FAR projects

Anna Elisabetta Galeotti (coordinator) - Luca Savarino - Simona Forti - Mario Ferrero; other participants: Enrico Biale (from March 2021).

The project focuses on the cognitive and motivational mechanisms that contribute to the formation of erroneous beliefs, and analyses the interaction between these mechanisms and the functioning of social media that facilitate the spread of fake news.

ERC: SH2_1; SH5_10

Fake news; cognitive distortion; motivational interference; social media

End: 31/12/2022 (extended by Board of Directors 26 February 2021)

Anna Elisabetta Galeotti: elisabetta.galeotti@uniupo.it

Paolo Garbarino (coordinator) - Raffaella Afferni - Eleonora Destefanis - Gabriella Vanotti.

The project aims to deepen the theme of ethnic identity and ecumenism in relation to circulatory phenomena and the definition of the boundaries between the ancient and medieval ages, with profiles of comparison with contemporary experiences. Particular attention will be paid to the dynamics of migration and integration or conflict, and the consequent social, cultural, legal, geographical and religious repercussions in the ancient world. The project intends to address the proposed themes with an interdisciplinary approach, which can make use of the respective skills and different methodological approaches. The project also intends to highlight those profiles of ancient and late-ancient experience that are usefully comparable with current highly topical phenomena and problems, identifying their theoretical and archetypal roots.

ERC: SH2_8; SH6_1; SH6_6; SH6_8; SH6_11; SH6_12; SH3_7; SH3_8; SH3_5

Borders; identity; ecumenism; Antiquity; Middle Ages

End: 31/12/2022 (extension of the Board of Directors of 26 February 2021)

Paolo Garbarino: paolo.garbarino@uniupo.it

Ludovica Maconi (coordinator) - Maria Napoli.

The aim of the research is to trace an "internal history" of Italian grammar to identify and describe the moving rules of our language, in an attempt to explain when and how the final formulation commonly prescribed by grammarians was reached, yet still not immutable or inviolable. Through ancient and modern grammars and vocabularies, the aim is to study the changes in the spelling and grammatical rules of Italian. In some cases, it will be observed that forms and constructs once stigmatized as errors are now considered normal, or in any case acceptable; vice versa, in other cases, it will be observed that forms rejected today could have been completely correct in past centuries. The research also aims to shed new light on how the history of rules interacts with linguistic change.

ERC: SH4_10; SH5_8; SH6_13

Italian grammar; spelling; history of the Italian language; history of linguistic thought

End: 31/12/2022 (extension of the Board of Directors of 26 February 2021)

Ludovica Maconi: ludovica.maconi@uniupo.it

Maria Teresa Monti (coordinator since 2020, previously Gianenrico Paganini) - Silvia Fazzo - Gianluca Mori.

Collaborators: Pier Davide Accendere - Jacopo Agnesina - Gregorio Baldin.

In Western thought, "metaphysics" arises as knowledge that is both absolute (a place of knowledge of being as a being), but also connected to the science of nature (as knowing that goes "beyond" physics and seeks its ultimate foundation). This epistemological duplicity and, consequently, the complexity of the relationship that derives from it between metaphysics and science, cross the entire span of the history of philosophy, up to the latest manifestations of metaphysical thought in modern times and awaiting the Kantian criticism that will substantially decree the end (at least compared to the ways in which it had manifested itself previously). The research will develop along three main axes. The first looks at the origins of Western metaphysical thought in its founding text (Aristotle, Metaphysics). The second direction of research is linked to the revolution of metaphysical thought that characterizes the modern era (as amply demonstrated by the Hobbesian project of a "First Philosophy", foundation of all sciences) and, at the same time, to the rise of an anti-metaphysical thought which attacks the central idea on which modern metaphysics had developed, that is the idea of ​​God as "being infinitely perfect", with results that, for the first time after the advent of Christianity, lead to the emergence of a system of clearly atheistic thinking. A third strand takes into consideration the emergence of a science of nature now independent of metaphysical premises and based on investigation in the field, within the framework of an empirical epistemology that marks the complete autonomisation of scientific knowledge with respect to the great dominant metaphysical systems.

