Marie Curie Fellows - 2021 Call

Palestinian Youth at the Crossroads: comparative perspectives on Palestinian transnational youth politics

Palestinian Youth at the Crossroads (PYC) is an interdisciplinary project that explores the political potential of contemporary Palestinian transnational youth activism in the United States and Europe. PYC aims at assessing the capacity and future perspectives of youth politics by providing a comprehensive mapping of youth and student experiences in the U.S. and Europe and looking at the socio-cultural dynamics that characterize youth initiatives, the way narratives and discourses are articulated and the social and political frameworks that shape their strategies. Abu Samra will undertake her research at the Department of Anthropology at UC Davis with prof. Suad Joseph, and at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca' Foscari University with prof. Matteo Legrenzi.

SHAPE. Sharing the Pronoun. Extreme violence, social resistance and the shaping of cultural memory in Spanish American contemporary documentary poetry 

SHAPE investigates the role of 21st century Spanish American documentary poetry as a form of social and community resistance in the shaping of a shared memory about extreme violence in Latin America. This is a peculiar type of poetry using in the very body of the poem a variety of documents that have not been created by the poet. The use of those texts in an intimate and non-mimetic code such as poetry determines a stylistic short-circuit which has been commonly used to verbalise the tragic consequences of the systemic institutional and non-institutional forms of violence against women, migrants, indigenous or LGBTQ+ people. By means of an interdisciplinary approach involving literature, cultural history and ethnography SHAPE aims to build a model of interpretation of docupoetry not only as an aesthetic expression, but also as a powerful tool to preserve social memory about suffering and build a new imaginary for a better future. Laura Alicino will undertake her research at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill under the supervision of prof. Oswaldo Estrada and at the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies of Ca’ Foscari under the supervision of prof. Luis Fernando Beneduzi.

SIMARIS – Strategic Investments in Mitigation, Adaptation and Resource Recovery Innovations at Basin Scale

SIMARIS investigates long-term investments required for climate change mitigation, adaptation and resource recovery innovations at river basin scale. The objective will be achieved through applying a novel approach of integrating intertemporal macroeconomic growth model with process-based hydro-energy-economic model. This will also permit to offer demanded policy-relevant solutions to river basin managers and enriching water management research with novel methods.
Maksud Bekchanov will work at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, under the supervision of prof. Carlo Carraro.

PHOTOELECTROART - The photo-reactivity of artistic pigments: from the preservation of historical paintings to new opportunities as singlet oxygen generators

Two pigments widely used in historic-artistic pieces are madder lakes and geranium lakes. Under light exposure and in presence of oxygen, they generate singlet oxygen, a highly-reactive strong oxidant that promotes degradation reactions in historical paintings. Consequently, the main goal of this project is to gain knowledge into the generation of SO from these pigments and to apply it to the preservation of historical objects.
This project is based at Ca' Foscari's Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, under the supervision of prof. Ligia Moretto and in collaboration with prof. Karolien De Wael (University of Antwerp, Belgium) and dr. Ferenc Borondics (Synchrotron Soleil, France).

WATERSCAPES - Human-Environment interactions in and around Venice Lagoon: micro-ecologies and geoarchaeological narratives from Roman Period to Middle Ages

In and around Venice Lagoon, the role of the environment didn’t have enough importance so far in the historical interpretation of the settlements and societal structures transformations from Antiquity to the Early Middle ages (2nd c. BC to 9th c. AD). Moreover, the existent historical narratives insufficiently consider the "longue durée" approaches in identifying human-environmental entanglement. With WaterScapes project Alexandra Bivolaru, an experienced geoarchaeological scholar, will address this major scientific gap about social aggregations and environmental transformation in and around Venice Lagoon from Roman times to Medieval period. This interdisciplinary project aims to re-read the complex relationship between human interventions and natural dynamics in a multi-period waterscape archaeology approach. Alexandra Bivolaru will undertake her research at Ca' Foscari's Department of Humanities, with prof. Daniela Cottica, and with Dr. Alain Veron from CEREGE Laboratory, Aix Marseille University, France.

