Public Engagement 2023-25

On September 24th, at the Uferstudios in Berlin, our MoHu director Prof. Tania Rossetto gave a public lecture titled “Cartographic feelings of vulnerable geobodies: mobilising maps and mappings in post-Covid life”.

The event, open to the public, was hosted within a summer school entitled “Viral Atmosphere. Maneuvering the Affective Geographies of Pandemic and Health”, organized by Sung Joon Park (BNITM, Hamburg), Hansjörg Dilger (Free University, Berlin), Julia Hornberger (Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg), Bo Kyeong Seo (Yonsei University, Seoul), Nene Morisho (Pole Institute, Goma), and Jacqueline Häußler (BNITM, Hamburg).

Representing MoHu, our director explored the many ways in which the cartographic dimension was mobilized during the pandemic and how some behaviors with cartographic implications have migrated into the post-pandemic era, taking on new manifestations. The approach of humanistic mobilities, in this case linked to the cartographic theme, was useful in reflecting together with the audience on the shared legacy of the pandemic.

On September 12th, the screening of 3 selected documentaries for “Camera con Paesaggio” was held, a section of the Euganea Film Festival dedicated to the Landscape Videomaking laboratory, supported by our MobiLab, active at the Landscape Studies Degree Course.

Thanks to the work of professors Mauro Varotto, Marco Toffanin and Michele Trentini, the event highlighted the work of 3 short films:

Creating and recreating the homeland (8′) by Wang Yimei, Skibeach (13′) by Marco Toffanin and Michele Trentini, Via Melograno (7′) by Francesco Casari.

Euganea Film Festival has become a very consolidated stakeholder for the Landscape Studies Degree Course.

We see great potential in this collaboration because it involves our MoHu in its 3 missions: teaching, research and third mission.

From the teaching perspective, thanks to the Camera con Paesaggio section, the festival allows us to enhance the visibility of our students’ work from the degree course in Landscape Sciences. Students participate in the Landscape Videomaking Laboratory, also thanks to the equipment and software developed by our Laboratories. The best products have the opportunity to be presented at the festival.

But Euganea Film Festival also obviously stimulates our third mission, because it allows us to go beyond academic walls and get in touch with the territory, particularly addressing environmental sustainability issues, which is crucial both for the message that the Festival wants to convey to citizens and for the disciplines we study and teach at DiSSGeA.

This partnership with the Festival means a lot to us not only in terms of teaching and third mission, but also in the field of research. With this collaboration we nurture interest in film, in audiovisuals, as a method for scientific research in human and social sciences, a method that allows us to use alternative languages to interrogate the landscape, mobility, the environment, to explore its complexity and transformations, to find “new ways of looking”, which are always also “new ways of saying” materiality and the meaning of geographical space.

We are very grateful to all the personnel involved, to the laboratory professors, to our laboratory technicians, and above all to the students who put themselves out there every year.

On June 18th, 2025, our Department held a special “Paesaggio at Work” (Landscape at Work) event for the Master’s program in Landscape Studies. The day began with an orientation session for students covering topics like choosing stages and internships.

The highlight was a panel discussion on career opportunities after graduating with a Landscape Sciences degree. Alumni speakers included environmental consultants, researchers, creative professionals and project managers, and tour guides who highlighted how their landscape studies training provided valuable skills for their professions.

Representatives from the Veneto Regional Planning Office and private engineering firm NET  also weighed in on the demand for landscape experts in their fields. The event wrapped up with a networking aperitivo for students, faculty, and the attending professionals.

Overall, the “Paesaggio at Work” event gave incoming Landscape Sciences students an inside look at their program of study as well as the diverse career paths available to landscape graduates.

On May 23rd, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of our Local Development master’s programme with a special event titled “Happy Birthday Local Development!”.

The event was held in the hall of CUAMM (Doctors with Africa) in Padua, one of the most MA’s longest-standing stakeholders. Many guests attended to celebrate the programme’s achievements and evolution over the past 15 years, including Giovanni Putoto from CUAMM and Evelina Martelli from Comunità di Sant’Egidio.

The speakers underscored the importance of training professionals prepared to tackle the challenges of local development in an increasingly interconnected world.

Numerous alumni and partners of the programme attended to celebrate this milestone, reflecting on future years of commitment to local development with an awareness of the multifarious nuances and criticalities of the field.

It was also an occasion to thank all the past presidents of the Local Development programme (Professors Pierpaolo Faggi, Marina Bertoncin, Anna Giraldo), the current president Prof. Chiara Rabbiosi, as well as the faculty members (including Maria Castiglioni, Silvia Elena Piovan, Daria Quatrida, Irene Barbiera, Giorgio Osti, Alessio Surian among others) and the administrative staff (Edgar Serrano, Coralba Cappellato, Adriana Martin Garcia, Raffaella Masè, Eirini Koumparaki, Oscar Russo), who over the years have put endless energy, passion and expertise into carrying out this programme!

On Saturday, May 17, 2025, our MoHu director Tania Rossetto participated as a jury member in the 2025 Association for European Transport Hackathon, which was held at the Padua office of NET Engineering company, one of our intersectoral partners. The Hackathon, dedicated to the theme “Sustainable tourism challenges and strategies in Italy”, engaged MA and PhD students, including Billy Adi Pamungkas from our Local Development MA and Francesco Zuccolo, from our PhD program in Historical, Geographical, and Anthropological Studies, in two exciting days of creative discussion and exchange with experts on the topics of transportation, infrastructure, and alternative mobilities for tourists. Being part of the jury was a valuable opportunity to expand our center’s networking activity in the extra-academic field with leading actors of mobility transformations in Italy.

