Lorenzo NESPOLI

Current position:

Researcher RtdA (since 31/03/25)

Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari, University of Venice. Young Researchers.

Project title: A Corpus-based Morphosyntactic Analysis of Early Modern Japanese Translations from Dutch and Portuguese – The role of translation within the porcess of cultural transfer in early Modern Japan (CŌMŌ)

Previous positions: 

Contract lecturer (a.y. 23-24 to 24-25)

University of Padua.

• Dutch Language 2 and 3 (23-24)
• Dutch Language 3 (24-25)
• Dutch Language, Linguistics and Translation 1 and 2 (MA) (23-24)
• Dutch Literature 2, 3 and MA1 (23-24)
• Dutch Literature 3 (24-25)

Contract lecturer (a.y. 23-24)

University of Turin.

• Japanese Language 2
• Japanese Language MA2

Research grant (10/22 to 10/23)

Under the project: Metodologie di ricerca per il linguaggio ed il benessere (Patrick Heinrich)

Additional institutional positions

2021/02 - 2020/03 Course Istituzioni di Linguistica Generale per Studenti di Lingua Giapponese, Ca' Foscari, University of Venice
2020/09 - 2020/12 Teaching tutor in Dutch Language and Linguistics 1 (Marco Prandoni), Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna
2020/09 - 2020/12 Teaching tutor in Japanese Language and Linguistics 1 (Francesco Vitucci), Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna [Groups 1, 2 and 3 in Foreign Languages and Literatures]
2020/03 - 2020/09 Teaching Assistant Senior in History of Japanese Language (Giuseppe Pappalardo), Ca' Foscari, University of Venice

PhD candidate (35th cycle)

• Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari, University of Venice (supervisors: Paolo Calvetti, Giuseppe Pappalardo)
• Cotutelle with Graduate School of Humanities, Leiden University (supervisor: Gijsbert Rutten)

Research topic: Analysis of the manuscripts on Dutch grammar written by Shizuki Tadao (1760 - 1806)

Education:

• 2015-18 - Master's Degree in Languages, Economies and Institutions of Asia and Northern Africa (Japanese Language); Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Thesis: "Cultural Mediation in Edo Japan - Rangaku as initiator of the process of questioning the domestic discourse in sakoku Japan"
Supervisors: Patrick Heinrich, Marco Prandoni

• 2012-15 - Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures; Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna

Thesis: "Rangakusha e Kōmōjin, Gli studi olandesi nel Giappone feudale dal punto di vista del medico-traduttore Sugita Genpaku"
Supervisors: Marco Prandoni, Francesco Vitucci

Further training:

• 2017-18 - Japanese Language Advanced Business Course at Kyōto Japanese Language School 京都日本語学校・上級ビジネス (KJLS)
• 2014 - Dutch Language Summer Course at Escola oficial d'Idiomes Barcelona Drassanes, organized by Taalunie

Publications:

• Three new peer-reviewed articles approved for publications
• 2024 Introduction to Nitobe I. Bushido. L’anima del Giappone. Giunti-Barbera, collana Passepartout (ISBN 978-88-09-92492-5).
• 2024 (Co-author) Patrick Heinrich, Lorenzo Nespoli, Seira Machida,  Language and Well-being in Yomitan-Village (Okinawa, Japan) / Llengua i benestar al poble de Yomitan, Barcelona, Linguapax International, vol. 11, pp. 123-142.
• 2023 Dutch Grammar in Japanese Words - Reception and Representation of European Theory of Grammar in the Manuscripts of Shizuki Tadao (1760 – 1806) (IBSN 978-94-6093-435-3), Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap, 650, Amsterdam.
• 2022 “The Poetic Knowledge of Shizuki Tadao. Traces of Dutch Poet Jacob Cats in Early Nineteenth-Century Japan”. Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale, 58, 871-906. [Article]
• 2022 "Tradizione manoscritta" in Hadewijch di Anversa Canti. Prima edizione italiana integrale (ISBN 8821113485) a cura di Francesca Barresi. Con la collaborazione di Lorenzo Nespoli. Prefazione di Chiara Frugoni, Marietti Editore. [Book chapter and collaborator in the transaltion of the original poems]
• 2021 "Christopher Joby, The Dutch Language in Japan (1600-1900). A Cultural and Sociolinguistic Study of Dutch as a Contact Language in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan." in Early Modern Low Countries (EMLC), 5(1), 176–179. [Review]
• 2020 "Rangaku, gli studi olandesi nel Giappone feudale" in Cultura letteraria neerlandese. Autori, testi e contesti dal Medioevo a oggi (ISBN 9788820395582), by Roberto Dagnino and Marco Prandoni, Hoepli Editore, Milano.
• 2019 "Het Japansch-Nederlandsch. Analisi dei cambiamenti linguistici nel neerlandese parlato nel Giappone feudale" in Titaantjes, Titani di domani (ISBN 9788867922208), by Franco Paris and Marco Prandoni, Raffaelli Editore, Rimini 2019, pp. 95-119.

