I am an interdisciplinary researcher exploring how digital and sound culture are transforming museums, introducing new spaces, practices and ways of imagining collections. The transformative power of sound and its role in shaping new curatorial practices is central to my work, and I am contributing to the foundation of a research network of sound studies scholars, museum practitioners, heritage institutions and audio tech companies to support this emerging field.  My AHRC-funded doctoral research at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester explored the role of sound culture in the emergence of a new museum conceptualization: the ‘Platform-Museum’, a participatory, distributed, post-digital institution where heritage is co-created. Inspired by this model, I have founded the virtual museum DOLOM.IT that co-creates its digital collections in collaboration with the inhabitants, cultural professionals, students and researchers of the Dolomites area. Between 2018 and 2022, I supported the digital transformation of more than 50 cultural organizations and 130 heritage professionals, guiding them in the design of online collections, sonic narratives and digital participatory projects. In 2019 I received the M4C Cultural Engagement Award for the impact of my research in the museum sector, and in 2021 two GLAMi Awards were given to the #SonicFriday project, designed as part of my PhD research. I am currently Research Fellow at the Science Museum Group within Congruence Engine, a three-year research project within the Towards a National Collection funding stream whose aim is to take the first steps towards creating a unified virtual national collection. My lectures and workshops to undergraduate and postgraduate students focus on digital curation, participatory museology, online engagement, sound heritage and sound design. 

Research positions

2023 (current): Honorary Research Fellow, University of Leicester

2022-2024 (current) Research Fellow, Science Museum Group

2023: Research Assistant, Northumbria University - School of Design

2016-2022: AHRC PhD Researcher, University of Leicester - School of Museum Studies

2020: Research Placement, Science Museum Group

2019-2021: Research coordinator, Dolomites UNESCO Foundation

2018-2019: Research fieldwork, British Library Sound Archive

2018-2019: Research Assistant, Ca' Foscari University

2014: Visiting Scholar, Duke University (North Carolina)

Teaching positions

2018-2021: Teaching Assistant, University of Leicester, School of Museum Studies

2021: Teaching Assistant, Online course for museum educators, Ca' Foscari University

2020: Teacher Coordinator, Training Course for museum educators, ICOM Italy (30 participants)

2018: Teaching Assistant, Digital Arts and Humanities Summer School (DAHSS) at the University of Nottingham

2018: Teacher Coordinator, Training Course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' funded by the Veneto Region (5 Modules, 250 training hours, 130 participants)

Lectures, Talks and Conference presentations

2023

Lecture on digital curation and online audiences in the Module 'Curating Science and Technology' at the UCL (February 2023).

2022

Presentation and workshop dedicated to digital participatory curation in the Congruence Engine project at the SMG Research Conference Historical Threads (November 2022).

Online lecture on Sound Culture in Museums in the Hong Kong Study Week, a DL programme developed as part of the University of Leicester partnership with HKUSpace, and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong (May 2022)

Online lecture at the Museo Egizio in Turin to present the platform-museum model and the project Museums of the Dolomites to the digital and communication team (April 2022)

Invited speaker in he Webinar Digital Innovation and Culture – Challenges and Sinergies for the Italian and Dutch cultural sector, organized by BAM – Strategie Culturali together with the Dutch Embassy (January 2022)

Lecture on new digital practices for cultural professionals in a training course for the Network of Botanic Gardens of Lombardia (January 2022)

2021

Online lecture 'Museums in a platform world' in a training course for museum professionals organized by the Veneto Region (December 2021)

Invited speaker at the event Fairlight CMI: old sounds, new voices at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford (November 2021)

Video interview with the founder of Kubify to share my experience with the Learning Toolbox platform (October 2021)

Lectures at the the Civic Museums Foundation in Rovereto (Northern Italy), for the training course for the museum team organized by WeExhibit. The two lectures - ‘Museums in a Platform World’ and ‘Community Engagement: a new participatory museum model’ - explored the new practices of digital curation and online engagement on digital platforms. (May 2021)

Presentation of the paper ‘Curating Sound in a Platform World’ in the session ‘Digital and Sound’ at the MuseWeb conference (April 2021)

Webinar ‘Silent play: cultural heritage and new participatory practices through theatre’ organized within the European project SMART – Small Museums Representing Territories (January 2021)

Online lecture 'Museums and Sound Culture in the Platform World' and Online Workshop on Sound Exhibitions in the Module 'Engaging Audiences', University of Leicester. Within the module, I have guided students in the development of the online exhibition Listening in Lockdown (February 2021)

2020

Speaker in the panel ‘Need We Say More’: Contemporary Responses to the Fairlight CMI a at the Sound Instruments and Sonic Cultures conference hosted online by the National Science and Media Museum (December 2020)

Speaker in the Webinar organized by the Digital Cultural Heritage School. My presentation introduced the Platform-Museum as a new participatory model for digital curation, presenting a series of case histories from my research projects (November 2020). 