Performing Lyric: A Comparative Study of the Ancient Greek and Japanese Traditions

This project will study side by side the fragmentary poetry of ancient Greek lyric and the still living performance tradition of Japanese Nō poetry. Greek lyric was originally composed for performance but has been purely textual for almost two and a half millennia. Japanese Nō on the other hand still has a thriving performance tradition, and it shares with the Greek material some key lyrical aspects. Vanessa Casato, who has thus far specialized in Greek lyric poetry, will spend two years in Japan studying the Nō and Nō-influenced Japanese performance tradition, before coming to Venice for a year to write on what this can tell us about Greek lyric specifically as a performance genre. She will be hosted at Tokyo University under the supervision of prof. Hyuga Taro and at Ca’ Foscari under the primary supervision of prof. Ettore Cingano.

KnowingDOM - Law, Economy and Seeing Woman’s Work: Knowledge Production and the ILO’s Domestic Workers Convention in Global Migration Governance

KnowingDOM will investigate how various actors engage the International Labour Organization in making knowledge claims about domestic work. This project will draw from notions of civic epistemology and the sociality of knowledge production in feminist science studies. The latter attend to different sources of epistemic authority, including voices 'from below'. This project will analyze the discourses, practices and actions culminating in the ILO's Convention on Domestic Work (C189) and inquire into how the ILO's norm-setting activities diffuse to and from a regional organization, the European Union. Liberty Chee will work with supervisor prof. Sabrina Marchetti at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari.

DIVE - In Diversity We Trust: Preserving and Promoting the Literary Heritage of Chinese Minorities

DIVE research project intervenes in debates about authenticity, tradition, and state institutions by investigating an understudied type of cultural heritage: the origin myths of the 55 Chinese ethnic minorities. The bulk of the Chinese population has access to origin myths via state-authorized versions. These sources — which are heavily edited — shed light on how state-directed initiatives have shaped the practice of myth circulation on the national scale, thereby sustaining the discourse of China as a multicultural society.
The research will be conducted under the supervision of prof. Nicoletta Pesaro at the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Ca’ Foscari.

POYESIS - Perspectives on Yiddish Cultural Evolution and Its Legacy: Visual Arts, Theatre, and Songwriting Between Assimilation and Identity. A Case Study

After the 1905 Pogrom of Odessa, many Jewish people emigrated to Europe and the US, a phenomenon that caused the decline of entire communities and the dissolution of much of their culture. Among their privileged destinations was New York, which saw the rapid rising of Yiddish communities. In just a decade, several Jewish artists, writers, and actors started to gain recognition. Why was their contribution so essential and what did it have to do with their culture? This is just one of the many questions that the project POYESIS aims to analyse by studying the work and teachings of artist Norman Raeben and his influence on various leading artists (e.g., Stella Adler, Bob Dylan, Roz Jacobs, and many others) as a case study to examine the evolution of Yiddish culture and art. Fabio Fantuzzi will conduct his research at Columbia University’s Department of German Studies with prof. Jeremy Dauber and at the Department of Humanities of Ca’ Foscari University, under the supervision of prof. Stefania Portinari.

ARCHIVWAR – Archives in Times of War: Scattered Families and Vanishing Past in Contemporary Syria

In times of war, Syrian state archives have fallen victim to destruction and plundering. Simultaneously, Syrians in the diaspora have been saving and retrieving copies of mundane legal documents originally stored in these state repositories. ARCHIVWAR examines these documents and their centrality in preserving a connection to family members in Syria and in the diaspora. Combining ethnographic methods with oral history research, the project rethinks the archive as a form of care amongst Syrian transnational families based in Berlin. Through this re-reading the archive, the project ultimately aims to shed a light on a different political history of the archive partly disarticulated from state and (post)colonial forms of knowledge-power. Veronica Ferreri will conduct her research at University of Waterloo (Canada), under the supervision of prof. Secil Dagtas, and at the Department of Humanities of Ca’ Foscari, under the supervision of dr. Francesco Vacchiano.

