I am very happy that our new article on Antonio Gramsci’s body and that of his contemporaries has just been published and made available Open Access in the journal Cultural Studies – Published by Routledge.
As 2026 marks 100 years since his imprisonment by the Fascist regime, we revisit Gramsci’s body not as symbol, but as lived vulnerability shaped by poverty, disability, Sardinia’s marginalisation, and carceral punishment.
Often placed at the centre of political movements and postcolonial theory — and today selectively appropriated by anti-liberal agendas — Gramsci, like everyone, lived a bodily life.
Drawing on archaeological osteobiography, we argue that de-sanitising intellectual achievements, by reconnecting ideas to the bodies, histories, and power relations from which they emerge is urgent at a time when universities face mounting pressures and critical thinking is increasingly treated with suspicion.
You can find the link to the Open Access article, which I had the great pleasure to co-write with Dr Saskia Kroonenberg, here below:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09502386.2026.2615901
Mauro Puddu 