Research and education

Elisa Palomino is a fashion anthropologist, designer and researcher specialising in Indigenous Arctic material culture, sustainable fashion and museum collections. She is a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Before completing her PhD in Sustainable Fashion Anthropology at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, she worked internationally in the fashion industry for twenty-five years, including senior positions at John Galliano, Christian Dior, Moschino and her own label. She has conducted research in forty museum collections across Europe, North America and Asia and has received support from institutions including the Fulbright Program, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Koç University ANAMED and the International Institute for Asian Studies. She was also PI of the Horizon 2020 FishSkin project. 

Dr. Xialing Liu is a Post-doctoral Researcher at the Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Chinese Lacquerware Research Project, supported by Baixian Foundation). She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and was a visiting scholar at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on Transcultural Art History, Material Culture (with a specialization in lacquer), Export Art, and Netherlandish Art, with a particular focus on lacquer cabinets, screens, rooms, and furniture. Dr. Liu's scholarly contributions have been presented at prestigious international forums including the College Art Association (CAA), European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology (EAAA), Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art (CIHA), and European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS). She serves as Chair and organized the session "The Global Circulation of Lacquer" at the 36th CIHA（2024, Lyon). 

Her research theme for this visiting scholar position is "Mapping Coromandel Lacquer Screens: The Global Circulation of 'Kuancai' Lacquer between Europe and Asia from 1635 to 1750." Italy preserves many ‘Kuancai’ (Coromandel) lacquer screens and panels that have, received limited scholarly attention. The Oriental Museum in Venice also holds valuable collections of Chinese and Japanese lacquerware. The Marco Polo Centre for Global Europe-Asia Connections, based in the Department of Asian and North African Studies (DSAAM) at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, focuses on transcultural exchange and its work on ceramics and porcelain and other materials is highly relevant. The center would be an ideal place to advance this research. I look forward to the opportunity to learn from Professor Sabrina Restelli and colleagues at the Centre during my stay in Venice, and to gaining a deeper understanding of Venice itself — a historic crossroads between East and West.

Prof. Fariba Zarinebaf is a historian specializing in the Ottoman and Safavid empires, with a particular focus on the social, economic, and cultural history of the early modern Mediterranean and Middle East. Her current research examines the role of silk in the commercial and diplomatic exchanges between Venice, the Ottoman Empire, and Safavid Iran during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This project forms part of a book manuscript under preparation for the University of California Press.

Her research draws on extensive work in Ottoman archives, Persian sources, and European archival and museum collections. During her stay at the Marco Polo Center for Global Connections, she will conduct research at the State Archives of Venice and the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo, while collaborating with scholars specializing in Chinese ceramics, Persianate literature, and Ottoman-Venetian relations. She looks forward to contributing to the Center's academic community through scholarly exchange and by organizing a workshop on her research.