Chiara CIGARINI

Current position

2024-(2027) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice – Wellesley College – University of Oslo)

Education

2017-21 Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature, Beijing Normal University.
2012-14 M.A. in Interpreting and Translation (Chinese, English, Italian), Ca' Foscari University (Treviso).
2008-11 B.A. in Asian Languages, Markets and Cultures, University of Bologna.

Research abroad and additional training

• 2025-(2026) Visiting Scholar, Wellesley College.
• 2023 (Apr-May) Visiting scholar, University of Oslo.
• 2023 (Jul) Chinese-Italian Literary Translation Workshop, Chamois, Confucius Institute of the University of Turin.
• 2023 (Oct) Fieldwork at the 81st Worldcon, Chengdu.
• 2012 (Feb-Jun) 1-semester Chinese language course, Tsinghua University.

Scholarships and awards

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie 3-year Global Postdoctoral Fellowship €265,099, 11/2024-(10/2027).
• Hanban 4-year full scholarship - Confucius Institute’s Ph.D. in China Fellowship, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China (2017-2021).
• SELISI 3-month scholarship, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China (2014).
• The Erasmus Programme, 1-year full scholarship, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland (2010-2011).

Academic research and teaching experience

• 2023-2024 Adjunct professor of Chinese language and literature, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice - Chinese Language 1.1 (D-L); Chinese Language 2.1 (M-R; S-Z); Chinese Language 3.2 class 1; Chinese Literature 2 (A-R; M-Z).
• 2023-2024 Postdoctoral research fellow in Chinese literature, PRIN project “Chinese narratives and the narration of China in Italy: literature, cinema and art at the intersection of cultural diplomacy and cultural industry”, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
• 2022-2023 Adjunct professor of Chinese language and literature, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice - Chinese Language 1.1 (D-L); Chinese Language (Mod. 2); Chinese Language 3.2 class 2 (A-R; M-Z).
• 2022-23 Postdoctoral research fellow in Chinese literature, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
• 2021-2022 Adjunct professor of Chinese language and Literature, University of Parma - Chinese Language and Literature 2.
• 2021-2022 Adjunct professor of Chinese language, Catholic University of the Sacred Hearth (Brescia) - Chinese Language 3.
• 2021- 2022 Adjunct professor of Chinese language, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice - Chinese Language 1.1 (M-R; S-Z); Chinese Language (Mod. 2); Chinese Language 3.2 class 2 (A-R; M-Z).

 Academic activities

• (Oct 2024) PhD Committee member for the dissertation Situated Futures: A Cultural Study on Contemporary Chinese Female Science Fiction - University of Oslo.
• (28 Mar 2024) Member of the scientific and organizing committee of the international roundtable The image of China through The Science Fiction Genre: Current Perspectives and Narratives - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.
• (25-26 Mar 2024) Member of the scientific and organizing committee of the international conference The Cultural Logistics of Chinese and Sinophone SF - University of Fribourg.
• (9 Nov 2023) Member of the scientific and organizing committee of the roundtable discussion Science Fiction Writing Between China and Italy - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.
• (13-17 Nov 2023) Member of the scientific and organizing committee of the translation workshop in the context of Chinese Writers’ Residency in Venice: Meeting Xia Jia - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.

