About Us
I am an environmental historian (with a PhD in Economic History), currently working as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Science and Technology of the Autonomous University In Barcelona. My tenure position is Senior Researcher at the National Research Council, Italy. In the last years I have been working at the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, at the Environmental Science, Policy and Management Department, UC Berkeley, and at The Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University.
I am one of the founders of the environmental history field in Italy, co-authoring (with Stefania Barca), the first Italian textbook on the subject: Storia dell’ambiente, Rome: Carocci 2004. My main topics of research have been: environmental conflicts over property rights and access to common resources (forests and sea), the politics of nature and landscape in the Italian nation- building, and the environmental history of mass migrations.
In English, I have published several essays and edited Views from the South. Environmental Stories from the Mediterranean World (19th -20th cent.), Naples: CNR 2006; Nature and History in Modern Italy, which I co-edited with Marcus Hall, Athens, Ohio University Press. The White Horse Press of Cambridge, UK, has just published my book A Rugged Nation. Mountains and the Making of Modern Italy.
Although, LARES is essentially an individual project, I have been not alone in working on this issue. In particular, I want to thank colleagues and friends who have helped me through this journey into the political ecology of garbage:
Joan Martinez Alier has been the most influential thinker in framing this research and actually in all my work as a scholar. I am proud to have had the chance to work with him and having translated into Italian his remarkable book Ecologia dei poveri (Milano, Jaca Book). For mor information about his work see https://eco2bcn.es/?q=node/39
Giorgos Kallis is a good friend and a bright colleague. His knowledge on political ecology has been of great help for my own research. https://eco2bcn.es/?q=node/37
Chistos Zografos has shared with me his expertises on power and ecological democracy and he has supported my staying in Barcelona in any way possible. I have been very lucky in having him as a friend. https://www.eco2bcn.es/?q=node/49
But in particular, I have worked on the waste garbage in Campania with Giacomo D’Alisa, another member of the Italian academic Diaspora. We have worked together on many papers, projects, and articles. I am in debt with him for his expertise and incredible accumulation of data on the Campania case. https://www.eco2bcn.es/?q=node/46
Simon Maurano is another friend with whom I am working on this project. He is a geographer and he has written an excellent PhD dissertation on this topic. We are working together on many ideas and articles.
With Giacomo and Simon we have realized ACE, the Ecological Conflicts Archives ace-environmental-conflicts-archives-/
Another friend, Salvatore Paolo De Rosa, has joined us during our research. His own materials and interviews will merded into ACE.
Salvatore Paolo De Rosa, born in Acerra (NA), has just achieved his master degree in Anthropology and Ethnology at the University Federico II of Napoli, after completing his bachelor degree in Etno-anthropological Sciences at the University of Bologna. In his master thesis, from the perspective of political anthropology, he dealt with the environmental conflict occured in Acerra, where the local community struggled against the central government istitutions and against a corporation, to prevent the construction of the biggest waste inceneritor of Italy in an agricoltural land. He is also an editor of the independent magazine "Napoli Monitor", for which he wrote articles about environmental conflicts, contemporary agriculture in Campania and new forms of peasant resistance
Massimo Ammendola, born in Naples (IT) in 1985, he graduated from the Università di Napoli «L'Orientale» in Human Studies and Literature with a thesis in Contemporary History on the chaotic re-industrialization process of the East Naples territory. He is currently attending the Master degree course in History and the environment, at the Università Roma Tre.
He is an activist involved in environmental issues, and has dealt with the many aspects of the waste emergency in the city of Naples and in the region of Campania, in the last few years.
Freelance journalist, editor and co-author of the book Il destino di Napoli Est (The fate of East Naples), he currently lives and works in Naples, where he directs the online magazine Città Future (www.cittafuture.org).
Ivana Corsale, born in Sciacca, IT, in 1980. She moved to the United States in 2000 and received a dual undergraduate degree in journalism and international studies from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. After a short experience working with U.S. newspapers, she decided to explore her storytelling skills through video and documentary. Ivana pursued a master's degree in documentary production at the University of North Texas. Her thesis was a documentary titled Campania In-Felix (Unhappy Country), which focuses on the illegal dumping of toxic waste in the Campania region and the direct effects on the environment and people's health. The documentary also looks into the deep connection existing between the people from Campania and their land. Her work can be found at: www.unhappycountry.com. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.
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