ERC: SH5_11; SH6_14

Metaphysics; science; God; nature

End: 31/12/2022 (extended by Board of Directors 26 February 2021) 

Maria Teresa Monti: mariateresa.monti@uniupo.it

Carla Pomarè (coordinator) - Elena Giovannini - Cristina Iuli - Elisabetta Lonati.

The research starts from reflections on the notion of borders which in recent decades have affected, also in relation to the transnational dynamics induced by globalization, the anthropological, political and historical field and, last but not least, the cultural sphere, becoming a powerful and recurring metaphor in literary discourse. With increasing frequency, attention has shifted to the permeable nature of borders and therefore to the experience of trespassing, understood as a productive act of new identity, social and cultural configurations. In this context, the research investigates the presence of phenomena related to the negotiation of borders in a plurality of meanings, starting from the most immediately local-geographical concept (the crossings of territorial and cultural borders typical of travels, migrations, diasporas, and their narrations), to include experiences of acculturation based on the crossing of immaterial demarcation lines, such as multilingualism and translation practices, but also encroachments between the arts (literature / music, literature / visual arts) and between disciplines (art / science, literature / philosophy). The reflection on significant moments and forms of encroachment, in the proper and figural sense, involves areas linked to American, English and German culture, in a transnational perspective and in a time span that goes from the early Romantic Age, considered a founding moment in the European experience. of national borders, up to the present.

ERC: SH4_10; SH4_11; SH5_2; SH5_8

Borders; trespassing; multilingualism; travel literature; translations

End: 31/12/2022 (extension of the Board of Directors of 26 February 2021)

Carla Pomarè: carla.pomare@uniupo.it

Miriam Ravetto (coordinator) - Marina Castagneto - Stefania Ferrari - Laura Tommaso.

By exploiting the synergy between scientific interests of the individual proponents, the research project focuses on the pragmatic analysis of authentic speech data, favouring (i) a contrastive vision in order to compare different languages ​​and cultures, including Italian, German and English, (ii) the acquisitional perspective, so as to detect the main stages in the development of pragmatic skills and (iii) the didactic approach, with the dual aim of verifying the teachability of pragmatics and developing consequently innovative and effective teaching strategies and materials.

The main lines of research in the project are:

• analysis of some speech acts related to management of the network of social relations between the interactants (e.g., compliments, insults, requests, allocutive strategies, mitigation, asymmetries between speakers, interactions between the realization of speech acts and interactional sequences).
• survey of the development paths of pragmatic skills in L1 and L2.
• experimentation of didactic practices that integrate the pragmatic dimension with the linguistic-grammatical one.

The project led to the creation of a Co.Cor multilingual corpus (Compliment Corpus; http://www.cocor.eu). It is a large database, constantly updated, which hosts audio and video recordings with the related pragmatic transcriptions of spontaneous and semi-spontaneous interactions (currently 1250), in which the linguistic act of compliment is carried out. The corpus can be queried on the basis of a series of filters (e.g., information relating to the interactants, the linguistic act, its sequential structure or the method of eliciting data).

ERC: SH4_6; SH4_7; SH4_8; SH4_9; SH4_11

Pragmatics; spoken language; conversational analysis; language teaching; comparative analysis

End: 31/12/2022 (extension of the Board of Directors of 26 February 2021)

website: http://www.cocor.eu

Miriam Ravetto: miriam.ravetto@uniupo.it

Raffaella Tabacco (coordinator) - Luigi Battezzato - Alice Borgna - Maurizio Lana.

