The ALiDiM project proposes a metalinguistic analysis of the process of standardization of Classical Arabic as it has been described by early Arabic scholars. By analyzing the earliest Arabic grammatical texts under one metalinguistic roof, this project aims to find new ways to account for and analyze texts that challenge conventional conceptions of the origins of the Arabic linguistic tradition. Embedding linguistic production into a wider cultural framework, the project introduces methodological innovations by devising an interdisciplinary approach. The investigation will focus on the metalinguistic process of language description itself, rather than on the linguistic features described. With the objective to develop an unconventional new reading of the origin and formation of the Arabic linguistic tradition, the ALiDiM project will explore a variegated corpus of Arabic grammatical and lexicographical sources and picture the narratives presented by early Arabic scholars. The focus will be on identifying, tracing, and elaborating the earliest stages of formation of the Arabic linguistic tradition, through a reconstruction of the internal factors that gave rise to the emergence of the linguistic studies as well as the points of convergence between the Arabic and neighboring traditions. The ALiDiM project will trace origins and receptions of the linguistic themes, identifying the factors that altogether contributed to the process of language standardization of Classical Arabic. The methodology applied by the early Arabic scholars will also be studied with a twofold approach that accounts for both the local Arab-Islamic framework and possible external influences. Research data will be made available via the project’s website as a digital corpus of TEI-encoded, semantically-annotated original sources.

Wartime Syria questions conventional understandings of the archive as a physical repository of documents and set of institutional practices. While Syrian state archives have fallen victim to destruction and plundering, Syrians in the diaspora have been saving and retrieving copies of mundane legal documents originally stored in state repositories as these documents are official proof of legal identities, education and relations to kin. These papers are fundamental in any migratory project since they are needed for numerous procedures, such as getting married. These documents are also central in preserving a connection to family members in Syria and in the diaspora. ARCHIVWAR examines these papers’ ubiquity, so far undetected in the study of the Syrian predicament, and the dislocation of state archives in private repositories to rethink the concept of the archive as a form of care. By examining family archives within the Syrian diaspora in Berlin, the action first aims to capture the modes of care and the relations to affective and physical presences and absences stored in these documents. Second, the project aims to make accessible a collective history-in-the-making about the Syrian predicament in Europe. Built upon the skills and experiences I have acquired along my research path, the action combines ethnographic methods with oral history research while employing an innovative format of engaged public scholarship. The project blends open science practices with immersive collaboration with the research participants to consolidate European society’s scientific literacy on wartime Syria and its long-lasting effects in Europe. ARCHIVWAR aims to contribute to the study of war and migration as well as of the archive and alternative forms of knowledge production, but as well widen my knowledge and skills in the field of Social Anthropology, Migration Studies, curatorship and and open access practices to complete my maturation as an engaged social scientist.

The goal of this two-year project is to carry out an exhaustive analysis on the dissemination of Marian apocryphal iconography in religious contexts specific for fourteenth and sixteenth century France. My investigation will be the first comprehensive study which determines the contribution of liturgy and liturgical tradition to the development and dissemination of Marian apocryphal depictions and their transition from hagiographic collections to church space. While previous scholarship on Marian iconography has traced its developments from textual to visual sources, this project aims at furthering existent research by demonstrating that changes in the liturgical context, in which depictions of Mary were used, were far more significant to their evolution, popularity, and dissemination. This study, therefore, builds on a range of scholarship which has outlined the importance of sacred space to our understanding of religious cultures. The project also offers a comparative approach on (visual and textual) Apocryphal material by concentrating on the analysis of religious (liturgy, epigraphy, hagiography) sources in connection to iconographic patterns and their transition from hagiographic collections to church space with particular emphasis on the early life of the Virgin. The successful completion of the project, the publication of the research outcomes, and the training offered by Ca’Foscari University in Venice will enhance the candidate’s academic career perspectives and contribute substantially to her development as a researcher by offering her the opportunity of a permanent teaching/research postion.

The project aims at modeling of the early agricultural spread, the process that brought agriculture and the settled way of life to large portions of Europe in VII-V mill. BC. It is focused on the archaeological record of south of Eastern Europe and it will employ innovative way of agent based modeling based on the fuzzy sets approach. Fuzzy logic appeared extremely fruitful in modeling processes of multi-criteria decision-making. Early farmers faced various ecological, economic and social constraints in order to select a certain micro-region for colonization. These conditions will be studied in the course of the project by means of database approach for the whole south of Eastern Europe (roughly modern south-eastern Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, and eastern Romania); taking additional samples for research on paleo-soils in the three focus micro-regions which evidenced several waves of early agricultural colonization. The criteria will be formulated for a site selection by Neolithic farmers. They will be incorporated into agent-based model "Fuzzy Farmers" using a fuzzy sets approach to combine the criteria of various character in a single model (for example, type of soil needed and a need of a similar site in geographical proximity for exchange of marital partners). Agents will be represented by communities of early agriculturalists. The model will simulate the process of early agricultural expansion in actual geographic space (modelled in GIS). I plan to seek the conditions of ceasing the expansion pace and in such a way try to explain the frontiers of early farmers' spread known from archeological record of the south Eastern Europe. The archaeological record of Eastern Europe is still badly integrated into pan-European theoretical context. This process was hampered by differences in organization of science, financial background and research methodologies. The project will work towards the more general aim of building a unified European archaeology.

ISLAMICAID has the overall objective to provide a broader understanding of humanitarian aid in conflict zones as implemented by Islamic actors and improve the dialogue between Western and Gulf donors. The Action has two specific objectives. One is related to Islamic social welfare instruments and their contribution to social protection and economic empowerment. The second concerns the foreign aid of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE and the implementation through different channels, including charity organisations. These two objectives will consider interventions in three conflict zones, such as Yemen, Sudan, and Syria, from 2015 to 2022. The necessity to enhance the coordination of aid interventions and expand the resource base for humanitarian financing makes this research relevant in terms of timing and scope. The Action aims to contribute to the DG ECHO Humanitarian Logistics Policy, which promotes effective coordination with other humanitarian organisations in complex crises. Not only does the research fill the gap in the literature, but it also analyses aid practices from a top-down and bottom-up approach with an anthropological perspective through fieldwork and ethnographic research, which will produce new evidence of Islamic financing instruments, Gulf donors' decision-making process, and everyday humanitarian negotiation practices of organisations in the field. Through the collaboration between UNIVE and Princeton University, and the supervision of Prof. Legrenzi and Prof. Haykel, the MSCA will allow me to expand my previous study on Islamic aid practices, receive training in anthropology, ethnographic research and social network analysis, and become an expert in Gulf donors and humanitarian financing in conflict zones. I will productively engage with the US academic circle, acquire new knowledge and expertise, bring it back to Europe, and ultimately build my future academic career in Europe with strong networks in the Gulf States and the US.