Kenneth Goldsmith’s writing has been called “some of the most exhaustive and beautiful collage work yet produced in poetry” by Publishers Weekly. Goldsmith is the author of thirteen books of poetry, founding editor of the online archive UbuWeb (ubu.com), and the editor of I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, which was the basis for an opera, “Trans-Warhol,” that premiered in Geneva in March of 2007. An hour-long documentary on his work, “Sucking on Words” was first shown at the British Library in 2007. He teaches writing at The University of Pennsylvania, where he is a senior editor of PennSound, an online poetry archive. He held The Anschutz Distinguished Fellow Professorship in American Studies at Princeton University for 2009-10 and received the Qwartz Electronic Music Award in Paris in 2009. In May 2011, he was invited to read at President Obama’s “A Celebration of American Poetry” at The White House, where he also held a poetry workshop with First Lady Michelle Obama. In 2011, he co-edited, Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing and published two books of essays, Wasting Time on the Internet (2016. Italian Edition 2017, Einaudi)) and Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age, which won the 2011 Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present Book Award. Goldsmith participated in dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany (2012). dOCUMENTA(13) published his “Letter To Bettina Funcke” as part of their “100 Notes – 100 Thoughts” book series. In 2013, he was named as the inaugural Poet Laureate of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Silvia Albertazzi is Full Professor of English Postcolonial Literature and History of the English Culture at the University of Bologna. She is the author of the first Italian book on Postcolonial Theory, Lo sguardo dell’Altro (Carocci, 2000), updated and reissued in 2013 with the title La letteratura postcoloniale. Dall’Impero alla World Literature. She has published two volumes on literature and photography, Il nulla, quasi. Foto di famiglia e istantanee amatoriali nella letteratura contemporanea (Le Lettere, 2010), and Letteratura e fotografia (Carocci, 2017), and co-edited with Ferdinando Amigoni a collection of essays, Guardare oltre. Letteratura, fotografia e altri territori (Meltemi, 2006). She is a book reviewer for Alias, the literary supplement of the newspaper, il manifesto.
Michela Balboni is a photographer and freelance graphic designer and illustrator, specialized in fashion design with fifteen years of experience. Her work has been displayed in several exhibitions. She co-founded Uvea Photo, a photographic agency focused on wedding reportages and corporate photography. Since 2017 Michela teaches image enhancing and photoediting.
Francesco Benozzo teaches Romance Philology at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bologna. Along with his academic career he is also poet, a musician, and the author of more than 700 publications. His areas of interests include among many the origins of human language, oral poetry, shamanism, anarchism, ethnophilology, critical editions of medieval texts, and the problem of landscape in literature. As a songwriter and harpist, he released 11 CDs, produced in Italy, Denmark and the UK. For his poetry in defense of natural places and for his use of techniques belonging to the ancient tradition of oral poetry, since 2015 he has been nominated for the Literary Nobel Prize.
Federico Borella is a photojournalist working for Quotidiano Nazionale, national newspaper in Bologna, Italy. Internationally published, Federico has more than nine years of experience as a news photographer and reportage working for both national and foreign magazines, including Time Magazine, National Geographic USA, National Geographic Italia, Alpha magazine, Magazinet Norway, Dagens Nyether, Corriere della Sera, Quotidiano Nazionale, Panorama, L’Espresso Group. Federico is also an educator in photography and photojournalism.
Michela Carpanelli is a professional teacher of the Feldenkrais Method, a technique created to help people becoming aware of the interactions within them (emotions, mind, body, body parts) and between them and the environment, experiencing the improvement of life in general. Together and in connection with this activity, she is also a teacher in an experimental libertarian school, based on the enforcement of the child as autonomous individual, able to create and explore their own needs and rights.
Full professor at the University of Bologna since 2016, Lorenzo Chiari conducts his research in the field of biomedical engineering. His research interests are directed in particular to rehabilitation technologies, active and healthy ageing, functional evaluation of movement and the risk of falling with wearable sensors, neurobiomechanics of posture and movement, in physiological and pathological conditions. Director, since September 2016, of the Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Research on Health Sciences & technologies. Member of the Health and eHealth thematic groups of the University of Bologna.
Luigi Contadini teaches Spanish Literature at the University of Bologna. His areas of research include the phenomenological aspect of literary representations of contemporary writers, the literature of trauma and memory concerning the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist repression and various themes of the Eighteenth Century Spanish (memorial, epic, celebratory poetry, travel literature). He is promoter and organizer of the series of congress on Plural Spain (meetings and conflicts of languages and cultures) organized by the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
A theatre director, scriptwriter, scenographer and actor, Pietro Floridia has founded and managed several theatres in the Bologna area since 1993. He has realised performances and projects about diversity and intercultural exchange; among them, La Compagnia dei Rifugiati (The Company of the Refugees), which was involved in many laboratories, performances and conferences on theatre, and gave birth to meetings, exhibitions and performances.
