CLAM Comparing Literatures with Arts and Media

The aim of the Research Group Comparing Literatures with Arts and Media is to promote the comparative approach in the study of the relationship of literatures with the arts and media, both in the sense of comparing works of different arts or media belonging to the same or different eras; and in the sense of comparing literary texts on the basis of Visual Culture and Intermedial Studies’ concepts such as image/picture, ekphrasis, materiality, gaze, device. The promotion of these aims is achieved by facilitating opportunities for debate, encouraging publications in journals and anthologies, and supporting young scholars in the field. Coordinator: Marco Maggi . The Research Group is composed of scholars who differ in academic affiliation, language and gender:

• Elisabetta Abignente (Associate Professor, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy)
• Dominika Bugno-Narecka (Assistant Professor, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II/John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)
• Valeria Cammarata (Associate Professor, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy)     
• Erik Erlanson (Associate Senior Lecturer, Linnaeus University, Kalmar/Växjö, Sweden)
• Marie Kondrat (Assistant Professor, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Asun López-Varela (Associate Professor, Complutense University Madrid, Spain)
• Marco Maggi (Associate Professor, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland)
• Vega Tescari (Lecturer, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland)

Travel Writing

This ESCL research group intends to explore the manifold forms and functions of travel writing across time, languages and cultures. Travel writing has assumed during time a protean variety of literary forms, that include letters, diaries, lyrical descriptions, personal memoirs, guidebooks, narrative reportages, as well as oral forms, amongst others. Blurring the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, a travelogue is always the result of a complex process that explores the relationships between landscape and inscape, identity and otherness, real and imaginary geographies. As a space of transnational and translational interactions, it configures new contact zones of cultural hybridization, renegotiating the role of mobility and the meaning of places in the social imagination. In recent decades, the practice of travel has been reshaped in heterogeneous forms of global mobility so that the same concept of travel and the polarities it traditionally entailed (home/abroad, near/far, slow/fast, familiar/exotic) have deeply changed as well. Intercepting so many social contradictions in the contemporary world, travel writing nowadays seems the ideal ground to verify many critical proposals from postcolonial studies, gender studies, translation studies, media studies, and life writing studies, opening up new and fruitful paths for research. To participate in the activities of this research group please send an email to Luigi Marfè (luigi.marfe@unipd.it). All inquiries are welcome. Coordinator: Luigi Marfè

Moving Borders: European Identity and Emotions in Poetry

Coming from different European countries and institutions, the members of the research group Moving Borders: European Identity and Emotions in Poetry are interested in what being “European” means and seek to challenge binaries (such as institutional vs. individual or political vs. cultural) that are often associated with this notion. European identity, as revealed through literature, is neither a monolithic nor easily definable construct. It is shaped by a continuous process of becoming, civilizing, openness, and the acceptance of the Other.  By looking at poetry written during the 20th and 21st centuries, the group seeks to explore how poets offer alternative perspectives to oversimplified representations that tend to be overwhelmingly present, especially in times of crisis. The approach discusses identity within structures outside the Hegelian logic of difference and negativity, especially, the role of emotions in mapping personal-group-national identity. The research will underline the importance of poetry as an emotions’ cluster in questioning and interrogating identity. Thus, European identity will be analyzed in its dynamic vulnerability from concept to emotions.  Besides this textual approach, the group also aims to evaluate the impact of poetry beyond the text, especially in questioning the meaning behind this so-called “European identity.” This label, often used for ideological purposes, indeed appears to sustain stereotypical representations, thus causing trauma and reinforcing a fragmented vision of this identity based on geographical divides. With that in mind, the group argues that being a poet and writing poetry can become a political gesture.  Indeed, rather than contributing to discriminatory representations, poets have the power of (subtly) pointing the finger at the porosity of European cultural and geographical boundaries, and thus undermine the very foundations of canonical “European” literature. Coordinator: georgianatudor.art@yahoo.com

Group Members:

• Karolina Bagdonė (Tampere University, Finland; Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Lithuania)
• Georgiana Bodeanu (Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca, Romania)
• Rosanne Gallenne (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France)
• Eliisa Puudersell-Tolk (University of Tartu, Estonia)
• Valentina Sturli (University of Pisa, Italy)

Littérature plurilingue/ Plurilingual Literature

Literary plurilingualism has been a growing field of research for approximately two decades. Topics the group intends to focus on include the following questions, without being restricted to them: To what extent is contemporary literature developing beyond the “monolingual paradigm”? How are plurilingual practices like translation, code-switching, language learning etc. fictionally represented in literary texts? What new perspectives on literary identity construction are revealed by an exploration of the practices of plurilingual writers? How do deplacement, globalization, and postcolonial contexts inform the literary work of migrant writers? Coordinator : Caroline Fischer

