Visuality and Migration: Two Crises in Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary “Fire at Sea”

Visuality and Migration. A video essay by Erik Scaltriti

I am very happy to announce the publication of my video essay and commentary [in]Transition issue 7.3

Can moving images narrate the migration phenomena without stereotyping it? Offering a site to explore the deep connection between the parallel crises of migration and Western visuality, “Fire at Sea” contrasts several media stereotypes on migration. However, I argue that it foregrounds a false contraposition between a humanitarian vision of migration and a state vision of it.

Thank you to all who supported this project and gave their feedback!

Immersive video: Bologna

Last summer, I was the co-resident director of the course “The Italian City” offered by the Department of French and Italian in Bologna. With our students, we shot 360° footage as a tool to help future students better understand what this study abroad experience in Italy looks like. Here, “Seeing Study Abroad From New Angles With 360 Video“, an article about this project.

Last September, we presented the six-minute video at the Education Abroad Expo at the Ohio State University. Do you want to catch a glimpse of it? Deep dive into it with your phone, tablet, desktop, or virtual reality goggles!

Digital Flagship

This semester, I am collaborating as fellow of the Center of the Humanities in Practice with the Student Success Iniziative Digital Flagship . My role as Inclusive Practices Analyst is to help ensure the ethical delivery of inclusive programming and content to students. In collaboration with the Ohio State Application Development teams, this research project aims to identify and mitigate the effect of implicit bias at the crossroad of Education and Information Technology.

Website for the Migration Studies Working Group

Finally, the website I have created for our Migration Studies Working Group at The Ohio State University in online. The MSWG is an interdisciplinary graduate student-led organization founded in 2016. We aim to create an inspiring and productive environment for migration studies scholarship, crossing the academic borders of departments and disciplines.

All faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students enrolled at The Ohio State University may become members. You can contact us at migrationstudiesworkinggroup@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter! @osu_mswg or click and visit our blog!

Partigiane: oral history and multimedia

Women are often marginalized in the stories of the Italian Resistance but they played a decisive role in the liberation struggle against Nazi-Fascism. Seventy years after the end of WWII, this project celebrates their contribution to the fight for freedom and democracy. They put their lives on the line to ensure a democratic future of a country morally bankrupt by twenty years of Fascism. We recovered some of their from the archives of the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI – Reggio Emilia section).

With the support of SPI-CGIL, we produced the documentary Esitere o Resistere? to collect some of their testimonies. Also, we produced a sticker album, a playful way to honor these women and connect younger and older generations, remembering not just exemplary episodes but the women who weren’t just waiting for the end of the dictatorship

Here, some of the stickers with the names of the partigiane (and sometimes their fighting pseudonyms).

This project was supported by many but a special thank you goes to Barbara Elisi (graphic design), Paola Guidetti (production coordinator), and Maria Nella Casali (SPI-CGIL Reggio Emilia).

Practicum in Translation: Subtitles Workshop at Colorado College 2014