Pietro’s travels across the world, from Palestine and Nicaragua to Bolivia and Africa, have always provided the grounding experiences for his projects. One of the most meaningful was his journey to Senegal, through Morocco and Mauritania, to meet the migrants leaving North Africa to reach Italy. Out of this experience were born a book and a performance, in which Pietro performed on stage.
La Compagnia dei Rifugiati has now become an independent project and has changed its name to Cantieri Meticci, where Pietro is currently covering the role of artistic and main director.
Virginia Guastella is a composer and pianist. She works in different fields: contemporary classical, crossover and soundtracks to feature films, TV documentaries and silent movies.
Her music, edited by RaiCom, is performed at major international venues such as National Gallery of Washington and BARD College (NY).
Among the artists that perform her works are Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Sentieri Selvaggi Ensemble and many others.
Guastella has worked as a music consultant and composer of the original soundtracks for a documentary series broadcast by RAI TRE. As pianist, she has won national and international competitions.
A Professor in Harmony and Analysis at the Conservatory of music “G. Puccini” of Gallarate, she also offers masterclasses in European institutions.
ILOCALAPP-Unibo Team
The ILOCALAPP project (Incidentally Learning Other Cultures and Languages through and APP) developed UniOn!, an app for the incidental learning of four languages and cultures (Finnish, Italian, Polish and Portuguese) geo-localized in the University cities belonging to the project.
ILOCALAPP was coordinated by the Unibo Team, composed by experts from the Dep. of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures and from the Dep. of Computer Science and Engineering. In the picture from top left: Andrea Ceccherelli, project coordinator; Silvia Mirri, ICT coordinator; Cristiana Cervini, author of Union!-Bologna; Elisabetta Magni, methodological advisor; Antonella Valva, project manager; Giacomo Mambelli, app developer.
UniOn!-Bologna followed a user-centered approach to cope with the specific needs of mobility students. The app relies upon the users’ participation in the process of knowledge creation and fosters integration within the local reality. UniOn!-Bologna is for all language levels and covers a huge variety of topics; it includes cultural and practical information as well as tips to talk and lexical notes.
Brigitte Jirku, full professor of German Studies at the University of Valencia (Spain), received her PhD. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in 18th Century Literature and Gender Studies. Her current research centers on different aspects of Contemporary German Drama, especially post-drama and performativity, and on topics such as the representation of violence in literary texts, gender, and identity (construction) in the present.
At present, she collaborates regularly with the Elfriede Jelinek Forschungsplattform (Universität Wien) and the European Network of violence (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz).
Elena Lamberti teaches North American Literature and Media Studies at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bologna. Her areas of research include: Anglo-American Modernism, Literature and Technology, Cultural Memory, War Literature.
She has published books and essays on English and Anglo-American Modernism, as well as Anglo-American culture of the late 20th Century. Her volume Marshall McLuhan’s Mosaic. Probing the Literary Origins of Media Studies was a finalist for the 2013 Canada Prizes and received the 2016 Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology.
She coordinated the EU/Canada Cultural Project: “PERFORMIGRATIONS: People Are the Territory” (www.performigrations.eu) investigating shifting ideas on/of ‘mobility’ (both cultural and technological).
A lawyer specializing in family law, for over 20 years Federica Montesi has dealt with people facing exceptionally difficult situations. Helping people enduring the emotional hardships of divorce, child dispute or other intense family issues requires not only the skills of a trustworthy, competent lawyer, but also empathic listening as well as specific communication and negotiation techniques. This has encouraged Federica to acquire these fundamental skills, which resulted in relevant post-grad certifications as an accredited Psychosynthetic Counsellor and a certified Civil and Family Mediator.
Her areas of interests include psychosynthesis counselling, mediation, mindfulness and education.
Monica Notari is an accredited Psychosynthetic Counsellor and a member of the ICT staff at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Bologna. She has collaborated with a variety of public bodies, developing integrated platforms for e-learning, data-processing and inter-art projects. She has served on the board of the European/Canadian Project “Performigrations: People Are the Territory”, focusing on change, diversity and mobility; as well as on the team of “ACUME – Approaching Cultural Memory, a European Thematic Network” addressing European shared and divided memories.
Her areas of interests include psychosynthesis counselling, cultural memory, media ecology, mobile technologies.
Valeria Reggi is a translator and PhD candidate at University College London. She holds a degree with honours in Modern Languages from the University of Bologna, a specialisation in literary translation from the University of Venice and a diploma in translation from the Chartered Institute of Linguists. Valeria Reggi began her career in languages as a research student at the University of Bologna, delivering lectures and publishing articles and translations. She has also gained experience in Marketing Communications for the private sector. Her current research interests focus on political discourse analysis.
Francesco Vitucci is Assistant Professor of Japanese Philology and Japanese Language and Linguistics at the School of Languages and Literature, Translation and Interpretaton of Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna University. He has also taught Japanese at the Department of Asian and African Studies of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Catania University. His research is based on multimedia teaching (audiovisual media and Internet in the Japanese class), audiovisual translation and language policies in contemporary Japan.
