Visiting scholar

 

AY 2021-2022

HANS AGNÈ

Professor in political science (International relations, political theory, comparative politics)
Stockholm university
My research interests revolve around democracy and legitimacy, in particular in politics beyond the state. In the academic year of 2021/22 I will be on research leave from my home department at Stockholm university, spending time at the universities of Catania (in the fall of 2021) and Oxford (in the spring 2021). The intention is to finalize one book on democracy, entitled Democratism: Explaining international politics with democracy beyond the state (under contract with Edward Elgar) and one book on legitimacy, entitled Global Legitimacy Crises: Decline and revival in multilateral governance (under contract with Oxford University Press, co-authored with Thomas Sommerer, Fariborz Zelli, and Bart Bes). In addition to these focal points in my research, I currently use some time also to explore: the usefulness of music and sounds to illustrate quantitative political data; the conditions for peace and conflict among human and artificially intelligent political agents; and methods for theorizing in empirical political science, and teaching those methods.

FLAVIA FULCO

Assistant Professor at Tohoku University in the International Institute of Disaster Science (Japan)

The focus of my research is on Cultural Memory of Disasters. Since 2011 I have been based in Japan where I conducted research on the practices of memory transmission in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, more specifically focusing on how the experiences of the disaster are told and transmitted. During my visiting at the University of Catania (April 2021/May 2022), I will look at some Italian disaster experiences to analyze how the cultural memory was established, kept, and transmitted, focusing on the role that storytelling has in the process. Meanwhile, I will also take part in the interdepartmental project "Reverse. Responsible research, VERSatile Knowledge, Enviromental futures in action (Piano PIACERI 2020-2022) - coordinated  by Prof. Mara Benadusi

KATIANA LE MENTEC

Researcher in Anthropology
French National Center for Scientific Research (China, Korea, Japan Unit)

For the last sixteen years I have been doing research in the old sichuanese area, in West China. I mainly undertook fieldwork in two counties affected by severe territorial upheavals: the Three Gorges Dam reservoir formation and the Wenchuan earthquake. During my stay at the University of Catania, I will first finalise a book on religious and cultural tools (including legend, festival, heritage and museum) seized by the population and the local government to make sense, interpret (from praise or criticism), and deal with the forced migration induced by the Dam in Yunyang County. During the second semester, I will engage in a new research project on affected spaces and territorial upheavals focusing on their effects on the multifaceted relationships between a space and the people feeling related to it. The first focus will be on a theoretical reflection relying on the concept of anthropotopia. It will be based on first hand data from China and Sicily (in particular people living in Catania – including the Chinese community) as well as on second hand data from other cultural areas. At the department, I will work with Mara Benadusi and join the project she is coordinating (REsponsible research, VERSatile knowledge, Environmental futures in action). With Mara, Paolo Militello and Flavia Fulco, I will also participate to a collaborative project involving master students, on the topic of destroyed and relocated sites. This will allow me to develop a comparative reflection between Chinese and Sicilian data.

 

Ultima modifica: 
13/01/2022 - 08:08