SPEAKER CONGRESS IN ROME 2025
Giuseppe Adami Assoc. Archivio Compagnoni Floriani di Villamagna, Macerata, Italy
As art historian, Giuseppe Adami has devoted his attention to the analysis of the technologies connected with Renaissance and Baroque theatrical productions and their theory and practice in connection with the evolution of science, with particular emphasis on mechanics. In his research Adami has recently studied the parallel relationship between scenography – the so-called teatro all’italiana – and military science in the early modern period. This involves not only shared avant-garde materials and technologies but also the ideological exchange between the military sphere – bound both to medieval chivalric ideals and the humanist recovery of Greek and Roman military engineering – and courtly theatrical performances and the ephemera of the Ancien Régime, where aristocratic chivalric festivals surprisingly contribute to the development of modern drama in the form of the so-called opera-tournament.
Sarah Bay-Cheng University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Bay-Cheng is Professor of Emerging Technologies in Theatre and Performance and the Helen and Paul Phelan Professor of Drama at the University of Toronto in the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. She is an affiliated researcher with the BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI.
Dr. Bay-Cheng’s research focuses on the intersections among theatre and media, including histories of film, social media, and digital technology in performance. She is the author or editor of 4 books, including Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field (2015) and Mapping Intermediality in Performance (2010) as well as more than 100 academic essays, lectures and reviews. Her current research focuses on theatre and artificial intelligence, digital historiography of performance, and data representations of the performing arts. More info: https://sarahbaycheng.com
Roberto Basili University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Basili is full Professor in Computer Science at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, where he has carried out research, since the 1990s, on Artificial Intelligence problems, methodologies and technologies in the areas of Machine and Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and in the engineering of NLP-based Systems for Distributed Information Retrieval and Knowledge Management. He is currently President of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, for which he is a member of the Scientific Committee. He is currently coordinating the PhD program in Data Science at the University of Tor Vergata. He is the author of more than 200 publications in scientific journals and International Conference, Proceedings and books with international dissemination, in the area of NLP, Machine Learning as well as their application to Web data. He has also coordinated, as principal investigator, several international research projects funded by the European Community, on the topics of NLP and applications of AI to industrial challenges in the banking, media, tourism and medicine domains.
Emanuele Bellini LOGOS Research&Innovation, Florence – University of RomaTRE, Italy
Emanuele Bellini PhD is an associate professor in Information Engineering and director of advanced training course on Cyber Humanities and Heritage Security with the University of Roma Tre (Italy). He is president of LOGOS Research and Innovation Association and research fellow with Centre of Cyber Physical Systems – Khalifa University (UAE). His research interest includes cyber humanities, heritage security and resilience of human-cyber-physical systems. He is co-chair of IEEE SMC TC Homeland Security, general chair of IEEE Cyber Security and Resilience Conference (IEEE CSR), Chair of IEEE SMC TC Cyber Humanities, and deputy chair of the Europen Integrated Mission Group for Security (IMG-S) WG on Resilience.
Giovanni Bergamin LOGOS Research&Innovation, Florence, Italy
Librarian. I currently lead Digital Humanities research at Logos-RI. I am an active member of the Library and Information Science (LIS) community as a teacher, author, and seminar speaker. Previously, I served as Head of Information Technology Services at the National Central Library of Florence (1990-2017) and was a Board Member of the Italian Library Association (AIB) from 2017 to 2023.
Cécile Chantraine Braillon La Rochelle Université, France
Cécile Chantraine Braillon has been a Professor at La Rochelle Université since 2018. Her research focuses primarily on Latin American theatre and the digitalization of research in the performing arts. Since 2014, she has been involved in and coordinated several transdisciplinary scientific projects. Among the most recent are the VISUAL STAGING project (2016–2023), the ESNA programme (École du Spectateur de Nouvelle-Aquitaine, 2021–2024), and the PERFORMA project (Institut des Amériques, 2025–2027). She also coordinates the working group THEATRALIA, supported by DARIAH-EU, and is a member of the CANEVAS consortium (Huma-Num, France) dedicated to research on the analysis of digital audiovisual corpora. As part of this work, she has been developing the e-spect@teur application since 2020—a video annotation tool for live performances, designed in accordance with the FAIR principles.
Elisabeth Borud Leinslie, Performing Arts Hub, Oslo, Norway
Elisabeth Borud Leinslie is the head of documentation and archive at the competence center Performing Arts Hub Norway in Oslo since 2008. She is educated as a theatre scholar and pedagogue. Leinslie is the president of the board of ENICPA<https://enicpa.info/> – European Network of Information Centres for Performing Arts, where the above topics are on the agenda.
Elena Cervellati, University of Bologna, Italy
Elena Cervellati is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna (Italy), where she teaches Dance History and Dance Theories. Her research touch on ballet in the first half of the 19th century, the forms of contemporary Italian dance from the 1970s, the relations between words and the dancing body, and screendance. Her most recent publications areGiselle in Italia. Migrazioni e traduzioni del balletto romantico nell’Ottocento (2024), and, with Silvia Garzarella, Danza, schermi e visori. Contaminazioni digitali nella scena italiana (2024). From 1997 to 2002 she was the manager of the Compagnia Abbondanza/Bertoni.
