RISULTATI RICERCA

This article reconstructs the public representation of immigration in Italy from the late 1970s until the late 1980s. Using archival sources and research produced during the period under consideration, with a special focus on the role of the scientific community in considering the complexity of immigration, the article traces the evolution of the immigrant’s social profile up to the assassination of Jerry Essan Masslo in 1989, a turning point in the history of immigration in Italy.

In recent years, historiographical research has increasingly focused on the link between Italy and the Mediterranean, taking into account the debate on new spatial categories in national, regional and global history, and showing a growing interest in imperial history. This article discusses the status quo and future research perspectives. Focusing on four recent Englishlanguage publications, it approaches the Mediterranean as a space that challenges mainstream Italian history by highlighting its imperial nature, including decolonisation processes and their legacies in the present. Based on these premises, the article engages in a dialogue with other geohistorical “areas” of the Mediterranean, examining sources written in different languages and paying particular attention to local experiences prior to the Italian occupation. 

Groundwater is an essential part of the planet’s water reserves. In modern times, this resource has become increasingly important in determining production methods, modernisation processes and urban settlement patterns, often with contradictory connotations: sometimes a complementary factor, other times a completely alternative resource to the large-scale water infrastructure projects promoted by the state and hydraulic technocracies. Yet, Italian and international historiography has so far paid little attention to groundwater as an object of study in its own right. From a methodological point of view, this requires a close dialogue with other scientific disciplines, involving categories such as the Anthropocene, the hydrosocial cycle and shadow waters, as well as a focus on international historiography, looking in particular at the national or subcontinental contexts that have had to deal with the presence of large underground aquifers.

This contribution illustrates the results of the evaluation on distance learn- ing commissioned by the University of Pisa during the period of the pan- demic emergency. Educational and training institutions underwent a "para- digmatic shift" through the mandatory digitalization of the educational offer, characterized, given the available time frame, as a learning-by-doing pro- cess. Students, on the other hand, had to rethink their daily lives, redefining the ways in which they carried out their work, study, research, and personal activities. The University of Pisa commissioned an evaluation to the Human Foun- dation that could provide an initial assessment to be read from an evidence- based perspective, in order to understand if, how, and where to make neces- sary improvements to the already efficient and effective teaching and learn- ing methods adopted during the emergency phase. The commissioned evaluation activity focused on the following dimen- sions: attendance in classes; increased participation of specific targets (stu- dents with disabilities, with specific attention disorders, working students, other vulnerable categories); quality of learning; difficulties encountered in accessing education; strengths and weaknesses of distance learning; the abil- ity of distance learning to impact the reconciliation with personal/family needs.