MODiterranean – Age of Moderation: Liberal Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1814-1848

MODiterranean investigates the transnational conceptualisation and diffusion of moderation theory in Mediterranean Europe in the first half of the XIX century. Through a first-of-a-kind analysis, it explores moderate thinkers’ formulation of a third political way for the future of Europe between revolution and reaction, by focussing on their published and unpublished works and international correspondence across France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Spain. MODiterranean contributes to a geographical shift in the historical perspective of the XIX century from the Atlantic, often seen as the centre of all political and intellectual action, to the Mediterranean. Talitha Ilacqua will conduct her research at Yale University’s Center for the Study of Representative Institutions, under the supervision of prof. Isaac Nakhimovsky, and at Ca’ Foscari’s Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage with prof. Matteo Legrenzi.

PPLMEC - Politics and Practices of Listening in Mao era People's Republic of China

This project aims to provide the first dedicated history of auditory cultures of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), by exploring the role of sound from three perspectives: as a tool of nation-building deployed by the state; as a medium through which the Chinese revolution was experienced at an individual level; and in the contestation between these two domains, as the soundscape became a site of contention and negotiation between the state and the citizen. The research will expand the field of global sound studies beyond its current Eurocentrism, apply Sound-Studies to China for the first in-depth and long term empirical study, and enhance European knowledge of modern China. Dayton Lekner will develop his project at the Department of Asian and North African Studies, under the supervision of prof. Laura De Giorgi.

Estimating the ice volume of Earth's glaciers via Artificial Intelligence and remote sensing (SKYNET)

Estimating the ice volume of Earth's glaciers is a grand challenge of Earth System science. Besides being a critical parameter to their evolution, knowledge of glacier volumes is fundamental to quantify future global sea level rise and available freshwater resources across climate sensitive regions. Under current global warming glaciers are losing mass, making improved glacier ice volume estimates a top-priority to constrain future climate scenarios. SKYNET will tackle this challenge using Artificial Intelligence. Its goal is to develop deep learning models capable of exploiting the huge amounts of satellite imagery to improve the current estimates of ice volumes of all Earth’s glaciers, from continental alpine regions to polar glaciers in the periphery of Greenland and Antarctica. Niccolò Maffezzoli will work at the University of California Irvine with prof. Rignot and at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics with prof. Carlo Barbante.

MC-EuCon - Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) in the history of European ideas of consciousness

Questions about consciousness, its origin and nature, which dominate debates in philosophy of mind and neurosciences, arose during the 17th century. The MC-EuCon project investigates Margaret Cavendish’s philosophy (1623-73), to provide the first detailed interpretation of her theory of consciousness. By targeting one of the earliest and most original responses to Descartes’s dualist theories, the project will offer a rich opportunity for developing our understanding of how problems about conscious life evolved and were addressed in Europe in the early modern period. Oberto Marrama will work at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, with the supervision of prof. Pietro Daniel Omodeo.

OTHREN - Othering the Renaissance. Conceptualizing Foreigners, Slaves and Infidels in Early Modern Political Thought (ca. 1520-1610)

OTHREN will provide the first comprehensive study of how six Aristotelian authors who lived ca. between 1520 and 1610 mainly in Italy or Spain (Antonio Brucioli, Piero Vettori, Giovanni Botero, Francisco Vitoria, Juan Sepulveda, Lucrezia Marinelli) theorized otherness and dealt with outcasts in their political works. It will focus on three concepts (foreigners, slaves, and infidels) and three figures of outcasts (Jews, Muslims, and Amerindians) that often overlapped in their political reflections. The project employs conceptual frameworks and interpretive lenses derived from post-colonial theory (the concepts of otherness, foreignness, infidelity, the opposition between West and East) in order to understand ideas and narratives that are included in texts lying within the expertise of the history of philosophy (e.g. commentaries on Aristotle) or intellectual history (e.g. treatises on heretics, infidels, and Amerindians authored in the 16th century). Alessandro Mulieri will complete his research at University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) with prof. Eva del Soldato and at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca' Foscari with prof. Gianluca Briguglia.

FONDACO - Healing and Learning in the Fondaco: A Forgotten Network of Knowledge in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Mamluk and Ottoman Levant, 1400-1700

FONDACO aims to produce the first systematic study of an uncharted network of knowledge exchange connecting Christian and Islamic states across the Mediterranean and Levant 1400-1700. For three centuries Venice appointed physicians, surgeons and apothecaries to its colonies and outposts in the Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire. These medical servants used their positions as springboards for rich intellectual explorations that brought them in contact with local populations and traditions. This project investigates how these diplomatic doctors turned into savants and, more ambitiously, how this network facilitated the development of key fields of scholarship in early modern Europe, notably natural history and antiquarianism, and how these were informed by the intellectual world of the Near East. In so doing, the project will overturn the image of intellectual stagnation traditionally attributed to the post-medieval Mediterranean world, and reshape our understanding of the connected history of the region. The research will be held with Marco Sgarbi at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University.