Thanks to Digital Humanites, classical texts have found new organization in digital libraries in recent decades (PHI, TLG, DigilibLT, MQDQ). These databases have been able to offer the scientific community lines of investigation which, by combining Digital Humanities with the most recently developed linguistic approaches, has led to significant changes in the study of languages ​​and classical literatures, providing opportunities for new analysis of literary texts. Texts such as those of late ancient Latin, difficult to find and whose unavailability in digital form had ended up putting them on the sidelines of research, are now available in open access on the UNIUPO website. The project proposes the advancement of the DigilibLT digital library that these late ancient Latin texts put online, expanding it to new textual fields, in particular the Roman jurists, an opening that represents much more than a development, as it breaks down the traditional barrier that separates philologists from legal historians. The jurist will be able to encounter the ancient sources in the linguistic, rhetorical, historical and cultural context in which they were formed and, vice versa, the philologist will significantly expand the subject of his research. The project also proposes the opening of further lines of investigation, related to the themes of material culture in the forms of nutrition and care.

ERC: SH5_1; SH5_3; SH5_12

Classics; digital humanities; classical philology; history of medicine; Roman law

End: 31/12/2022 (extension of the Board of Directors of 26 February 2021)

website: https://digiliblt.uniupo.it

Raffaella Tabacco: raffaella.tabacco@uniupo.it

Andrea Baldissera (coordinator) - Marco Pustianaz - Marcella Trambaioli.

The project intends to investigate, according to a multidisciplinary perspective and a broad historical framework, the circulation of models, techniques and theatrical practices (between Spain and Europe), under different profiles: critical-literary, historical, ideological, scenic, linguistic and musicological, with particular attention to the baroque and twentieth century. On the other hand, analysis will be developed on the role and position of the spectator both in his/her (historical) condition as recipient-horizon of the work, and in its contemporary modifications, under the pressure of more general paradigms inspired by participation and interactivity.

ERC: SH5_2; SH5_3; SH5_4; SH5_5; SH5_8

Theatre; show; spectators; music; models

End: 12/31/2022

Andrea Baldissera: andrea.baldissera@uniupo.it

Cristina Meini (coordinator) - Gian Luigi Bulsei (deceased). Collaborator: Emiliano Loria.

For the social sciences, identity and relationship are two sides of the same coin: the subject has a distinct personal identity precisely because he is not an isolated individual; identity is therefore not an essence, but a process that "is formed" through interaction with others.

But what happens to the processes of identity construction and social relationships "mediated" by digital technologies?

The global network raises qualitatively and quantitatively new questions that need to be answered. Particularly urgent is an intervention aimed at understanding the most effective means to make the level of epistemic vigilance adequate (Mercier and Sperber, 2017) towards new media, training critical users, able to grasp the information useful for the growth of knowledge and person while maintaining a critical eye on information sources and contents, too often oriented towards an exclusively empathic-emotional communication (Bloom, 2016).

ERC: SH2; SH4

Personal identity; social identity; epistemic vigilance; new media

End: 12/31/2022

Cristina Meini: cristina.meini@uniupo.it

José Manuel Martín Morán (coordinator) - Michele Mastroianni - Laurence Audéoud.

The main axis of the research, within the framework of the phenomenon of transpositions and rewritings from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, will be the study of translation techniques, of reworking of classical models, of adaptation strategies in a historical-cultural context typical of a nation. another, and of linguistic phenomena on which precise poetic aesthetics of the indicated period are based. The project starts from three main survey perspectives: the first of a translational nature, the second of an ecdotic and philological nature, the third of a historical-linguistic nature. There will be three main research axes:

1. Investigations on the rewriting of the sixteenth-century French language on the fictional side of the work of Albert Cohen.

2. Cultural relations between Italy and Spain (16th and 17th centuries), with a particular interest in the reception of Italian neo-Aristotelianism in Miguel de Cervantes' fiction, especially as regards the construction of characters, the modalities of dialogue and narrative techniques. Another side of this line of research will be the one dealing with Cervantes' rewriting of Orlando di Boiardo and Ariosto.

