Close-ups

Let’s talk about you: what is your background, what do you teach, and what are your research interests?
My name is Roberta and I am a cultural anthropologist. I focus on the interplay between medical anthropology, environmental anthropology and science & technology.

Tell us about your academic path.
I've always been a bit of a restless spirit. I didn't go to high school much and I didn't go to university much either. But I have always studied a lot and asked myself many questions, to which I tried to find answers through direct experience. I have had many jobs - from dishwasher to corporate consultant - working in the most diverse communities. And along the way I realised that university was the right place for me. Another great source of inspiration is being in nature and moving with it. I am a ski instructor and competed in world-class freestyle kitesurfing. This intersected with my academic path: after a PhD at the University of Lausanne, I worked in Australia and Switzerland before choosing to come back to Italy. After a long period of temporary employment, I finally fulfilled my dream of making my passion - teaching and researching anthropology - a permanent job, which I try to do while always keeping in mind (and in my heart) the lessons I learned outside university.

What has given you the greatest satisfaction in your career?
Having a fantastic group of colleagues and students around me, to think together, imagine a better world and try to build it together. To this end, winning an ERC Starting grant, and therefore the chance to expand the range of my research and my network, is certainly a great opportunity for which I am very grateful. I have worked in several Italian and foreign universities, but I think that this department, and Ca' Foscari as a university, are the ideal base for this new adventure.

What are you most passionate about in your research?
I am interested in the relation between what we call 'culture' and what we call 'nature'. This relation changes according to the social and cultural context and generates categorisations that create hierarchies and shape the ways in which we think about what is 'other' than ourselves and how we care for it (or not). In all of this, the role of technology and science is crucial. I believe that to understand nature and the issues in our relationship with it, we need to increasingly understand technology and forge constructive alliances with those working in that field.

What do teaching and researching mean to you?
For me, research and teaching have always been connected, extremely important to each other. I feel I owe my students a great deal for the nourishment I have received from them, and at the same time I require them to be aware of their value and responsibility in contributing to a collective intellectual practice that is necessary if we are to meet the challenges of this millennium.