Joint Observatory Lab

The Joint Observatory Lab is an international research initiative dedicated to mapping and analyzing the global circulation of Italian audiovisual and literary content. Building on the work initiated through the summer school Mediating Italy in Global Culture, the lab emerges as a collaborative platform designed to make ongoing research more visible and accessible to doctoral students, early-career scholars, and researchers worldwide.

This project was made possible thanks to the grant Incentivi per Collaborazioni con Università del Nord America, awarded by the University of Bologna. It is the result of a dynamic partnership between the University of Bologna (Departments of the Arts – DAR and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures – FICLIT) and Dickinson College. The network is designed to grow, expanding its reach and research impact across institutions and continents.

The Observatory Lab pursues three key objectives:

• Building an open-access digital environment that collects and connects international research projects on the circulation of Italian cultural content;
• Fostering a transnational network of scholars working on related topics, supported by immersive digital tools including metaverse-based technologies;
• Expanding outreach beyond academia, with a dedicated space for the dissemination of research findings to cultural communities and media industry stakeholders.

Through this joint effort, the Observatory Lab seeks to rethink the role of Italian media and cultural production in global contexts — not only by charting its flows and transformations, but also by creating new spaces of connection, research, and engagement across disciplines and borders.

The Network of Partners

One of the goals of the Observatory is to build an international network of scholars working on the global circulation of Italian cultural products, fostering collaboration and exchange.

Professor Giancarlo Lombardi - College of Staten Island CUNY

Professor Paola Bonifazio - The University of Texas at Austin