Melania Nucifora
PhD in “Histoire et civilisations” at the CRH-EHESS of Paris, she is currently fellow researcher at the same institution. She graduated in Urban History at the Institute of Architecture of Venice in 1998, than she gained her second-level master course in History and Analysis of Territory in Catania in 2000 (Department of Humanities). Member of several national research projects, in 2005 she won a research grant by the CNR-Italia (National Council for Research) within the national call on “Cultural Identities”. She took part to the Research project of relevant national interest (PRIN, Programma di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale) on "Costruzione e rappresentazione dei centri abitati in Sicilia in età moderna" (Building and representation of urban settlements in Sicily, during the Modern Age), financed by the Italian Ministry for University and Research. Since 2002 to 2004 she worked at the Italian Ministry for Environment, Department for Research and Development.
Former member of the steering board of the Italian Association of Urban History (2012-2017), she’s currently member of the Interdepartmental Center on Territory, Environment and Development of the University of Catania and member of the pedagogic council of the Erasmus+ TEMA Master Course (Territoires Europeens. Identité et developpement) where she teaches Urban History.
Her research focuses on the relation between space and society in contemporary history. In particular her works investigate the role of landscape, environment, heritage and their representations in the building of urban cultural identities, the use of history in the definition of such representations, the contribution of local identities to the building of regional and national cultural identities, the tensions between the actors involved into the patrimonialization processes and between center and periphery in the recognizing of landscape's and heritage's values.
Main research monographs:
NUCIFORA, M., Governare la crescita urbana. Amministrazioni, burocrazie, urbanisti a Catania tra età liberale e anni Settanta del Novecento, Bonanno, Catania 2011.
NUCIFORA, M., Il paesaggio della storia. Patrimonio, identità, territorio nella Sicilia sud orientale, Bonanno, Catania 2008, 2011.
NUCIFORA, M., Il conflitto fra sviluppo e salvaguardia del patrimonio culturale. Siracusa tra la ricostruzione e il declino industriale (1945-1976), Franco Angeli, Milano 2018.
Recent works:
Nucifora, M., Protection of Cultural Heritage and Urban Development. Catania and Syracuse in the Seventies: A Comparative Approach, in M. Baumeister, B. Bonomo, D. Schott (eds.), Cities contested : urban politics, heritage, and social movements in Italy and West Germany in the 1970s , Frankfurt ; New York : Campus Verlag, 2017, pp. 249-273.
Nucifora, M., The Heritage Building Process in the Val di Noto Unesco site, in «Città e Storia», 01, 2016, monographic number dedicated to Use of History in the Making of Cultural Heritage, edited by G. Sonkoly, pp. 77-90.