Welcome to the Home Page of the SGR Research Group for the Representation of Conflict (G4RoC, 2021 SGR 00069).
G4RoC is a dedicated research team that explores the multifaceted nature of conflict and its intersection with literature and culture in our contemporary age.
Drawing upon a diverse range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, G4RoC investigates the complex relationship between memories, post-memories and aesthetic recreations of conflict to better understand not just how conflicts arise, how they are perpetuated, and how they can be resolved, but also the ways in which the memory of conflict is portrayed, interpreted, and consumed.
We aim to shed light on the complex dynamics of conflict, and to generate new insights that can inform more effective policies and practices in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. While our group focuses mostly on the anglophone world, we have now reached out to other traditions, such as German, and we welcome further interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement.
In our university curriculum, we offer courses on conflict at both BA and MA levels. Since 2024, Anglophone Literature and War has been included in the degree syllabus, while Conflict, War and Trauma in Anglophone Literature and Culture has become an integral part of our MA programme in English Studies: Linguistic, Literary and Socioculatural Perspectives.
We also supervise dissertations at undergraduate, MA and PhD level.
We have published quality research in journals and books, with the most recent publication being (Re)Writing War in Contemporary Literature and Culture (Pividori and Owen, 2025). Additionally, we have organised seminars and conferences, including the highly successful 2021 international conference “Rewriting War and Peace in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Contemporary British and American Literature.”
We have also received funding for a Ministry Project, “Beyond Postmemory: English Literary Perspectives on War and Memory in the (Post)Postmodern Era (POSTLIT)” (2024-27) that will enable us to strengthen our European dimension, undertake research at major libraries and archives and interact and collaborate with researchers throughout the world.