This volume focuses on a longing projected mostly toward the past (mal d'Afrique) alongside a longing toward the future (afro-optimism), and the different manifestations, shifting meanings, and potential points of contact of these two stances.

Rosetta Giuliani Caponetto is an Associate Professor at Auburn University. Their research interests include Italy's colonialism in East Africa, the Italian American diaspora, studies on nostalgia, and food movements and activism. Their publications include Fascist Hybridities. Racial Mixing and Diaspora Cultures under Mussolini (2015).

Dr. Giusy Di Filippo is an Assistant Professor at College of the Holy Cross. Their research interests include migration, race, and diaspora studies and digital motherhood studies. Their publications include Migrazioni contemporanee. Testi e Contesti (with Martina Di Florio, 2017).

Dr. Martina Di Florio is a Senior Lecturer at Trinity College. Their research interests include migrant and postcolonial writing in Italy; diaspora studies; classical and Mediterranean studies. Their publications include Migrazioni contemporanee. Testi e Contesti (with Giusy Di Filippo, 2017).

1. Mal d'Afrique, Mass Communication and Colonial Underpinnings of Humanitarian Interventions in Somalia 2. Mogadishu's MeaningScape: Visionary Nostalgia and Mal d'Afrique in Architecture Exhibitions, Architecture, and Social Media 3. Edible Nation: Imagining Somalia Through Cuisine 4. Mogadishu and Love Melancholia in the Work of Nuruddin Farah, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, and Shirin Ramzanali Fazel 5. Maryam/Regina: Violenza segreta (1963): A Certain Postcolonialism 6. Nostalgias in Ilaria Alpi - Il più crudele dei giorni: Between Affectivity and Mal d'Africa 7. "Performative Piracy" in a Somali Context: Staging the Myth of the Communis Hostis Omnium 8. Mal d'Africa and the Postcolony: From Nostalgia to New Forms of Exploitation in Somalia 9. Queering Somali Storytelling: Afro-Fabulation, Narration, and the Queer Black Body in Diriye Osman's The Butterfly Jungle 10. Somalia as it Will Have Been: Afro-Optimism and Stories in the Future Perfect