Lectures and other academic presentations:

• 2025/04/15 [Speaker] Speaker at the event "Anne Frank – Capire i conflitti per costruire" at University of Bologna.
• 2025/03/28 [Seminar] Presentation at the seminar "Anne Franks voetdrukken in Italië – een intrigerende ontekkingsreis door de vertalingen van het Dagboek" at University of Trieste.
• 2025/02/13-14 [Seminar] "Through the didactic canon and beyond. Language learning as a bridge towards specialised skills" seminar. My paper:"Translations of Navigation - Two late eighteenth century Japanese versions of Cornelis Douwes’ Beschryvinge van het Octant (1749)". Jagiellonian University, Kraków.
• 2024/12/17 [Organizer and speaker] Organizer and co-speaker of lecture "Sulle tracce di Anne Frank – Traduzione, ricezione, (post)memory e funzione educativa della sua opera" at University of Padua.
• 2024/05/31 - [Organizer of book presentation] Presentation of the book "La città occupata" by the Italian translator Alessandro Zanini and collaborator Marleen Mertens at the University of Padua.
• 2024/02/08-09 - [Seminar] "Text and/as Image in Early Modern Polyglot Books" seminar. My paper: "Dutch Emblems and Language Learning – Japan’s encounter with a new literary genre".
• 2023/10/10 - [Co-organized and speaker at international symposium] "Clashes, Contacts and Contaminations: How the Portuguese and the Dutch Met (in) the World" symposium at La Sapienza, Università di Roma. My paper: "Portuguese influence on the Japanese understanding of the Dutch in the 18th century".
• 2023/10/09 - [Lecture] Introductory lesson on Japanese Dutch studies, hosted by Prof. Francesca Terrenato at La Sapienza, Università di Roma.
• 2023/02/17 - [Congress] "Learning Grammar by Reading Poetry - and other methods of studying Dutch in Early Modern Japan" for the congress Multilingual Didactic Texts across Early Modern Europe, Asia and the Americas, Sapienza, Università di Roma.
• 2022/12/16 - [Congress] "Sporen van Jacob Cats in vroegmodern Japan - De rol van dichtkunst in de theorie van de Nederlandse grammatica van Shizuki Tadao (1760 - 1806)" for the Nederlands Genootschap voor Japanse Studiën, Universiteit Leiden.
• 2022/09/16 - [Congress] "La ricezione della teoria grammaticale neerlandese nel tardo periodo Edo: la morfosintassi dei verbi nelle opere di Shizuki Tadao" at XLVI Convegno di Studi sul Giappone (AISTUGIA), Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna.
• 2022/08/25 - [Congress] "Het poëtische taalgebruik in Nederlandse grammatica’s van vroegmodern Japan" at 21e Colloquium Neerlandicum: Voortvarend Nederlands (IVN), Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen.
• 2022/05/20 - [Congress] "Wōrudenbūku en supurākakonsuto: de receptie van Nederlandse grammatica’s in vroegmodern Japan" at Zestiende Bijeenkomst van het MediterraNed-platform, Università degli Studi di Trieste.
• 2022/05/06 - [Congress] "‘Een onsterfelijk monstre Marin’. La diffusione della lessicografia neerlandese nel Giappone feudale", at Cantieri di ricerca della neerlandistica bolognese, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna
• 2020/05/25 - [Lecture] "Rangaku e Sakoku: Storia dei contatti umani negli studi olandesi del Giappone feudale", L'Orientale, University of Naples (online)
• 2020/02/20-22 - [Congress] "Het Japansch-Nederlandsch - Een nieuw communicatiemiddel tussen VOC-agenten en Japanes prostituees", Sapienza, Univeristy of Rome
• 2020/02/06-07 - [Workshop] "Rangaku - The gateway to the globalization of Japan" International PhD Student Wokshop, La Sapienza, University of Rome
• 2019/04/01 - [Lecture] "Rangaku: La conoscenza dell'Occidente attraverso lo studio del neerlandese nel Giappone feudale", Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna
• 2018/11/22 - [Lecture] "Hollandkunde: Mediazione culturale nel Giappone feudale", Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna.

Additional awards:

• 2024 - Seal of Excellence for researhc proposal at HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01 — MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (Global).
• 2023 - Scholarship awarde by the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union) in support of PhD students in the field of Dutch studies.

Memberships:

• AISTUGIA - Associazione Italiana per gli Studi Giapponesi
• Stichting MediterraNed
• Internationale Vereniging voor Neerlandistiek (IVN)
• European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) ヨーロッパ日本研究協会