Luca Cipriani Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy
Luca Cipriani is Associate Professor in Drawing (ICAR/17) at the University of Bologna, Department of Architecture, and holds a PhD in Building and Territorial Engineering. Since 2025, he has served as President of the Ravenna Campus. His research focuses on architecture, archaeology, and cultural heritage, with particular attention to survey and representation techniques across different contexts and scales. He has led numerous documentation campaigns on culturally significant sites and coordinated international research projects, including the CARNVAL Project. He currently directs the emblematic initiative “Le radici di un’identità. Il Laboratorio di architettura di Chiuro (So)”. His scientific output includes articles in specialized journals, contributions to edited volumes, and several monographs. He actively participates in international conferences dedicated to the application of digital technologies for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage.
Paola Degli Esposti, University of Padua, Italy
Paola Degli Esposti is an Associate Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Padua. She specializes in the history, theory, and aesthetics of modern and contemporary theatre. Her research focuses mainly on European theatre from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, with particular attention to the emergence and development of stage directing, theatre between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and, more broadly, English theatre. Among her publications are La scena tentatrice (Esedra, 2008), La tensione preregistica (Esedra, 2013), La Über-Marionette e le sue ombre (Edizioni di Pagina, 2018), L’attore nell’Ottocento europeo (Dino Audino, 2021), and Arte e Passione: gli attori nel teatro europeo del XIX secolo (Dino Audino, 2023).
Sara Di Giorgio Consortium GARR, Rome, Italy
Sara Di Giorgio works at GARR and is the Coordinator of the Skills4EOSC project, which is establishing a pan-European Competence Centre Network to support skills and training in Open Science practices. She is also involved in ICDI (the Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure), aiming to strengthen the participation of Italian National Initiatives, data services, and infrastructures, and to enhance their representation within the EOSC ecosystem. Sara has extensive experience in EU-funded projects for the development of research infrastructures in the fields of Open Science, Digital Humanities, and Cultural Heritage. She was involved in EOSC-Pillar, focusing on the coordination and harmonization of National Initiatives and Infrastructures across Italy, Germany, Austria, and Belgium. Since 2004, she has participated in numerous European projects related to cultural heritage digitization, online access, and digital preservation. She coordinated tasks on policy definition concerning the data lifecycle, addressing IPR management, Open Data, and Open Access practices in both the ARIADNE project (a research infrastructure for archaeological data) and PARTHENOS (a thematic cluster of European Research Infrastructures in the areas of linguistic studies, humanities, cultural heritage, and archaeology).
Nina Marie Evensen Center for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo, Norway
Nina Marie Evensen serves as the Head of the Digital Archives at the Center for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo. She has worked as a scholarly editor and/or project leader in various editorial projects focused on Norwegian classic playwrights. Currently, she supervises the database IbsenStage (https://ibsenstage.hf.uio.no/), the digital edition of Henrik Ibsen’s Writings (https://www.ibsen.uio.no/), and several other digital resources at CIS available from the website The Virtual Ibsen Center (https://www.uio.no/ibsen/).
Filippo Fantini Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy
Filippo Fantini is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, where he has taught since 2019. His research focuses on ancient architecture—particularly from the Roman Imperial period—and on digital technologies for the representation of architecture and design. He is especially interested in the interpretation of ancient architectural projects and in the optimization of digital models derived from active and passive sensors through computer graphics techniques. His current work explores digital museums and the interaction between digital replicas of collections and visitors. He is involved in national and international research projects and collaborates with the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) and the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. He has published extensively in both architectural and computer science fields and regularly participates in national and international conferences and workshops.
Jenny Fewster, HASS and Indigenous RDC | Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) — Monash University of Melbourne, Australia
Jenny Fewster is Director of the Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Indigenous Research Data Commons at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), leading a $52 million (AUD) portfolio of national research infrastructure initiatives. She was previously Executive Director of AusStage, where she oversaw the growth of Australia’s live performance database into a UNESCO-recognised Australian Memory of the World resource. AusStage now contains half a million records documenting Australian performance history from 1788 to the present. At the ARDC, Jenny has driven the development of the groundbreaking Australian Creative Histories and Futures project. This $5.8 million (AUD) project addresses critical interoperability challenges for creative arts research infrastructure while pioneering Indigenous data governance frameworks for the creative arts that respect the world’s longest continuing culture. Jenny’s expertise spans digital humanities infrastructure, cultural data preservation, and collaborative research ecosystems. She is recognised for her commitment to ensuring that Australia’s rich cultural data becomes accessible to researchers, policymakers, and arts organisations globally. Her contribution to the performing arts research community has been acknowledged with an Honorary Life Membership of The Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies.