One of our major collaborations with the Centre for the GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway University of London, namely the “Variations on mobility” Creative Commission, has produced creative outputs that are still on a journey and haven’t finished saying what they have to say.

The graphic novel, Memories. Notes and Maps of a Journey to the West (2023), co-authored by Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo Demonte (illustrators, video-makers, and comic artists) and Daniele Brigadoi Cologna (sinologist and sociologist of migrations), which originated from this collaboration and was supported by MoHu (and in particular by Giada Peterle and Tania Rossetto), was presented at the Museo delle Culture (MUDEC) in Milan on May 8, 2025, as part of the TRAVELOGUE: Storie di viaggi, migrazioni e diaspore series. 

Memories is an intense work that reinserts the history of Chinese migration to Italy within the broader migratory flow towards Europe in the 1920s. Through direct testimonies and an accurate reconstruction of events, the book narrates the journeys, challenges, and visions of the protagonists of this migration, offering a new historical and human perspective.

This event demonstrates how art-research collaborations are able to bring mobility research into contact with diverse audiences, continuing MoHu’s public engagement mission.

On April 11th, 2025, the University of Padova’s Master’s program in Landscape Studies held a seminar and public debate titled “Paesaggio e partecipazione” (Landscape and Participation). The event aimed to mobilize perspectives on active citizenship in relation to landscape issues.

The event was chaired by Benedetta Castiglioni, Coordinator of the Landcape Studies MA, and Dissgea Director Andrea Caracausi welcomed all the participants.

The keynote speakers were Clemente Pio Santacroce, who discussed whether new policies or regulations are needed for landscape participation, and Claudia Cassatella, who presented a strategic approach to landscape project design. Francesca Benciolini, Councilor for Neighborhoods in Padova (an important stakeholder of the MA in Landscaoe Studies), spoke about everyday landscapes in a polycentric city model.

A highlight was the presentation of outcomes from the “Community Maps” laboratory course, in which 11 students, guided by the Laboratory leader Nadia Carestiato, shared their perceptions and reflections on the relationship between Padova’s landscapes and places through multimedia maps. Students presented their learning experience and final output, namely the map “Sguardi mobili su Padova. 11 punti di vista sulla città” (Mobile gazes on Padua: 11 points of view on the city).

The event culminated in a moderated discussion inviting dialogue on engaging the public’s diverse perspectives in shaping landscapes. Michelangelo Savino guided this conversation.

The seminar underscored the University of Padova’s leadership in advancing landscape studies that are rooted in participatory processes and citizen empowerment.

On April 4th, 2025, a group of Padua residents and students participated in an innovative “graphic walkshop” that combined walking through the city with creative drawing and writing exercises. The event, titled “Walking with the City,” was held by Tânia Cardoso and Giada Peterle as part of the Mohu-based Paduan unit of the WALC research project funded by the European Union (Walking Landscapes of Urban Cultures – Next Generation EU – PRIN PNRR 2022, Project code: P2022X5L8B, CUP: J53D2301655001).

The walkshop promoted an inclusive approach to co-producing knowledge about urban landscapes through movement and collective storytelling. “Rather than thinking of the walker as a solitary figure, we claim the act of walking as a generative social event, where more-than-human bodies, voices, and stories emerge together,” explained the organizers.

Participants gathered at Piazzale Stazione FS and embarked on a 5km barrier-free pathway through Padua. Along the way, they engaged in drawing exercises using notebooks, pens, markers and pencils to visually capture the narrative lines composing the city’s urban stories.

No prior graphic skills were required, making the walkshop accessible to all. By drawing while walking, participants were able to perceive their surroundings and document their everyday urbanscapes through an unusual creative lens.

The materials produced will be used for further research and dissemination purposes connected to the WALC project, which aims to study the walking landscapes of urban cultures from different disciplinary and social perspectives. A short comic-book story will be released starting from the collective storytelling experience of the graphic walkshop and inspired by participants voices.

Overall, the “Walking with the City” event provided Padua’s community with an innovative way to actively engage with and re-imagine their urban environment and mobile practices through an immersive, multi-sensory and narrative experience.

On April 4th, the University of Padua’s Museum of Geography (in collaboration with our MoHu Centre and other organisers) successfully hosted its contribution to the international “Night of Geography” event. The evening featured a unique walking tour titled “Paths of Peace and Nonviolence in Padua,” guided by Sergio Bergami of the International Movement for Reconciliation (MIR).

Participants embarked on a circular route through the city, encountering significant locations and individuals associated with peace initiatives. The walk provided a fresh perspective on Padua’s rich history of nonviolent activism and reconciliation efforts.

Upon returning to the museum, attendees were treated to a special viewing of the exhibition “The World in Hand: Travel Guides in the West from the Modern Age to Today.” Curators Gian Paolo Chiari and Sara Dotto were on hand to share fascinating stories and insights about the interconnected nature of travel throughout history.

The free event was organized by AIIG Veneto and the Museum of Geography – University of Padua. It was held in collaboration with the International Movement for Reconciliation (Padua section), the Mobilities & Humanities Center of the Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, and the Peace Human Rights International Cooperation Area of the Municipality of Padua.

On March 26th at the Horti Sallustiani in Rome, MoHu participated in NExTropolis – Evoluzioni urbane, an event promoted by NET Engineering company and dedicated this year to the theme of “construction sites that live with the city”. Our director Tania Rossetto gave a talk co-authored with Giada Peterle. The event was attended by representatives from the business world, public administrations, professions, and academic and non-academic research, who were all engaged in exploring construction sites that transform urban mobility in various national and international contexts. A productive example of how the mobility humanities can engage in dialogue with actors involved in the transformation of urban mobilities!