MEMBRES
DE BALSI, Sara, Università Mercatorum, Roma
EIBEN, Ileana Neli, Univsersitatea de Vest din Timişoara
FISCHER, Caroline, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour
FLORESCU, Fabiana, Universitatea din Bucureşti
FRANCO, Bernard, Sorbonne Université, Paris
HAGEN, Kirsten von, Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen
HERTRAMPF, Marina Ortrud, Universität Passau
IPPOLITO, Antonella, Universität Potsdam
KRAENKER, Sabine, University of Helsinki
KRISTEVA, Irena, Université Saint-Clément-d’Ohrid de Sofia
MARCU, Ioana, Univsersitatea de Vest din Timişoara
MEINEKE, Eva-Tabea, Universität zu Köln
MONTANARO, Francesca, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour
MÜLLER, Judith, Goethe Universität Frankfurt
NICKEL, Beatrice, Goethe Universität Frankfurt
RUFAT, Hélène, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
VLASTA, Sandra Christine, Università di Genova
ZEHSCHNETZLER, Hanna, Universität zu Köln
ZUPANCIC, Metka, University of Alabama

Weathering Together: Eco-myths of Atmospheric and Celestial Phenomena

This is an interdisciplinary research project that investigates how human cultures across time have interpreted weather and celestial phenomena through myths and stories. Bringing together the Environmental Humanities and Natural Sciences, it explores the intriguing dialogue between atmospheric experience, cosmological imagination, and ecological consciousness. The project examines how myths of storms, winds, stars, and skies encode environmental knowledge and ethical relationships with the more-than-human world. By tracing these narratives from ancient cosmologies to modern climate discourses, Weathering Together reveals how eco-myths transform scientific and meteorological concepts into emotionally resonant stories that shape our perception of climate and place. It emphasizes the atmosphere not merely as a physical system but as a lived, sensory, and affective space—an interface where global climate forces become local, intimate and symbiotic experiences. Through collaboration among scholars in literature, philosophy, the arts, education, and natural sciences, the project rethinks the boundaries between myth and science, imagination and data. Ultimately, Weathering Together seeks to cultivate new cultural and ethical understandings of our ”weather bodies” (Neimanis & Walker, 2013) and our worlding, inspiring creative and critical responses to contemporary environmental challenges.  Coordinator: Dr. Peggy Karpouzou

Working Group 1 Eco-myths of Atmospheric and Celestial Phenomena in Literary and Cultural Studies
Peggy Karpouzou, Associate Professor of Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece [PI]
Audur Adalsteinsdottir, Director & Research Lector, University of Iceland’s Research Center in Þingeyjarsveit, Iceland Mieke Bal, Cultural Theorist, Critic, Video Artist and Curator, University of
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru, Associate Professor Habil. of English and American Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania
Asuncion Lopez-Varela Azcarate, Associate Professor, Department of English Studies, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain
Jose Manuel Losada, Full Professor, Department of Modern Languages, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain
Keitaro Morita, Adjunct Lecturer / Researcher, Department of Social Design Studies, Rikkyo University, Japan
Juan Ignacio Oliva, Full Professor of Anglophone Postcolonial Literatures, University La Laguna, Tenerife, Canaries, Spain
Jaime Segura San Miguel, Lecturer, Department of English Studies, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain
Scott Slovic, Senior Scientist at the Oregon Research Institute and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities Emeritus, University of Idaho, U.S.A.
Paula Wieczorek, Assistant Professor, University of Information Technology and Management, Poland

• Nikoleta Zampaki, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Philology, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Working Group 2 Eco-myths of Atmospheric and Celestial Phenomena in Intermedial Studies
Dimitris Angelatos, Professor of Modern Greek Literature and Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece [PI]
Torvardur Arnason, Director & Associate Research Professor, University of Iceland, Hornafjordur Research Centre, Iceland
Tihomir Topuzovski, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities & Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, North Macedonia

Working Group 3 Eco-myths of Atmospheric and Celestial Phenomena in Philosophy, Religious and History Studies
Vincent Blok, Professor in Philosophy of Technology and Responsible Innovation, Wageningen University & Professor in Philosophy of Data Science and AI, Erasmus University Rotterdam & Scientific director of the 4TU Centre for Ethics of Technology, The Netherlands [PI]
Whitney Bauman, Professor of Religious Studies at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, FL, U.S.A.
Julien P. Kloeg, Assistant Professor of Social Philosophy, Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil), The Netherlands
Viktor Pal, Research Lead, Associate Professor, REFRESH Social Lab, University of
Ostrava, Czech Republic
Amanda Rosa Perez Morales, Tenured Professor, Faculty of Visual and Audiovisual Arts, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México

Working Group 4 Eco-myths of Atmospheric and Celestial Phenomena in Education Studies
Jason J. Wallin, Professor of Media and Youth Culture in Curriculum, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Canada [PI]
Jelena Aleksić, PhD Candidate, RMIT University, Australia
Arba Bekteshi, Independent Researcher, Part-time Lecturer, University of Tirana, Albania
Roberto Marchesini, Director of SIUA (Scuola d’ Interazione Uomo Animale), Director of Centro Studi Filosofia Postumanista, Italy
Goran Đurđević, Global Education Platypus, CEO and PhD Candidate, University of Zadar, Croatia
•David Rousell, Associate Professor, School of Education, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, Australia
Cosetta Veronese, Independent Researcher & President of the International Society of Zooanthropology, Switzerland

Working Group 5 Eco-myths of Atmospheric and Celestial Phenomena in History of Science and Natural Sciences
Aristotle Tympas, Professor of the History of Technology, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece [PI]
Ariadne Argyraki, Professor of Geochemistry, Department of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Shoshanah Jacobs, Professor of Biology, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Canada [PI]
Kristina Wanieck, Full professor, Deggendorf Institute of Technology, Germany