Mobility and the Humanities Project. Annual Conference 2019: Framing Mobilities through the Humanities

The Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and the Ancient World (DiSSGea) at the University of Padova has launched the five-year (2018-2022) Mobility and the Humanities project to develop interdisciplinary research about mobilities. Drawing from a rich and unique mix of disciplines, with a distinctive reference to the connections between past (from antiquity to contemporaneity) and present times, the newly established Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility and the Humanities aims to contribute original work to an emerging area of interest that is increasingly examined by other research hubs worldwide. Starting from a collaborative stance, the centre is committed to hosting a Mobility and the Humanities Seminar Seriesthat involves many key speakers from the field.

The project’s first annual conference carries on the aim to position our centre as a place where intellectual exchange and hospitality takes a crucial part in the development of brand-new research directions. Each of the department groups (Nodes) working on main mobility research subjects (namely People, Objects, Ideas, Texts, Theories and Methods) has invited a speaker to further elaborate on and advance its research activities. Through inter-node discussions and a final plenary address, the conference will highlight the DiSSGeA’s specific contributions to a very recently established area of study that sheds light on the role of the humanities in addressing both present and past critical questions on a varied range of mobility issues

11.00 Introduction
Gianluigi Baldo, Head of the DiSSGeA Department

11.30-13.00: IDEAS node
Aristotle Kallis, Keele University
Mobilities and Hybridities in the ‘Era of Fascism’: Rethinking the Spatial Dynamics of the ‘Third Way’ in Interwar Europe
(Chair: Giulia Albanese)

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-16.00: THEORIES AND METHODS node
Peter Merriman, Aberystwyth University
Mobility, Movement and Process in the Humanities: a Theoretical and Methodological Overview (Chair: Tania Rossetto)

16.00-16.30 Coofee Break

16.30-18.00: OBJECTS node
Julia Smith, Oxford University Places, Spaces, Objects: the “Holy Land” in Early Medieval Europe (Chair: Isabelle Chabot)

9.30-11.00: PEOPLE node

Lynne Pearce, Lancaster University
Dis-Embodied Mobilities: Textual Methods for Exploring Place and Place-Memory (Chair: Margherita Cisani)

11.00: Coffee Break

11.30-13.00: TEXTS node
Stephanie Frampton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Vade, liber: Mobility Studies and the History of Books (Chair: Margherita Losacco)

13.00: Lunch

14.30-16.00: Plenary address

Giorgio Riello, European University Institute
The Material Turn in Global History