2018

Alessandro Baricco, one of Italy’s best loved and well known writers, is the author of essays, novels and plays. He began his career young, presenting television programmes, L’Amore è un dardo on opera, and Pickwick. Del leggere e dello scrivere. For the stage, he has adapted, directed and starred in classics from Homer to Moby Dick, and brought the Palladium and Mantova Lectures to the theatre. President of the Scuola Holden in Turin, which he co-founded in 1994, he teaches topics related to storytelling.

Fusini, a writer, critic, translator, teacher and expert on Elizabethan theatre, has translated and commented texts by Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Henry James, John Keats and Wallace Stevens. She has written about Kafka, Beckett and Bacon. She has published extensively on issues of female identity: La luminosa. Genealogia di Fedra (Feltrinelli, 1990); Donne fatali. Ofelia, Desdemona e Cleopatra (Bulzoni, 2005); and Nomi. Undici scritture femminili (Donzelli, 2012).

Davide Daninos is an independent curator and art critic. In 2017 co-curated the exhibition Intuition at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice. In 2015, together with Jacopo Menzani, he founded Instudio, an online archive documenting artist studios in Italy (in-studio.net). Previously, he was the art director of the philosophy magazine Post (Mimesis, 2013-2015) and curator at Brown Project Space, Milan (2011-2012).

Francesca Rigotti, a philosopher and essayist, has previously taught at the Universities of Göttingen and Zurich and was a visiting fellow at the University of Princeton. She has been teaching at the Università della Svizzera Italiana since 1996. Her research focuses on the deciphering of metaphorical and symbolic processes in philosophical thought, political reasoning and daily life. She collaborates with Swiss Italian Radio and writes for various publications in Italy and abroad.

Alessandro Dal Lago has taught Sociology of culture at the Universities of Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Pennsylvania and California. He collaborates with the Palermo School of Fine Arts. His writings on social theory and philosophy include: Eroi e mostri. Il fantasy come macchina mitologica (il Mulino, 2017); Populismo digitale. La crisi, la rete e la nuova destra (Raffaello Cortina, 2017); and Blind Killer. L’Europa e la strage dei migranti (Manifestolibri, 2018).

Giorgio Manzi, an anthropologist and palaeontologist, is professor in the Department of Environmental Biology at Sapienza University of Rome where he directs the “Giuseppe Sergi” Museum of Anthropology belonging to the Sapienza Museum Network. He teaches human ecology and evolution. Associated editor of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, member of the scientific committee of the Paleoanthropological School of the University of Perugia, he was previously General Secretary of the Italian Institute of Human Palaeontology.

Paolo Apolito taught Cultural Anthropology at the University Roma Tre and the University of Salerno. He studies religious and ritual phenomena, celebrations, visions of Mary and recently rhythms and musical communication. His books include: Il cielo in terra. Costruzioni simboliche di un’apparizione mariana (il Mulino, 1992); La religione degli italiani (Editori Riuniti, 2001); Internet e la Madonna (Feltrinelli, 2002); and Il gioco del festival. Romanzo del Giffoni Film Festival (L’Ancora del Mediterraneo, 2004).

Richard Sennett is one of the world’s most important contemporary sociologists. He founded the New York Institute for the Humanities in 1975, was director of the Commission of Urban Studies of UNESCO (1988-1993) and today teaches Urban Studies at London School of Economics and Harvard University. He is a senior fellow of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. His work in ethnographic, historical and theoretical research is dedicated to social links within cities and the effects of urban living.