Diego CALAON

Diego Calaon is Associate Professor of Ancient Topography at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Department of Humanities). His research lies at the intersection of archaeology, environmental humanities and critical heritage studies, with a particular focus on the role of cultural heritage in contemporary social and environmental transformations.
He designed and promotes the initiative NextGen Heritage, developed at Ca’ Foscari University within the framework of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) project CHANGES – Cultural Heritage Active Innovation for Sustainable Society, in which the university coordinates Spoke 9 – CREST (Cultural Resources for Sustainable Tourism). The initiative investigates new models of heritage governance, citizen participation and sustainable cultural policies, fostering dialogue between researchers, institutions and communities through working groups, participatory workshops and policy-oriented debates. It aims to rethink cultural heritage as a dynamic social resource shaped by communities, climate change, migration and tourism pressures.
Within this framework, his work explores participatory heritage processes, citizen science approaches and innovative forms of public engagement in heritage decision-making, investigating how cultural heritage can contribute to sustainable territorial development and community-based governance models.
Calaon is a post-classical archaeologist specialising in landscape archaeology, coastal environments and the historical transformations of settlements in the northern Adriatic and Mediterranean regions. His research combines archaeological investigation, anthropological perspectives and GIS-based spatial analysis to analyse long-term interactions between societies, environments and cultural landscapes. 
From 2014 to 2018 he was Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellow with the project Voices of Venice. An Anthro-Ecological Perspective on the Making of Medieval Europe, conducted at Stanford University (Department of Anthropology) and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. During this period he also served as Visiting Professor at Stanford University, where he taught archaeological methods, monuments and archaeology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). 
He received his PhD in Archaeology and History of the Mediterranean Countries from Ca’ Foscari University in 2006 with a dissertation on landscape transformations between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the Venetian lagoon based on GIS spatial analysis. His archaeological fieldwork has focused especially on the Venetian lagoon and the northern Adriatic, where he has directed or coordinated excavations in sites such as Torcello, Lio Piccolo, San Lorenzo d’Ammiana, Sant’Ilario, Comacchio and San Giacomo in Paludo. 
His research also extends to international contexts, including archaeological projects in Dalmatia, Syria and the Indian Ocean world. Since 2011 he has collaborated with the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund (UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mauritius) and the Mauritian Government on archaeology and cultural heritage initiatives. He is the author of nearly 200 scientific publications, including monographs, edited volumes and peer-reviewed articles, and has led or coordinated numerous national and international research projects, including Voices of Venice, Approdi – The Archaeology of Early Venetian Harbours, Torcello Abitata, and Port Louis: An Archaeological History of a Tropical City. He regularly contributes to public archaeology initiatives, exhibitions and media communication.