Webinar and asynchronous activities in the course ‘Advanced CLIL’ organized by the Department of Linguistics at Ca’ Foscari University for primary and secondary school teachers (November 2020) to guide them in the use of digital platforms for the collaborative creation of digital narratives within formal and informal learning contexts.

Cycle of lectures and workshops on Digital and Sound curation that introduced to the Polesine Museum Network the potentials of audio-based platforms to engage new audiences with the museum collections (October-December 2020)

Lecture 'Museums and Sound Culture in the Platform World' and Workshop on Sound Exhibitions in the Module 'Engaging Audiences', University of Leicester. Within the module, I have guided students in the development of the interactive audio tour ListenUp!Leicester, that guides to discover all the groups installations across the campus using a geo-localized app, as part of the Exhibition installed at the School of Museum Studies (February 2020)

Workshop on Digital Curation at the Ethnographic Museum of Dolomites, within the Museums of the Dolomites Project (17th January 2020)

2019

Workshop on Digital Engagement at the MUSE - Science Museum in Trento, within the Museums of the Dolomites Project (12th December 2019)

Invited speaker at the Workshop ‘The museum of the Future’ in Genoa, within the project CreART – Network of Cities for Artistic Creation (December 2019)

Invited speaker at the Seminar Ideas for the Museum Digital Transformation at Link Campus University (September 2019)

Presentation of the paper Digital platforms ‘without a cause’: why the impact on a museums’ organization should not be taken for granted. The case study of Civic Museums in Treviso at the 15th International Conference on Arts and Management (23-26 June 2019, Venice).  

Invited speaker at the conference "Challenges and best practices in digital communication in museums' organized by ICOM Italy at MUSE - the Science Museum in Trento (March 2019).

2018

Cycle of Lectures and Workshops on virtual museums, professional course promoted by Ca' Foscari University (July-September 2018)

Research seminar ‘New challenges and new digital cultures in the Veneto museums’, Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University (18th December 2018)

Leading pedagogical sessions aimed at the development of critical reading and academic skills in the Master Courses of Museum Studies and Art Museum & Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester (October - November 2018)

Project work Online Exhibitions Design (October 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (12 hours)

Project work Create a Multimedia Tour (July 2018)  within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (12 hours)

Project work Design your Digital Strategy (July 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (12 hours)

Project work Design an Educational projects usign digital tools (February 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (12 hours)

Module coordination, Lecture and Workshops on Digital Heritage: Copyright and Open Data (September 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (24 hours)

Module coordination, Lecture and Workshops on The Museum outside its walls: new cultural productions (April 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (24 hours)

Module coordination, Lecture and Workshops on Online Audiences and Digital Engagement (March 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (24 hours)

Module coordination, Lecture and Workshops on Museum Education in the Digital Age (January 2018) within the training course 'Museums and New Digital Cultures' (24 hours)

2017

Presentation of the paper “From Landscape to Cities. The digital co-creation of cultural heritage in Visualizing Venice and DOLOM.IT” at The Creative Network, GARR Conference in Florence (December 2017)

Leading pedagogical sessions aimed at the development of critical reading and academic skills in the Master Courses of Museum Studies and Art Museum & Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester (October - November 2017)

Speaker at the SMG Research Conference in Bradford with the talk ‘Sound Culture: New Challenges for Museums in the Post-Digital Age’ 

2016

Speaker in the panel Digital Cultural Heritage as Public Humanities Collaboration at 104th CAA Annual Conference, Washington (February 2016)

Speaker in the Open Knowledge and Open Arts Workshop at the University of Catania (February 27th, 2016). 

Affiliations

Co-founder of Museo Dolom.it, the participatory virtual museum of the Dolomites

Member of the Scientific Commettee of 'Culture Digitali', online journal dedicated to digital culture (ISSN 2785 - 308X)

Member of MILE (Museums and innovation in Language Education), Ca' Foscari University

External Member of m.a.c. Lab, the laboratory of the Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University

Grants and Awards

2022: Best in Heritage Projects of Influence for #SonicFriday

2021: GLAMi Awards for #SonicFriday in the Categories 'Interactive and Immersive' and 'Pandemic Pivot'

2021: Finalist in the Digital Innovation Award 'Antonella Giulia Pizzaleo' for Museo Dolom.it

2019: M4C Cultural Engagement Award

2016-2022: Midlands4Cities Doctoral Award

2011: Best Thesis on Dolomites Heritage, Municipality of Valle di Cadore with the support of the Dolomites UNESCO Foundation

Education

2016–2022   PhD in Museum Studies, University of Leicester

2011-2015 Master in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities 

2007-2011 Bachelor in Artistic and Performative Techniques 

Publications

See all the publications listed here.