FoRS - Focus on Ruskin Studies 
Centre for Ruskin Studies of the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies

Emma Sdegno teaches English Literature at Ca’ Foscari University Venice. After graduating at Ca’ Foscari University with a thesis on Browning and Ruskin, she received a British Council scholarship in order to follow a Master of Arts in "Literature and the Visual Arts, 1840-1940" at Reading University (UK). As a PhD student in 1994-98 she took part in the international research project on “Ruskin and Modernism” with the University of Milan. One of the major foci of her research is Ruskin: his European reception, his use of rhetoric and thinking on religion, his place in the context of translation and travel studies, and his later Venetian works. She is now working on representations of landscape in the mid-19th century British novel. She has co-organized several international conferences, including, with the Ruskin Centre at Lancaster University, “Ruskin, Venice, and 19th century Cultural Travel”, (2008), and, on the occasion of Ruskin’s bicentenary “‘A Great Community’: John Ruskin’s Europe” (2019). Her publications include "Saggi su Ruskin. Stile Retorica Traduzione" (2004); co-editorship with Rachel Dickinson and Keith Hanley of two volumes of essays, "Ruskin, Venice and Nineteenth-Century Cultural Travel" edited (2010); co-editorship with Claude Reichler of "John Ruskin: Écrits sur les Alpes" (Paris, 2013); a translation into Italian of Ruskin’s "Guide to the Principal Pictures at the Academy of Fine Arts Venice 1877", edited by Paul Tucker (Milan Electa 2014); and an edition of Ruskin’s writings on Tintoretto, "Looking at Tintoretto with John Ruskin" (Marsilio 2018), published also in Italian and French ("Tintoret sous le regard de John Ruskin", trans. by A. Hélard, PUR-Marsilio). She is co-director of the book series "Fonti, letterature, arti e paesaggi d’Europa", Edizioni Ca’ Foscari.

Pierre-Henry Frangne is agrégé and doctor of philosophy. He is a university professor. He teaches aesthetics and philosophy of art in the research team “History and Criticism of the Arts” (HCA) at the University of Rennes 2. He co-directs the book series Aesthetica dedicated to the philosophy of art at the Presses universitaires de Rennes. Since 2020 he has been director of the Presses universitaires de Rennes, which publishes 200 books per year and 11 journals (https://pur-editions.fr). His work is essentially devoted to a philosophical interpretation of symbolism at the end of the 19th century and the work of Mallarmé; to a thought of the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of human existence; a reflection on landscape as reality and as representation. He has published as author or editor 25 books including: "La Négation à l'œuvre. La philosophie symboliste de l'art (1860-1905)", with a preface by Michel Deguy, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2005; "Mallarmé. De la lettre au Livre, anthology of texts" introduced and commented, Marseille, Le mot et le reste, 2010; "Mallarmé philosophe", Paris, Manucius, 2018; "De l'alpinisme", PUR, 2019.

Emanuele Morezzi, architect PhD, is Associate Professor of Architectural Restoration and Preservation at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino. He earned a Doctorate in Cultural Heritage (2008), he is a professor in Theory of Restoration courses and in the design studios of the Bachelor and Master's degree courses in Architecture. He is a member of the board of the Doctorate in Architectural and Landscape Heritage of the Polytechnic of Turin and a member of SIRA, Italian Society for Architectural Restoration. He has been a visiting professor in foreign universities and member of scientific and editorial committees. His scientific research concerns the history and theory of restoration, the conservation of ruins, and architectural and archaeological heritage protection.

Stefania Sbarra (Thiene 1969) is Associate Professor of German Literature at the University of Venice Cà Foscari. She graduated from the University of Venice in 1995 and earned in 2001 her Ph.D. from the Universitiy of Pisa. Between 2000 and 2008 she was assistant professor of at the University of Ferrara and in 2009 moved to the University of Venice Cà Foscari. In January 2014 she obtained the national scientific lecture qualification for the role of Associate Professor in German Literature. She is member of the AIG (Associazione Italiana Germanisti) and of the Associazione Sigismondo Malatesta. In 2012 she was a Jury member of the Jury for the Baioni Prize. Her research and teaching activities focus on the Age of Goethe, Heinrich von Kleist, the influence of Nietzsche in German speaking literature, German Realism and contemporary literature. She lectured at several Italian and international universities and research institutions (Pisa, Padua, Palermo, Paris IV, Bayreuth, Berlin, London, Metz, Literaturarchiv Marbach). She has published a book on the influence of Rousseau in German literature of the classic and romantic period ("La statua di Glauco. Letture di Rousseau nell’età di Goethe", Carocci 2006), and a book on German Realism (“«Il confine, il confine. Dov'è?». Theodor Fontane, Friedrich Nietzsche e il realismo tedesco", Le Lettere 2019), a commented edition of Kleist’s Complete Works published by Mondadori (2011), and papers in some of the major German journals ("Goethe-Jahrbuch", "Heinrich Mann-Jahrbuch", "Weimarer Beiträge", "Cultura tedesca", "Cultura Tedesca", "Ermeneutica Letteraria", "Etudes Germaniques"). In July 2020 she obtained the national scientific lecture qualification for the role of Full Professor in German Literature.