3. Problems of rewriting of ancient texts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with particular attention to the study of moyen français. The elaboration of specific 'languages' will be investigated, with reference to the problem of the relationship with the classical model (Greek and Latin) and, in particular, the reconstruction of the ancient model in the new Renaissance and late Renaissance context.

ERC: SH5_2; SH5_8

Rewriting; reconstruction of cultural models; relations between national cultures

End: 12/31/2022José Manuel Martín Morán: martin.moran@uniupo.it

Iolanda Poma (coordinator) - Luca Ghisleri - Cecilia Gibellini.

Overcoming anthropocentrism keeps the question of the subject open, starting with the recognition of its inescapable relationship with otherness in its various forms: nature inside and outside of him, the other subjects, the world and the transcendent, in relationship with tradition and culture, within which to redefine the meaning of ethical and social responsibility.

The project intends to follow this line of research within a triangulation of concepts and areas of competence, overlapping each other and able to articulate their thematic development.

The concepts are those of the symbol, the space and the actions that take place there (the ways of meeting and the languages ​​that narrate it). The areas of competence, which can be traced back to the research sectors of the proponents, are those of philosophical reflection, in its moral and theoretical aspects, and the literary one, for a comparison on a theme that is in itself multi- and interdisciplinary.

Far from dichotomous or fusional reductions, the relationship with otherness is rethought in terms of a symbolic bond, because it is marked by an insurmountable fracture. It is an experience, even spatial, of that "between" that separates, but also places subject and otherness in relation and opens up to the narration of hospitality and welcome.

ERC: SH5_9; SH5_10; SH5_2

Subjectivity; otherness; symbol; space; storytelling

End: 12/31/2022

Iolanda Poma: iolanda.poma@uniupo.it

Claudio Rosso (coordinator) - Alessandro Barbero - Davide Porporato.

The project intends to exploit the skills of two historians (a medievalist and a modernist) and an ethno-anthropologist, interested in starting a survey of the documentary collections relating to the historical-geographical area to which the University of Eastern Piedmont refers. The aim is to prepare a map / inventory of the documentation relating to aspects and problems of great importance and of long duration: in particular, the feudality between the late Middle Ages and the ancient regime, the composition and internal dynamics of the ruling classes, the relationships between cities and the external powers to which they were subject, the histories, which have remained handwritten and unpublished, of cities, communities, families, ecclesiastical institutions, welfare, economic and educational institutions. A number of these sources, deemed particularly significant, will be taken into consideration for transcription and publication. Special attention will be paid to a phenomenon of great historical significance, still peculiar and emblematic of a significant part of the territories examined: the cultivation of rice. The historical and ethno-anthropological investigation, enriched by other interdisciplinary contributions, aims to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of all those knowledge, material and intangible, which pertain to the rice-growing tradition of Piedmont.

ERC: SH5_8; SH6_6; SH6_7; SH6_8

Eastern Piedmont; cultural heritage; archival and bibliographic sources; rice cultivation

End: 31/12/2022

Claudio Rosso: claudio.rosso@uniupo.it

Gabriella Silvestrini (coordinator) - Guido Franzinetti - Stefania Sini - Edoardo Tortarolo; other participants: Paolo Fonzi (from January 2020); Irene Gaddo (from March 2021). Collaborators: Filippo Chiocchetti, Daniela Piemontino.

The term "revolution" is distinguished by a history punctuated by semantic and conceptual turning points that have accompanied the evolution of political culture from the modern age to the present world and which can only be studied in a multi- and transdisciplinary perspective, with the contribution of historical, political and linguistic-literary skills.

