This project aims at carrying out a comparative, multi-generational and interdisciplinary analysis of European emigrants’ descendants’ “return” from Chile to Spain and Italy. Italian and Spanish legislation and return programmes give a preferential right to entry and to nationality acquisition to foreign citizens of emigrant descent. These legal frameworks generate massive migrations that can be called the “return of the heirs” - as those who “come back” have inherited a privileged legal status, based on the “legal myth” of ethnically motivated return migration. Almost invisible in research and in the public sphere, these migrations raise urgent issues regarding European identity, citizenship, belonging and family heritage. Indeed, an unquestioned gap between the right to enter and the right to return to European countries informs present-day policies, as more and more countries base their nationality laws on jus sanguinis, giving family inheritance a central role in access to citizenship rights. This programme aims to answer this research question: how is belonging transmitted and re-created in families of emigrant descent and how is it linked to the changing nationality and return laws of the countries their ancestors came from? Its objective is to identify and compare different patterns of belonging production and transmission in families of emigrant descent, with regard to gender, nationhood, ethnicity, regional identity and law. To pursue this goal, the research will be based on a six months ethnographic regional fieldwork in Chile, Italy and Spain and on a qualitative analysis of data conducted with an interdisciplinary approach. The research project will be carried out at the Dipartimento Culture, Politica e Società of UniTo, an interdisciplinary department which will offer me training on the transversal themes on which I need to enhance my skills and will help me strengthen my competencies in dissemination and communication of research to different publics.

Strigolactones (SLs) are a class of plant hormones that participate in many plant environmental interactions, including responses to drought. Much still has to be understood about how they mediate plant responses to abiotic stresses, but their mapping and quantification in plant tissues is extremely difficult. Some SL biosensors have been developed in recent years, but they all suffer from some technical limitations: namely they are negative sensors whose signal is degraded in the presence of SLs, and they require laborious and invasive techniques for signal detection. The aim of this fellowship is thus to combine knowledge in the fields of plant synthetic biology and plant molecular physiology to construct a novel SL biosensor, called StrigoSense, which is positively activated in the presence of SLs. StrigoSense will be constructed using the principles of modularity and reusability: this will allow to pair it with many customisable reporter systems, creating a tool which can accomodate a variety of users and research applications. In this project, StrigoSense is coupled to fluorescent and bioluminescent reporters for the non-invasive monitoring of plant SL responses at the cell and system level. The biosensor will be developed in Arabidopsis and tomato plants, seeking to transfer the research conducted on model organisms to a crop of enormous relevance, narrowing the gap between basic research and the development of SL-based agricultural solutions. After fine-tuning, the biosensor will be used to monitor plant responses to different abiotic stresses and to an array of SL-like compounds and biostimulants with the potential of acting as priming agents that help plants cope with recurring water deficits. This will be the first example of the testing of a SL biosensor under physiological stress conditions. The technical advantages of StrigoSense will make SL biosensors faster, cheaper and more high-throughput, with benefits for basic and applied research.

Several works by Ernesto Neto present huge, warm-colored, pleasantly smelling Lycra tunnels. They are cases of installation art (IA): the public is supposed to enter the tunnels and interact with the physical environment, experiencing the works from within. Works of IA resemble buildings because they envelop the public, but they differ in that, as with paintings and sculptures, they do not have a sheltering function. This raises a philosophical question: what states of mind are distinctive of our engagement with IA? The goal of this project is to develop the first full-fledged philosophical account of our engagement with IA, arguing that, typically, the imagination plays a crucial role in it, by pursuing 5 research and innovation objectives: (1) showing that IA prompts imaginings of a specific kind; (2) arguing that IA can be defined in terms of its imagining-arousing function; (3) arguing against the prevalent view that IA doesn't have a representational or fictional dimension; (4) investigating the link between the imaginings aroused by IA, on the one hand, and abstract painting, on the other hand; (5) integrating the proposal within a broader account of fiction. The project’s goal is relevant to aestheticians and art theorists, because IA dominates contemporary art, and to art practitioners and public, because it can help improve the design, exhibition, and communication of IA. I, Elisa Caldarola (Philosophy PhD), will carry out the proposed research through investigations in the philosophy of fiction and of art, in art theory, in depiction theory, and the philosophy of mind, working at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (Philosophy Program) under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Gilmore, and at the Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin, under the supervision of Prof. Alberto Voltolini. I shall publish 5 papers in top-level journals, present my work at 8 conferences and at outreach events.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most diagnosed cancer worldwide. Though several treatment strategies are available today, around a million people die of this disease each year worldwide. Thus, there is still a pivotal need for new and more effective treatments. Intra-tumor cellular heterogeneity has emerged lately as an intrinsic feature of malignancies and as one of the factors responsible for therapy resistance or tolerance. However, the role that phenotypically distinct subpopulations have on tumor biology is far from being understood. This multi-disciplinary proposal is based on the use of cutting-edge techniques to unravel the basic features of intra-tumor phenotypic heterogeneity and subpopulations interactions. The goals are to (1) identify and characterize phenotypically distinct subpopulations on a set of metastatic CRC human-derived organoids by single-cell RNA sequencing; (2) monitor their plasticity (transitions) by generation of fluorescent reporter lines and live-imaging lineage tracing; (3) study the impact of each subpopulation on tumor growth, and identify underlying molecular pathways by live-imaging. Ambitiously, this project aims at witnessing phenotypic transitions in living cells, a challenging task that has not been fully accomplished yet, with relevant therapeutic consequences. It is expected that this project will provide the scientific community with a deeper understanding on subpopulations dynamics in colorectal cancer, that could ultimately result in the discovery of novel treatment strategies, such as targeting a specific subpopulation or interfering with molecular determinants of transitions. Moreover, it will foster the independent career of the applicant as a researcher by expanding her skills and international network. This project tackles a relevant problem of modern cancer biology by employing innovative techniques, complemented with state-of-the-art facilities and high quality training and mentoring.