Research:
2024 – PhD student in “Documentation studies, geography, linguistics and literature” (within the curriculum “Theory of languages and linguistic education”), at “Sapienza”, University of Rome.
2023 – Master's degree in Philosophy. Thesis in semantics, titled: “Tra Wittgenstein and Eco: per una semantica linguistica, anti-mentalista e anti-psicologista”. Supervisor: prof. Filomena Diodato; Co-supervisor: prof. Ilaria Tani. At “Sapienza”, University of Rome.
2021 – Bachelor's degree in Philosophy. Thesis in semiotics, titled: “La specie simbolica. L’origine del linguaggio in Cassirer”. Supervisor: prof. Ilaria Tani. At “Sapienza”, University of Rome.
2017 – High school scientific diploma, at “Galileo Galilei” high school, in Pescara.
1. Aims and research premises.
The aim of the research is to investigate how linguistic activity, generally understood as the manipulation of signs, influences memory. I will examine semiotic activity in order to analyse how it influences the construction of cultural memory (shared and public) and the construction of individual memory (both in its episodic, autobiographical, “private” component; and in its semantic, socialised component).
The analysis starts from the hypothesis that systems of signification and processes of communication play a non-negligible role in the activity of encoding, storing and retrieving information; that is, in the construction of the content of memory itself.
2. Framework and method.
The first phase of the research will consist of a historical-conceptual reconstruction of the traditions of thought in which the theme of the relationship between language and memory was addressed, starting from the second half of the 19th century, until and including contemporary approaches in cognitive sciences.
The second phase will aim at integrating empirical and experimental research of the natural sciences with that of the humanities. In this phase epistemological statutes of the disciplines involved will be considered to ensure that such integration will not result in flattening the semiotic view over the biological and neuroscientific ones: the two domains can coexist and intervene each at different moments of the explanation. The project is consistent with the broader, trans-disciplinary research program of cognitive semiotics, in which linguistics and semiotics are understood as disciplines that can contribute not only to the study of communication, but also and primarily to the study of cognition and the understanding of human nature itself.
3. Traditions under examination:
a) The tradition, within the heterogeneous field of the humanities and social sciences, which stems from the concepts of collective memory (Halbwachs) and cultural memory (Assmann), since this tradition highlighted the influence of cultural artefacts in the construction and preservation of shared memory. In this framework, linguistic practices have been treated as cultural artefacts, insofar they are objectified in testimonies, documents and narratives.
b) Within the philosophy of language, the traditions of semiotics of culture (Lotman, Uspenskij) and interpretative semiotics (Eco), focused on the role of semiosis within the structuring of social reality and the articulation of the individual thought.
c) The tradition of studies on personal identity (Locke; Hume; James), in which the notion of autobiographical memory has been linked to the manipulation of particular types of symbols, such as memories of past experiences. In this regard, Peirce’s contribution is central, as through the notions of abduction, thought-sign and habit, he paved the way for a semiotic reflection on cognition, in open dialogue with both philosophy and psychology.
d) The tradition of experimental psychology, from the birth of “scientific psychology” in Wundt's laboratory, up to contemporary cognitive sciences and neurosciences, which analyse the biological foundations of remembering. Particular attention will be paid to the modular theory of memory (Atkinson, Shiffrin) and its subsequent revisions (Tulving, Baddeley), since the tripartition among sensory, short-term and long-term memory is still central to the contemporary debate on the faculty of memory in psychology.
e) Finally, the cognitive semiotics research program, originated from the encounter of the semiotic tradition with the cognitive sciences, in order to study how it is possible to know the world, by means of the processes through which meaning takes shape. Cognitive semiotics aims at integrating the natural and universal plane of bio-cognitive faculties with the historical and social plane of semiotic systems, without assuming these two domains as irreconcilable.
Research interests: cultural memory, biological memory, cognitive semiotics, linguistic relativism, Umberto Eco.