MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS won by Dr FABIO MANGRAVITI (XXXIII cycle) with the FISM project
In February 2024, Dr Fabio Mangraviti (cycle XXXIII), alumnus of the PhD programme in Asian and African Civilisations (SIAC curriculum), was awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship with the IMF project. The project investigates from an interdisciplinary perspective the functions expressed by 'satire' (vyangya) and 'humour' (hasya) in the Hindi language in the Indian socio-cultural reality. The use of these modes of expression will be analysed both in the literary and performance spheres, as well as in the context of new media. Moving in this theoretical direction, the project will especially investigate the dynamics of agency expressed through satire and humour that are enacted by 'subaltern' and fringe subjects and communities. The aim of the research, which will especially investigate the urban and peri-urban areas of metropolises and second tier cities in North India, is to describe and theorise contemporary Hindi satire as a specific instrument of resilience, activism and empowerment of subaltern subjects and communities. Supervisor: Prof. Giorgio Milanetti.
ERC SYNERGY GRANT TO DR. CAROLA LOREA (XXVII CYCLE)
In October 2023 Dr. Carola Lorea, alumna of the XXVII cycle PhD in Asian and African Civilisations (SIAC curriculum), currently a researcher at the University of Tübingen, has been awarded the prestigious Erc Synergy Grant to the amount of around € 10 million for the project 'Mantrams' (Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia), of which she is PI together with two colleagues from the University of Vienna and Brown University.
Dr Lorea discussed her doctoral thesis entitled 'Learning to Swim in the River of Desire: Bhabla Pagla's Songs in Their Performative Context' in 2015 under the guidance of prof. Mario Prayer as supervisor and Prof. Samantak Das (Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India) as co-supervisor. Warm congratulations from the Doctoral College to Dr Lorea and felicitations also to the colleagues who supervised her doctoral training.
For more information: Dr Carola Lorea receives ERC Synergy Grant
ERC STARTING GRANT TO DR SIMONA OLIVIERI (XXVIII CYCLE)
In 2023, Semitic and Arabic Studies researcher Simona Olivieri, an alumna of the Doctorate in Asian and African Civilisations in Cycle XXVIII with tutor Prof. Giuliano Lancioni, has been selected by the European Research Council (ERC) for an ERC Starting Grant of more than EUR 1.49 million. The fund will finance a five-year research project entitled 'Arabic Linguistic Discourse in the Making' (ALiDiM), aimed at investigating the roots of classical Arabic and its reception. The research will be based at the Freie Universität Berlin, and the original data and sources will subsequently be made freely available to the public.
For further information: https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/informationen/fup/2023/fup_23_188-erc-starting-grant-olivieri/index.html
SANGALLI INSTITUTE AWARD FOR RELIGIOUS HISTORY TO THE THESIS OF D. PAOLA PIZZI (CYCLE XXXIV)
In 2023 the thesis of Dr. Paola Pizzi (curriculum SAII, 33rd cycle), entitled "La non-violence comme moyen de changement en islam: la contribution de Ǧawdat Saʿīd", was awarded the prestigious 'Sangalli Institute Prize for religious history' (call 2022). The prize is awarded every year to two young Italian and foreign researchers, who are offered the opportunity to publish monographs on religious history from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, in an inter-disciplinary and inter-religious perspective, in a dedicated series by Florence University Press. The Prize is awarded in collaboration with the University and Research Department of the Municipality of Florence, and with a jury of prestigious Italian and foreign scholars.
https://www.istitutosangalli.it/it/graduatorie/premio-istituto-sangalli-per-la-storia-religiosa-2022-la-graduatoria/
ASAI AWARD FOR THE THREE-YEAR PERIOD 2019-2021 TO THE DOCTORAL THESIS OF ALESSIA CARNEVALE (XXXIV CYCLE)
Alessia Carnevale's doctoral thesis (34th cycle, curriculum in Arab, Iranian and Islamic Studies), on "The Tunisian Committed Song: History, Ideology and Poetics of a Counterculture (1970s - 1980s)", supervised by prof. Leonardo Capezzone and co-supervised by Prof. Daniela Pioppi, received the ASAI (Association for African Studies in Italy) award as the best doctoral thesis in African studies for the three-year period 2019-2021. To read the award's motivation see the following website:
https://www.asaiafrica.org/premio-asai-per-la-miglior-tesi-di-dottorato-in-africanistica-vi-conferenza-asai-2022/