
Modern Europe Since 1914
Modern European Cultural History
The Crisis of Interwar Europe, 1914 – 1945
European Diplomatic History
Europe since the Reformation
The Great Depression
Affiliations & Memberships
Columbia University Faculty Seminar on Modern Italy
American Historical Association
Society for Italian Historical Studies
American Association for Italian Studies
Social Science History Association
International Association of Genocide Scholars
Council for European Studies