InTer AquAS – Integrating Terrestrial and Aquatic Archaeozoological Studies: Venice and the northern Adriatic lagoons between Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

The project aims to highlight and interpret elements of continuity and discontinuity in the human-animal-environment relationship at the Roman-early medieval transition along the north-western Adriatic coast. Archaeozoological assemblages from three study-regions will be analysed: the Venetian Lagoon, the Marano-Grado Lagoon, and the coast of Romagna; these regions are characterised by the presence of wetlands, with lagoons, rivers and canals influencing the nature of human settlement and activities. The chronological and spatial comparisons proposed by the InTer AquAS project, the combination of terrestrial and aquatic faunal studies, and the implementation of biometrical and isotopic analyses, will provide a holistic approach taking into account the complex, changing relationships between humans, other animals, and the environment. Mauro Rizzetto will work at the Department of Humanities with prof. Sauro Gelichi and dr. Silvia Garavello, with a secondment period at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Barcelona (Spain) with dr. Silvia Valenzuela Lamas.

EXPEDITE - EXPloring opportunitiEs for developing a risk and resilience climate service baseD on bIg daTa and machinE learning

EXPEDITE aims to explore new pathways to remove barriers and challenges still existing in effective implementation of risk assessment and adaptation responses, in particular in the climatic field. The project will focus on exploring, testing and deploying machine learning and data science techniques and by developing and testing a climate service prototype, tailored to end-users; these may include institutional clients (such as Regions) in the private sector or individual consumers. A targeted dissemination and communication plan will allow EXPEDITE to share the research activities, outcomes and outputs with researchers, policymakers, the private sector and the general public. Marcello Sano will work at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics with prof. Andrea Critto, with targeted secondments for advanced training in machine learning and data science at MALGA, University of Genoa and for climate service design and prototyping at GECOsistema srl, a specialised R&D consulting lab.

Mig.Pro - Migrants’ protests: how the borders of citizenship are conceived, mobilized and constructed by migrants’ farm workers protests

Mig.Pro. project aims at shedding light on the political subjectivities of migrants’ agricultural workers in two specific contexts – Italy and Canada. Several forms of protests will be analysed; in particular struggles to access/be recognized: legal status, decent housing, health care. Framing this specific productive sector allows to: i) draw a deep analysis on the representations of working and life conditions; ii) bring forward theorization in the fields of social movements, migration and citizenship studies; iii) elaborate on the intersections among policies such as: migration; reception programmes; access to fundamental rights; agri-food-sector; and seasonal agricultural worker programmes. The study will be implemented through qualitative instruments by drawing in particular on participatory action research with an intersectional approach. Eriselda Shkopi will undertake her research in Canada at the University of Western Ontario (Arthur Labatt School of Nursing) with the supervision prof. Claudia Susana Caxaj and at Ca’ Foscari University (Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage) with prof. Fabio Perocco.

MOTOBOOM: The Current Impact of Motorcycle Motorisation on Amazonian Indigenous Peoples

During the last century, the indigenous South American Lowlands have been colonized by steamboats, railways, trucks, chainsaws, fire-weapons and electric generators introduced by missionaries, extractive industries, armies, development projects, and NGOs. However, anthropological and historical research has largely neglected this mechanical colonisation of indigenous life; in particular, there are almost no studies that analyse the current tide of motorcycles that during the last few decades altered dramatically the interethnic landscape, and its social, economic and environmental repercussions which are significantly reshaping current indigenous reality. The goal of this research project is to develop a ground breaking and interdisciplinary analysis of the effects of motorcycle dissemination among the indigenous peoples of Bolivian Amazonia, and to achieve practical impact regarding public policies on road safety and prevention of accidents in marginal contexts. The project will be conducted under the supervision of prof. Valentina Bonifacio at the Department of Humanities of Ca’ Foscari.