Alessandro CAVAZZANA

1. Education  

1.1  2019: PhD - Doctor Europaeus in Philosophy, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage. Title of the research: Uncanny Resemblance. Depiction, Context, Identity and Imagination in the field of Visual Metaphor. Supervisor: Prof. Luigi Perissinotto.

1.2  2013: MA (110/110 with honors) in Art History and Conservation of the Artistic Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage. Title of the thesis: Essere altro da sé. Indiscernibilità e metafora in Arthur Danto [Arthur C. Danto on Indiscernibility and Metaphor]. Supervisor: Prof. Luigi Perissinotto; co-supervisor: Prof. Giuseppe Barbieri.

2. Grants & Scholarships

2.1  2015 - 2018: Three-year grant for the PhD at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. 

2.2  2018: PhD fellowship elevation for a research period at the University of Oxford (UK).

2.3  2017: Travel bursary from the Aesthetics Research Centre for giving a talk at the 3rd British Society of Aesthetics Postgraduate Conference at the University of Kent, Canterbury (UK), 27-28 January 2017. 

3. Publications

3.1 Books

3.1.1  Cavazzana, A. (proposal accepted, book under contract), Filosofia dell'immagine, Carocci, Roma.

3.2 Articles

3.2.1  Cavazzana, A. (2022), "The Dreamwork of Language: Donald Davidson Between Metaphor and Meaning", Debates in Aesthetics, vol. 18, 1, pp. 13-29 (ISSN 2514-6637).

3.2.2  Cavazzana, A. (2021), "The Paradox of Pictorial Representation. A Wittgensteinian solution", Studi di estetica, vol. 21, 3, pp. 137-155 (ISSN 0585-4733).

3.2.3  Cavazzana, A., Ragazzi, F. (2021), "Where Images Make Their Wonder: An Introduction", JOLMA. The Journal for the Philosophy of Language, Mind and the Arts, vol. 2, 1, pp. 7-20 (e-ISSN 2723-9640).

3.2.4  Cavazzana, A., Bolognesi, M. (2020), "Uncanny Resemblance: Words, pictures and conceptual representations in the field of metaphor", Cognitive Linguistic Studies, vol. 7, 1, pp. 31-57 (ISSN 2213-8722).

3.2.5  Cavazzana, A. (2019), "Imagining. The Role of Mental Imagery in the Interpretation of Visual Metaphors", in A. Benedek, K. Nyíri (eds.), Perspectives on Visual Learning, vol. 3: Image and Metaphor in the New Century, Hungarian Academy of Sciences/Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, pp. 71-82 (ISBN 978-963-313-307-1).

3.2.6  Cavazzana, A. (2017), “Immagini (per l)e parole. La metafora visiva tra occhio innocente e immaginazione” [Pictures and/for Words. Visual Metaphor between Innocent Eye and Imagery], Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, vol. 11, 2, pp. 109-122 (ISSN 2036-6728).

3.2.7  Cavazzana, A. (2017), “Il ruolo cognitivo della metafora in Arthur C. Danto” [The Cognitive Role of Metaphor in Arthur C. Danto's Approach], estetica. studi e ricerche, vol. VII, 1, pp. 57-72 (ISSN 2039-6635).

3.2.8  Cavazzana, A. (2016), “Donald Davidson su metafora e monismo anomalo” [Donald Davidson on Metaphor and Anomalous Monism], in G. Airenti, M. Cruciani, M. Tirassa (eds.), Mind the Gap: Brain, Cognition and Society - Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences, Turin University Press, Turin, pp. 117-123 (ISBN 9788875901042). 

3.3 Edited Journal Issues

3.3.1  Cavazzana, A., Ragazzi, F. (2021), Image/Images: A Debate Between Philosophy and Visual Studies, JOLMA Special Issue, vol. 2, 1, Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venezia (e-ISSN 2723-9640).

4. Conferences

4.1  SIFA Mid-Term Conference/FINO 5th Graduate Conference in Mind, Language and Science “Fiction and Imagination as Grounds for Counterfactual Reasoning, Scientific Modeling, and Thought Experiments”, University of Turin, 17-18th June 2019. Talk title: The Importance of Imagination in Pictures Perception: Mental Imagery and Visual Metaphors. 

4.2  8th Visual Learning Conference “Communication – Culture – Consciousness”, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 26-28th April 2018. Talk title: Imagining. The Role of Mental Images in the Interpretation of Visual Metaphors. 

4.3  24th National Conference of the Italian Society for the Philosophy of Language (SFL) "Identity and its Forms", University of Milan, 24-26th January 2018. Talk title: Bumps on the Head. Per una teoria della metafora visiva a partire da Donald Davidson e Robyn Carston.

4.4  3rd British Society of Aesthetics Postgraduate Conference “Art, Aesthetics and Beyond”, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, 27-28th January 2017. Talk title: What About Visual Metaphors?

4.5  13th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences (AISC) “Mind the Gap: Brain, Cognition and Society”, University of Turin, 24-26th November 2016. Talk title: Donald Davidson su metafora e monismo anomalo [Donald Davidson on Metaphor and Anomalous Monism].

5. Discussantships

5.1  Gabriele Ferretti, Why the Pictorial Needs the Motoric, CLAVeS Spring Seminars, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, 22nd June 2022.

5.2  Alberto Voltolini, I See not Only a Madonna, but Also a Hole, in the Picture, CLAVeS Aesthetic Meetings, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, 24th June 2019.

6. Teaching Experience

6.1  2017-2018: Teaching Assistant for the MA course of Aesthetics at Ca' Foscari. Instructor: Prof. Roberta Dreon.

7. Research Periods Abroad

7.1  2018: University of Oxford (UK); Supervisor: Dr. Marianna Bolognesi.

8. Memberships

8.1  Member of SIFA (Italian Society of Analytic Philosophy) since 2016.

8.2  Member of AISC (Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences) since 2016.

9. Spoken Languages

Italian (native speaker); English (upper-intermediate); French (elementary); German (elementary).