Presented papers

• (29 Oct 2024) Pratiche editoriali e mimetica culturale: tradurre la Cina in Italia - La diffusione delle "narrazioni cinesi”: Teoria e pratica, Università di Napoli L’“Orientale”.
• (27-30 Aug 2024) Women’s Invisibility within Danmei ‘Dystopia’: Thousand Autumns 千秋 as a Case Study - 25th Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies, Tallin University.
• (25-26 Mar 2024) Unveiling Flows of Unsystematic Images: Navigating Chinese SF’s Opacity through Relation  - The Cultural Logistics of Chinese and Sinophone SF, University of Fribourg.
• (26-27-28 Feb 2024) (Cinematic) Science Fiction, Indigenous Mythology and Multispecies Entanglement: An Ecological Reading of The Mermaid (2016) - PhD Symposium on Metaphors, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.
• (21-23 Sep 2023) Sogni fantascientifici e interpreti di sogni: la ricezione della fantascienza cinese in Italia, 19th Conference of the Italian Association of Chinese Studies, Università di Roma “Sapienza”.
• (17 Jul 2023) Chinese Science Fiction Dreams and Dream Interpreters: The Reception of Chinese Science Fiction in Italy - The Makers of Modern Chinese Literature, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
• (28-30 Jun 2023) Gendered Labour and Cannibalism within Chinese Dystopia: Questioning (Re)production in a Damaged Environment, 1st Conference OBERT, Aix-Marseille Université.
• (15-17 Jun 2023) Catastrophic, Supernatural Tides: Oceanic Epistemologies in Sinophone Science Fiction from the mainland, CoFutures Conference 2023, University of Oslo (online).
• (27 Mar 2023) Fantascienza cinese, realismo magico e discorso ambientale: limiti e opportunità dell’impiego di modelli interpretativi occidentali - Sfide e criticità nelle ricerche sulla Cina: metodologie, fonti e approcci teorici, online (AISC).
• (24-27 Aug 2022) Haunted Landscapes in Chinese Science Fiction: An Analysis of The Waste Tide (2013) - 24th Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies, Olomouc University.
• (27 Jun - 1 Jul 2022) Enabling Despair and Restricting Hope in Chinese Climate Fiction - Futures from The Margins, University of Oslo.
• (18-20 Nov 2021) ‘Nostalgia inversa’ nella fantascienza sinofona - 18th Conference of the Italian Association of Chinese Studies, Università degli Studi di Torino.
• (9-11 Sep 2021) Challenging The System by Subverting the Canon: Re-enchanting Chinese Science Fiction through Poetry, London Science Fiction Research Community (online).
• (24-28 Aug 2021) Han Song’s Supernatural Science Fiction: Re-enchanting Time, Space, Character - 23rd Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies, Leipzig University (online).
• (28-30 Jan 2021) Tales of The Supernatural by Pu Songling, Lu Xun & Han Song: Enchanting The Present in Order to Change It – 9th International Conference “Issues of Far Eastern Literatures”, St. Petersburg University (online).
• (17-18 Oct 2020) Han Song yu Kaerweinuo: keneng shijie de wutuobang mengxiang yu fumei de chongdong (韩松与卡尔维诺:可能世界的乌托邦梦想与复魅的冲动 Han Song and Calvino: The utopian dream of the possible worlds and the impulse to re-enchant them), 科幻研究青年学者论坛, Chongqing University, online).
• (5-7 Dec 2019) Hearing (Technological) Anomalies: An Analysis of Han Song’s ‘The Rebirth Bricks’” - Senses of Science Fiction, University of Warsaw.
• (7-8 Nov 2019) Tales of (Technological) Anomalies: Han Song's ‘Metamorphic’ China, Across the Strait, Università Roma Tre.
• (9 Jun 2018) Kongjian yalie, shijian butongbu, yetaihua geti, mihun jishu: zuowei houxiandai yingzi de zhongguo kehuan xaoshuo (空间压裂，时间不同步，液态化个体，迷魂技术——作为后现代镜子的中国科幻小说 Spatial Fracturing, temporal desynchronization, liquid individuals, enchanted technologies: Chinese science fiction as a mirror of postmodernity) - 科技时代的中国文学状况和科幻文学变革, Southern University of Science and Technology.

Invited Lectures and Workshops

• (23 Apr 2024) Decodificare un flusso di immagini opache: la fantascienza cinese contemporanea tra soft power e critica sociale, course in Chinese Literature - Università di Bologna.
• (5 May 2023) Tales of Technological Anomalies, Chinese SF’s Re-Enchantment - University of Oslo.
• (13 Apr 2023) Tradurre lo “straniamento cognitivo”: (ri)creare mondi fantascientifici tramite neologismi e realia, Ciclo di conferenze sulla traduzione dalla lingua cinese - Università di Bologna.
• (2 Dic 2021) Die Siliziuminsel von Qiufan CHEN – Frederike-Vielsaker und Chiara Cigarini im Gesprach (Marea Tossica di Chen Qiufan - Frederike-Vielsaker in conversation with Chiara Cigarini) - Confucius Insitute of the University of Heidelberg.
• (11 Dec 2020) La narrativa fantascientifica di Han Song ai confini tra realtà e immaginazione – Istituto Confucio dell'Università per Stranieri di Siena (online).
• (21 Feb 2020) Ascoltare le anomalie tecnologiche. La fantascienza in Cina - Ubiminor, Università di Bologna.

Memberships

• AISC
• EACS

Research groups and networks

• 2023-2024 PRIN Group Le narrazioni della Cina in Italia: letteratura, traduzione e industria culturale.
• 2023-  LaboraTorio-Research Group on the Translation of Asian and North African Languages.
• 2018-2021 Research Center for Science and Human Imagination, SUSTEC, Shenzhen.