Marco ZAPPA

RESEARCH INTERESTS

International development in East Asia; urbanization and territorial policies in East Asia; international relations and contemporary politics of Japan; Asia-Europe relations.

CURRENT POSITION AND DEPARTMENTAL & UNIVERSITY ROLES

Associate Professor. Qualified as associate professor of East and Central Asian Cultures (sector: 10/N3) as per the Italian National Scientific "Habilitation" (05/06/2021).

Member of the faculty board of the Master's Degree in Languages, Economies, and Institutions of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (LEISAAM). Member of the scientific committee of the Marco Polo Center (MaP). Member of the teaching board, Ca' Foscari International College. Coordinator of the minor in Global Asian Studies (GAS), Ca' Foscari International College.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

4-7/2025: Visiting researcher, National Chengchi University, International College of Innovation (Taiwan).
02-03/2023: Visiting researcher, Nagoya University, Center for Asian Legal Exchange (CALE) (Japan).
08-09/2022: Visiting researcher, Seoul National University, Asia Center (South Korea).
02/2022-01/2023: Adjunct professor of advanced Japanese language, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Department of Interpretation and Translation.
2022-2025. Ricercatore a tempo determinato di tipo b), ex art. 24 della legge 240/10, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
10/2020-09/2021: Adjunct professor of Japanese history, University of Turin, Department of Humanities.
2019-2022. Ricercatore a tempo determinato di tipo a), ex art. 24 della legge 240/10, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
2017-2019: Adjunct professor, Japanese language, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

INTERNATIONAL TRAINING AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

2024-2026: Fellow, EUTOPIA Young Leaders Academy (3rd cohort).
2020-2023: Member of the “Seed Program for Korean Studies: East and West in Korean Studies” project, Academy of Korean Studies - Korean Studies Promotion Service (project no. AKS-2020-INC-2230010, PI: An Jong-chol). As part of the project: organizer of the international workshop "Re-thinking the Cityscape in South Korea, East Asia, and Beyond: Ecological and Cultural Entanglements in a Post-Pandemic World", Ca' Foscari University of Venice, May 5-6.
2021: Participation in the RISAP/TIFO project "Developing the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership: An analysis of European Union member states’ relations with Japan" (RISAP, Bucharest). Participation in the Sinophone Borderlands project (Palacky University Olomouc (UPOL) – core research team Richard Turcsanyi, Kristina Kironska, Alfred Gerstl, and Jiri Cenek) - Asian Survey Project.

TEACHING AND RESEARCH FUNDING

2024: Funding from DM MUR 231/2023 (€13,050) for the organization of the international workshop "Dis-/Re-Orient: Theories. Methods. Practices – Summer Workshop in Critical Area Studies", Ca’ Foscari University, August 28-30, organized for students of schools part of the Alliance of Higher Education Schools (ASSI) and open to Ca' Foscari master's students.
2013-2016: PhD scholarship (€36,000, 36 months).

SELECTED RECENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2026.
“A return to the “Abe playbook”? Takaichi’s rise and the risks for Japan’s democratic stability” ISA Conference 2026, University of Turin, January 30.

2025.
“A Pivot to Viet Nam? Geopolitical Competition and Convergences in Mainland Southeast”, Annual Conference on Geopolitics and International Affairs, Japan Association for Geopolitical Research (JAGR), September 20.
Il mito dell'"integralismo pacifista": l'evoluzione dell'approccio giapponese alla sicurezza nazionale dopo la legge sul mantenimento della pace del 1992 (The myth of Japan's "pacifist integralism": the evolution of Japanese approach to national security after the 1992 Peacekeeping Law), The Evolution of the Constitutional Pacifist Principle in Italy and Japan after the War in Ukraine, Università degli Studi di Milano, May 15-16.

2024:
"One or Many Indo-Pacific Strategies? Assessing EU Member-States’ Efforts in Security Cooperation With ASEAN", Panel: Southeast Asia’s Contemporary Relations with Europe: Politics, Security, Economics, and Civil Society (organizer: Alfred Gerstl), 13th EuroSEAS Conference, Amsterdam, July 23.
"Area Studies as the Study of Human Complexity?", Roundtable: New Area Studies within New Global Polarizations? (Organizers: Wolfram Schaffer and Claudia Derichs), 13th EuroSEAS Conference, Amsterdam, July 23.
"Japan 2023: The Abe legacy and the China issue’s domestic dimension", European Japan Advanced Research Network (EJARN) Annual Conference, Prague, June 14 (with Giulio Pugliese).
"Policy diffusion from South to North? The case of Japanese Special Economic Zones", 18th Conference of the Nordic Association for the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS), University of Aarhus, May 23.

2023:
"Smart like Kyoto. Japan’s urban exportism and Abe’s legacy", European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) 2023 Conference, Ghent, August 20 (remote).
"Urban farming for sustainable cities? Visions of smart agriculture in Japan and South Korea", International Workshop – “East and West in Korean Studies” Project: Re-Thinking the Cityscape in South Korea, East Asia, and Beyond: Ecological and Cultural Entanglements in a Post-Pandemic World, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, May 6.

2022: A 'Digital Garden City Nation'? Abstract space designing and state’s withdrawal from rural areas as seen in Japan’s smart city programs. 16th Conference of the Nordic Association for the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS), University of Oslo, May 12.

2021: "The state, capital, and the environment: The political economy of special economic zones in mainland Southeast Asia". 15th Annual Conference on Asian Studies "Continuity and Change", Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University Olomouc (online), November 26.

LECTURES AND INVITED TALKS

2025.
“Smart City x International Cooperation: in search of a multi-disciplinary research agenda”, RCAPS Seminar, Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University (Beppu, Japan), June 6.
“The global strive for "smart" urbanization: uncovering the gap between rhetoric and reality in Asia”, National Chengchi University (Taipei), April 15.
“"Smart" for whom? Policy mobilities and the politics of the smart city in Japan and South Korea” University of Copenhagen, February 26.

2023: "Em’power’ing chihō? Smart communities, energy security and multilevel governance in Japan and Europe" CALE Special Seminar, Nagoya University, Center for Asian Legal Exchange (CALE), March 6.

2022: "The art of (not) being a nuclear power. Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s legacy in contemporary Japan", AIRJTalk, Association of Italian Researchers in Japan, November 29 (online).

EDITORIAL COMMITTEES

Member of the scientific committee of the series "History and Society", Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies, Ca’ Foscari Editions. Reviewer for the journals Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie Orientale; Asia Maior; Journal of Inter-regional Studies: Regional and Global Perspectives; New Authoritarianisms and Democracies: Law, Institutions, Society; Journal of Asian and African Studies; Italian Journal of International History; Urban History.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Italian Association for Japanese Studies (AISTUGIA), European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), Italian Society of International History (SISI), European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS).

Registered freelance journalist since 2016.

EDUCATION

2013-2017: Joint PhD in Asian and African Studies (Ca' Foscari) and Southeast Asian Studies (Humboldt University of Berlin). Grade: magna cum laude. Thesis: Japan as “Thought Leader”: The Japanese Grant Scholarship for Human Resource Development and its implications in transitional economies in Southeast Asia. Supervisors: Boike Rehbein (HU), Andrea Revelant (Ca' Foscari).
2015: Sophia University, Department of Global Studies. Exchange student.
2012: Master's degree in Languages and Economic and Legal Institutions of East Asia (Ca' Foscari). Grade: 110L/110. Supervisor: Rosa Caroli.
2009: Bachelor's degree in Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (University of Turin). Grade: 108/110. Supervisor: Carla Marello.