Semestrale di studi e ricerche di geografia

Biografie in divenire. Una ricerca negli archivi universitari sulle assistenti dell’ex Istituto di Geografia

Epifania Grippo — 2025-03-31

This article is part of the process of patrimonialisation of the cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, of the former Institute of Geography of the Sapienza University. The process of patrimonialisation and therefore of heritage valorisation is at the basis of the O.R.I. project (Observe, Represent, Imagine: mapping of geo cartographic heritage for the knowledge’s organisation) which, among other objectives, includes the rediscovery and reconstruction of the biographies of the assistants who worked at the former Institute of Geography, which are largely unknown. The research was carried out on the basis of the archival and bibliographical sources kept at Sapienza University, in particular the Historical Archive, thus contributing to enhancing documentary heritage. Furthermore, the focus on female figures linked to the history of the former Institute of Geography is proposed in critical terms with respect to the official narrative by integrating the gender perspective. Indeed, the intention of the contribution is to contribute to the line of study that sees the combination of the historical and gender perspectives.

Il ritratto e la penombra. Sul percorso accademico di Claudia Merlo, studentessa, collaboratrice e assistente nell’Istituto di Geografia (1929-1939)

Filiberto Ciaglia — 2025-03-31

This contribution is part of research on the relationship between academic geographical heritage and the recovery of biographies of geographers who worked at the Institute of Geography at the Sapienza University of Rome. Through the use of printed sources and archival documentation, the figure of Claudia Merlo has been studied in her path as a student, collaborator and assistant to Professor Roberto Almagià, not only to reconstruct her career history but in order to understand all activities carried out in the faculty. Support for teaching, bibliographic cataloguing and research are just some of the task that characterised her collaboration, not to mention parallel travels required by the writing of her degree thesis and the work at Italian Enciclopedia, in Florence. In addition to these topics, there is a reflection on the reception of his writings in the national geographical debate, that highlights the ambivalence of judgments suspended between the recognition of the validity of the research and the “cage” of the conception of the geography as a comprehensive discipline, broken only after World War II.

Carte, documenti e strumenti per lo studio della cartografia: l’eredità dell'Istituto di Geografia dell'Università Sapienza

Monica De Filpo — 2025-03-31

The Geography Cabinet of the Royal University of Rome was established in 1876 and has since acquired material for teaching and research purposes. Its current holdings are the result of the sedimentation of almost one hundred and fifty years of activity. This essay intends to shed light on the motivations and methods that led to the acquisition of the cartographic material now inherited by the Geography Section of the Department of Modern Humanities and Cultures of the Sapienza University of Rome. These collections are today unrecognised and in the process of being recovered and enhanced after more than a century of neglect. Particularly relevant to the study of the Institute's history is the production of professors and researchers from the Cabinet, later the Institute, of which the volume Nozioni di cartografia e avviamento alla lettura delle carte by Marina Emiliani Salinari and Raffaella Luisa Papocchia is a part, testifying to the attention paid by the Institute to the teaching of geography and cartography.

Eredità accademiche: i docenti e le memorie dell’Ex Istituto di Geografia nel ventennio 1964-1984

Carlotta Bilardi — 2025-03-31

This paper outlines the former Institute of Geography’s didactic offer and both tenure and tenure track faculty members’ professional profiles from the 1960s to the 1980s. The research develops around two main phases: the first one analyses the academic context of those times, mainly focusing on the space held by full professors and their course programs; the subsequent through semi-structured interviews delves into the experience of nine professors who built their academic background at the Institute under the guidance of professors Riccardi, Migliorini and Baldacci. Based on their memories, an attempt to understand their relations with the geo-cartographic assets now preserved at the Museum of Geography of La Sapienza will be made, discussing the main results emerged within a broader project of knowledge organization and valorization of the educational past.

Recovery and enhancement of the educational geographical heritage of educational institutions in Italy

Carlotta Anna Pallottino — 2025-03-31

Italian schools often have a partially known and valued scientific educational geographical heritage. The study proposes a methodology for approaching this heritage from the perspective of musealization, borrowing a method already experimented for university geographical heritages, and brings the case study of historical Roman schools in light of their particular history and their connection with the Geography Institute of the University of Sapienza in Rome.

Processi di patrimonializzazione e prospettive di valorizzazione di beni geocartografici. L’esperienza del Laboratorio Giuseppe Caraci dell’Università Roma Tre

Arturo Gallia — 2025-03-31

The “Giuseppe Caraci” Geocartographic Laboratory of Roma Tre University is one of the most active academic institutions in the national and international geographic and cartographic landscape. After reconstructing its history and illustrating its research and teaching activities, the contribution focuses on the consistency and enhancement of its documentary heritage, consisting of a vast cartographic collection, a specialized library, and a series of scientific and educational instruments of undoubted historical and cultural value. Finally, it aims to reflect on the potential of a historical geocartographic heritage for research, teaching, and dissemination, and on the need for online collaboration between institutions that hold such heritages.

