Lorenzo MORETTI

Current position: PhD student (37th cycle)

Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice (supervisor: Prof. Giuseppe Pappalardo).

Cotutelle program with Institut für Japanologie, Universität Heidelberg (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Harald Fuess).

Research title (tentative): "Language Ideologies in Japanese Pop Culture: Characterisation and Perceptions in Written Video Game Dialogues".

Education:

• 2018-2020 - Master's degree in Languages and Civilization of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (Japanese Language); Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
  Thesis: " Language use in video games: Linguistic analysis of the variations of Japanese in an installment of the Pokémon video game series" (Original Italian title: “L’uso della lingua nei videogiochi: Analisi linguistica delle varietà del giapponese in un episodio della serie videoludica Pokémon”).
  Supervisors: Patrick Heinrich, Pierantonio Zanotti; final grade: 110/110 with honours.
  
  
• 2015-2018 - Bachelor's degree in Language, Culture and Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (Japanese Language); Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
  Thesis: "Futurism and violence: Its reception in Japan and Hirato Renkichi" (Original Italian title: "Futurismo e violenza: La ricezione in Giappone e Hirato Renkichi").
  Supervisor: Pierantonio Zanotti; final grade: 110/100 with honours.
  
  
• 2010-2015 - High school diploma (classical studies); Istituto di istruzione superiore Giotto Ulivi, Borgo San Lorenzo (FI), final grade: 100/100.
  
  

Further Training

• 2023-2024 - Cotutelle stay at Heidelberg University, Germany (one year).
• 2022-2023 - Overseas program at Kyoto University, Japan (one semester).
• 2019-2020 - Overseas program at Kobe University, Japan (one semester).
• 2018 – Short-term study abroad period at University of Kochi, Japan (3 months).
  
  

Academic experience

• 02/2025-06/2025 - Tutor in LM011N-Japanese Language 1 Mod. 2 and LM012N-Japanese Language 1 Mod. 2, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
• 03/2023-06/2023 - Tutor in LM011N-Japanese Language 1 Mod. 2 and LM012N-Japanese Language 1 Mod. 2, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
• 03/2022-07/2022 - Tutor in LM011N-Japanese Language 1 Mod. 2 and LM012N-Japanese Language 1 Mod. 2, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Conferences and presentations

• 10/2025 - Ideologie linguistiche nella cultura pop giapponese: Caratterizzazione e percezioni nei dialoghi videoludici [Language Ideologies in Japanese Pop Culture Characterisation and Perceptions in Written Video Game Dialogues]; invited lecture, University of Pavia, Italy (scheduled for October, 2025).
• 09/2024 - La lingua giapponese attraverso i videogiochi [Japanese language through video games]; public scientific outreach as part of the European Researchers’ Night, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (September 27, 2024).
• 06/2024 - Language use in contemporary Japanese video games. Sociolinguistic variation and users’ and developers’ perceptions; invited lecture, Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany (June 6, 2024).
• 11/2023 - Language use in contemporary Japanese video games. Sociolinguistic variation and users’ and developers’ perceptions; invited lecture, Anglistisches Seminar, Heidelberg University, Germany (November 21, 2023).
• 09/2023 - L’uso della lingua nei videogiochi. Variazione sociolinguistica e percezioni degli utenti [Language use in video games: Sociolinguistic variation and users’ perceptions]; XLVII AISTUGIA (Italian Association for Japanese Studies) Conference, Florence, Italy (September 15, 2023).
• 03/2023 - Panel chair; PhD Symposium on Precarity: Possibilities for Humans and Things, Venice, Italy (March 30, 2023).
• 08/2022 - Role language and character language of anthropomorphic non-human characters in Japanese video games; 18th European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) Workshop for Doctoral Students, Olomouc, Czech Republic (August 25, 2022).

Academic duties

• 06/2025 - Review Editor for H-Japan, H-Net Network on Japanese History and Culture.
• Apr. 2023-Jan. 2025- Representative of Ca' Foscari University of Venice in the EUTOPIA Student Council.
• Nov. 2022-Jan. 2025 - Student representative of the PhD program in Asian and African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Scholarships and awards

• 2023-2024 - 12-months German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Research Grant - Bi-nationally Supervised Doctoral Degrees / Cotutelle.
• 2022-2023 - 6-months Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) scholarship – Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology / Kyoto University.
• 2021 - Honourable mention Premio AV for the best dissertations about video games - Archivio Videoludico Cineteca di Bologna.
• 2021 - 3-year PhD full scholarship - Department of Asian and African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
• 2019-2020 – 5-months Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) scholarship – Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology / Kobe University.
  
  

Memberships

• EAJS (European Association for Japanese Studies).
• AISTUGIA (Italian Association for Japanese Studies).
• AIDLG (Italian Association for Japanese Language Teaching).
• ISEAS (Italian School of East Asian Studies).
• DiGRA Italia (Italian Digital Games Research Association).