Public Engagement 2023-25

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!

On February 21, 2025  the Master’s degree in Mobility Studies community gathered for the second edition of the Mobility Fest. The event was meant to bring together academics, practitioners, stakeholders and students in the field of mobility & humanities, to promote knowledge-transfer by employing creative methodologies, and collect feedback from the Mobility Studies students. The event also featured a World Cafè, involving figures outside the academic community, and Gabriele Del Grande’s multimedial monologue “The Moving Century. A history of migration from the future”.

On 5 February 2025 the Museum of Geography hosted a thought-provoking exhibition event curated by Chiara Rabbiosi and Ginevra Montefusco, featuring installations created by students of our Master’s degree programmes in Local Development and Mobility Studies in synergy with the  “Food communities: ecocultural approaches and postdevelopment perspective”, Next Generation EU, M4 PRIN PNRR P20223SFMN project.

The exhibits and related students’ presentations offered a fresh take on the interconnections between food systems, mobility, and development through innovative and creative lenses. Attendees were immersed in a multisensory experience that challenged conventional perspectives and sparked dialogue.

Kudos to these bright young minds whose works demonstrated a deep understanding of such critical issues and a commitment to experiment with creative methodologies and active learning initiatives around mobilities!

On January 14, 2025 the Museum of Geography at the University of Padua, one of our main partners of social engagement activities, inaugurated a new exhibition titled The World in Hand. Travel Guides in the West from the Modern Age to Today. The exhibition, which is curated by Gian Paolo Chiari and Sara Dotto with the scientific direction of Giada Peterle, Chiara Rabbiosi and Giovanni Donadelli, remained open until March 11, offering a unique look at the evolution of travel guides from the 17th century to the present day. Among the 40 volumes on display, visitors can admire rarities such as the first guide of the Italian Cycling Touring Club from 1895 and the first Lonely Planet from 1973. Created with the contribution of the Library of Geography of the University of Padua and the MoHu Centre, the exhibition is sponsored by the Italian Touring Club. The exhibition was accompanied by a dedicated book and several collateral events.

The recent event organized by the Master’s Degree in Landscape Sciences at the University of Padua offered an intriguing perspective on various forms of coexistence in the landscapes of Giudicarie Esteriori.

The event began with an introduction by professors Benedetta Castiglioni, Margherita Cisani, and Roberto D’Alba, who contextualized the theme and presented the work done by students during the 2024 Fieldwork.

The core of the meeting was the screening of three videos created by the students, each focusing on a specific aspect of coexistence:

1. The relationship between humans and wildlife
2. The dynamics between insiders and outsiders in the territory
3. The dialogue between past and future in the landscape context

These works offered an in-depth and multifaceted look at the complex interactions that characterize the landscape of Giudicarie Esteriori, going beyond traditional dichotomies.

The event concluded with a stimulating round table discussion featuring Carmela Bresciani from the Ecomuseum of Judicaria, Anna Sustersic from the Coexistence Festival (stakeholders of our Master in Landscape Studies), and Sabrina Meneghello from IUAV University of Venice. This discussion allowed for a deeper exploration of the themes that emerged from the videos and further perspectives on coexistence in contemporary landscapes.

The meeting highlighted the importance of an interdisciplinary and inclusive approach in the study and management of landscapes, promoting a vision that goes beyond simple oppositions to embrace the complexity of relationships between different entities and temporalities in the territory.

Our Landscape Videomaking laboratory, based at MobiLab, continues its collaboration with Euganea Film Festival, which is now an important stakeholder of the MA in Landscape Studies. 

This year, the short documentary videos created by our students were presented at the Festival on 13 September in the Euganean Hills. The Laboratory involves the students of our MA in Landscape Studies under the supervision of Mauro Varotto, Marco Toffanin and Michele Trentini. 

The works presented are: Vigneti chiusi. Vivere con i cinghiali nei Colli Euganei by Silvia Schiavon (IT, 10′); Ungheria libera. Un quartiere a Casale sul Sile by Mariano D’Innocenzo (IT, 9′); Ciamàs per nòm. Conoscersi per nome by Carolina Rossi (IT, 12′); San Bellino patrono del fotovoltaico by Francesco Finotto (IT, 6′).