Musei di Geografia tra ricerca, didattica e terza missione: i percorsi intrecciati tra Padova e Roma

Chiara Gallanti — 2025-03-31

The geographical heritage collected over 150 years at the Universities of Padua and Rome Sapienza have recently been involved in a study process which has made them the pivot around which to build museum exhibition itineraries and stimulate research, teaching and third mission activities. The collaborative relationship between the two universities has its roots in a common heritage, today strengthened by the shared need for a renewed public role of geography. In 2017, scholars of the two universities promoted the establishment of a working group (GEOMUSE), also involving other Italian Universities, with the aim of coordinating heritage initiatives at a national level, in order to encourage the valorisation of academic geographical collections but also to strengthen the public role of geography.

La prospettiva phygital nella valorizzazione dei Patrimoni geo-documentali e cartografici. Percorsi di conoscenza tra reale e virtuale.

Mariella Ronza — 2025-03-31

Per porre all’attenzione le potenzialità del patrimonio geocartografico federiciano ad un anno dalla celebrazione degli 800 anni dell’Ateneo, nel 2023 si è deciso di organizzare un’articolata mostra temporanea nel suggestivo complesso monastico dei SS. Marcellino e Festo, sede in cui si trova il Nucleo Bibliotecario di Geografia, per mostrarne le valenze non solo ai docenti partenopei ma soprattutto ai docenti di geografia - universitari e non - provenienti da tutt’Italia e attivamente impegnati nel campo della formazione. Si è trattato di un progetto corale dal momento che, fin dall’inizio, ha visto un’ampia partecipazione di soggetti diversi: docenti, bibliotecari, dottorandi, tirocinanti, studenti e, infine, gli stessi partecipanti alla mostra che hanno fornito spunti interessanti alla fine del percorso espositivo. La mostra rappresenta, pertanto, l’ultimo anello di un processo di valorizzazione del patrimonio geocartografico federiciano che, nell’immediato, potrà svilupparsi puntando sull’accessibilità e sulla disponibilità di ambientazioni virtuali e strumenti digitali al fine di non disperdere il know how accumulato in questi anni di studi, ricerche, attività e progettualità partecipative.

The directions of geography. Considerations on memories, practices, knowledge and perspectives of the discipline in the margins of the seminar “Geograf(i)e Sapienti: Pratiche materiali e saperi immateriali”

Flavia Cianfanelli — 2025-03-31

The conference Geograf(i)e Sapienti: Pratiche materiali e saperi immateriali, held December 2, 2024, at the Sapienza, University of Rome, provided a moment of reflection on the directions of geography, analyzing the discipline’s memories, practices and knowledge. After an introduction of the O.R.I. project, focused on Sapienza’s geodocumentary heritage and curated by professor Sandra Leonardi, the focus shifted to the figure of geographer Claudia Merlo, the first female researcher at Sapienza's Institute of Geography. The subsequent panel discussion, moderated by professor Marco Maggioli, traced a century of geography teaching, highlighting the evolution of the discipline. The event underscored the importance of geography as a tool for critical reading of reality and for enhancing marginalized voices.

Le assistenti e le pubblicazioni. Una ricerca bibliografica a partire dalle riviste geografiche

Sara Cappucci — 2025-03-31

La ricerca bibliografica è stata elaborata al fine di operare una ricognizione che individuasse le pubblicazioni delle assistenti dell’ex Istituto di Geografia dell’Università Sapienza, con riguardo specifico – in questa prima proposta – alle pubblicazioni di Claudia Merlo, Marina Salinari Emiliani, Raffaella Luisa Papocchia e Annie Luchetti. Il lavoro si inserisce nella più ampia direttrice di ricerca sulle biografie di collaboratrici e collaboratori dell’ex Istituto, che ha conosciuto un primo emblematico momento di riflessione in occasione dell’evento Geograf(i)e da ascoltare. Giornata Internazionale delle Donne e delle Ragazze nella Scienza (Leonardi, 2024, p. 25). Nel corso dell’appuntamento, concepito nell’ambito del progetto O.R.I fin dal 2021, si è data particolare enfasi alla biografia e alla produzione scientifica delle geografe citate. Sono queste, infatti, le prime figure femminili rintracciabili nella storia dell’ex Istituto di Geografia dove hanno prestato servizio come assistenti di Roberto Almagià in un periodo complessivo che va dalla metà degli anni Trenta alla fine degli anni Cinquanta del Novecento.