Daniel Turillo (he/him) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Italian, a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and a Bachelor of Philosophy in Political Science. His senior thesis, “Fascism on Screen: Fascist Italy’s Film Diplomacy Campaigns in the United States,” explored the complex interactions among Fascist diplomats, American Fascist sympathizers, and commercial film distributors in disseminating Italian films in interwar America. He has also engaged in research on cultural engagement, non-traditional diplomacy, European migration policy, and international conflict management with the US Department of State, the US Agency for International Development, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Pitt’s Ford Institute for Human Security, and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Daniel is interested in various subjects at the intersection of art and politics in Italian, American, and transatlantic contexts. He studies the evolution of the Italian far-right from Fascism to the present day, Italian American diaspora culture, the role that cinema and popular music have played in far-right social movement activity in Italy, and the influences of these currents on United States-Italy relations more broadly.