The research group intends to analyse some dimensions of the transformation over time of this term within the European context, in order to contribute to an analytical and conceptual clarification that allows a more conscious use of the lemma and the concept in contemporary debates. Consequently, the research unit will analyse: the concept of revolution in its relationship with the concepts of civil war and rebellion, taking into consideration the most recent philosophical-political and historiographical reflection; the theme Revolution and Nation: paths of the lexicon of nationalism ', identifying the key passages of the lexicon of nation, nationalism, people, lineage, and race, from Barruel to the present day; issues relating to the reworking of the revolutionary experience in literature, criticism and theory of literature in Russia and in Russian communities abroad (Prague, Paris, Berlin) of the first half of the twentieth century; the historiography on the 'revolutions' in the German context during the twentieth century up to the Wende revolution of 1989.

ERC: SH5_2; SH5_8; SH6_8; SH6_10

Revolution; resistance; civil war; nationalism; revolutionary experience

End: 12/31/2022

Gabriella Silvestrini gabriella.silvestrini@uniupo.it

Vittorio Tigrino (coordinator) - Patrizia Zambrano.

The project investigates the history of objects that make up our cultural heritage today in a broad perspective, and over a long chronology, starting from the modern age. The approach is multidisciplinary, and takes into account the perspectives of social history and art history, passing through environmental history and the disciplines of heritage. The objects taken into account are multiple, and varied. In fact, the intention is to compare, in a territorial and contextual perspective, the concept of "artifact" in a very broad way, and to follow its historical dynamics. The focus will be on environmental resources on the one hand, and on the artistic and historical heritage on the other.

In the first case we will analyse, in a long-term perspective, different objects of heritage (the beaches of Liguria, the collective resources of the Ligurian-Piedmont Apennines), to highlight the sometimes unexpected role that anthropic activities have had up to the their current configuration.

The second will investigate, also in the light of the research agreements in place between DISUM-UPO and important institutional interlocutors, some thematic nuclei of the history of art in Valsesia (e.g., the presence of the Milanese family of Adda Salvaterra starting from the 16th century and its role as patron), and the Arborio Mella Graphic Fund of the State Archives of Vercelli will be catalogued, also in relation to the recognition of DISUM-UPO as a MIBACT 'cataloging body'.

ERC: SH6_7; SH6_8; SH5_6; SH5_7; SH5_8; SH6_1

Cultural heritage; territory; modern history; environmental history; art history

End: 12/31/2022

Vittorio Tigrino: vittorio.tigrino@uniupo.it

Antonio Vannugli (coordinator) - Saverio Lomartire - Carlo Zoppi.

The project, transversal between architectural, artistic and religious culture, focuses on some themes: public and private commissions, expression of cults, relations with politics and power. Vannugli prepares a monograph on the painter Orazio Borgianni (Rome 1574-1616), with the aim of "de-Caravaggizing" the artist, who before the twentieth century no one had ever considered as a follower of Merisi. At the same time, he turned his attention to some other artists active between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and some decorative complexes of the time, such as that of the oratory of the Gonfalone in Rome. Lomartire explores the relationship between the building structure and sculptural, pictorial and furnishing apparatus, testing the different dosage of "necessary" and "accessory" components, even in areas or periods in which such manifestations are less frequent. Other contributions concern the Rotulo of the Vercelli cathedral, reproducing the ancient pictorial cycles of the building, and some metal furnishings, including an unpublished processional crucifix, probably Germanic, as contributions from the Walser communities of the Biella area. Zoppi works for a better definition of the phases of the sanctuaries of Selinunte and, after the destruction of the city in 250 BC, of ​​the sporadic reoccupation of the places. With regard to the sanctuaries of Malophoros, Meilichios and the Acropolis, he sets out to distinguish the archaic, classical, Punic-Hellenistic, early Middle Ages and medieval phases.

ERC: SH5_1; SH5_3; SH5_6; SH5-7; SH5_8; SH6_2; SH6_12

Architecture; painting; decorative arts; Greek antiquity; Romanesque; Counter-Reformation

End: 31/12/2022

Antonio Vannugli: antonio.vannugli@uniupo.it