Marco Gaiani Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy
Marco Gaiani, full professor of architectural representation at the University of Bologna, previously taught at the University of Ferrara and the Polytechnic University of Milan. His research focuses on architectural representation, cultural heritage, and design, with a particular emphasis on three-dimensional modeling, 3D surveying through imaging, and rendering techniques. Gaiani specializes in digital modeling and imaging for historical architecture and archaeology, as well as digital libraries of architecture and archaeology. For twenty-five years, he has been active in documenting, illustrating, and preserving Italian heritage. His work includes the Colosseum, the Baths of Caracalla, sepulchers on the Appian Way in Rome, Andrea Palladio’s Villa Pisani in Bagnolo and architectural parts, San Salvatore al Monte in Florence, Milan’s early 20th-century residential neighborhoods, parts of Pompeii’s archaeological area, Bologna’s porticoes, Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings, and Beato Angelico’s paintings.
Gaiani engages in national and international research projects and collaborates with several European research institutes. He is the past director of the INDACO departments at the Milan Polytechnic and the DAPT at the University of Bologna. In 2017, he supervised the restoration of the Neptune Fountain in Bologna on behalf of the University of Bologna.
Donatella Gavrilovich Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy
Donatella Gavrilovich is Associate Professor of History of Theatre and Digital Technologies at University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Her research focused on the Performing Arts digital archives and theatrical exhibitions and on Russian theatre, dance, set designer and visual art. From 2024 she is the Director of the IDOS_ARTS Research Centre (International Digital Open Space on the Performing and Visual Arts Cultural Heritage), founded about her project proposal. Since 2023 she is PI of the research project HYPERSTAGE PRIN 2022 (Italian Ministry of Culture – European Union-Next Generation EU). She is founding Editor of the Scientific Publishing Series, Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts, and of the ASPA International Scientific Journal http://www.artidellospettacolo-performingarts.com.
In 2012 she was expert in the ECLAP-EUROPEANA project and in 2014 designed the new model of ontology: Performance Knowledge base (PKb). From 2014 to 2016 she was the scientific coordinator of the project «Vera Komissarzhevskaya (1864-1910)» Virtual Museum, in collaboration with the ITMO University of St. Petersburg and University of Lorraine. Fellow of CERCLE (University of Lorraine) and a member of CINI WG-Cyber Humanities, LODEPA, W3C-PAIR CG, WG “Theatralia” DARIAH, SIBMAS, SEFER. Gavrilovich is author of 5 books as well as more than 150 academic essays in scientific publications and creator of national and international conferences.
Tyler Graham York University, Canada
Tyler Graham is a PhD candidate in Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at York University. Both a theatre practitioner and researcher, his work focuses on the integration and synthesis of contemporary technologies (such as virtual reality or artificial intelligence), intermediality, and collaborative new play development. In 2024, he presented his conference paper, “Shifts in Agency: The Performative Dynamics of Body-Technology Relations” at CATR. In 2023, he led a group of students to develop Aionos, a devised theatre research-creation project that combined virtual reality, livestreaming, and in-person performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His current research involves examining how theatre practitioners have adapted popular video games for the stage, and conversely, how game developers have adapted popular plays into video games.
Gianluca Guarini Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
PhD Candidate of the 38 Cycle at Politecnico di Milano, School of Design, Design Department. Coordinator and teacher of the Fundamental module of the Master in Lighting Design and Technologies at Politecnico di Milano, in charge of the module of the Project work “Lighting for CAD and BIM”. He has been an adjunct professor and assistant at Politecnico di Milano at the School of Design since 2009. Among his courses: “Metodi di Progettazione”, “Modellazione dello spazio”, “Strumenti e Metodi del Progetto2”, “Simulazione di Interni”, “Laboratorio di Rappresentazione dello Spazio – Disegno Digitale”, “Strumenti e Metodi del Progetto”. Lecturer in Lifelong learning courses of Politecnico di Milano: “Restituzione Digitale terza edizione” and 3DSMax. Author of the book: “Nuove frontiere della progettazione BIM per l’illuminazione”. Since 2002, he has participated in the Organization of the Color Conference of Associazione Italiana Colore. MSc in Construction Engineering, he has been a teacher of AutoCAD and 3DSMax in private training companies. As a Freelance 3D Artist, he realized 3d models, rendering, photo editing, and animations for architecture and engineering firms, construction companies, advertising agencies, and real estate agencies. Expert in 3D modeling and Rendering, CAD 2D Design, BIM, and computer graphics applied to Design Visualization and Lighting Design.
Silvia Manciati, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
Silvia Manciati is a Research Fellow at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and an associate researcher at the CESR (Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance). Alongside her academic career, she has consistently pursued theatre practice and pedagogy, directing productions and workshops in Italy and abroad. She serves as editorial coordinator for the international journal «Pirandelliana» and as editorial assistant for «Arti dello spettacolo/Performing Arts». Her research focuses on Carlo Goldoni’s French period, to which she has also devoted a monograph (UniversItalia, 2019), as well as on Italian and French actors of the 18th century—particularly female figures in the Commedia dell’Arte—and dramaturgy from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
Derek Manderson York University, Canada
Derek Manderson is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and PhD Candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University. He is a graduate research associate with the Centre for Spectatorship in Audience Research and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology. Derek’s research imbricates participatory performance, game studies, and care ethics to unpack the dramaturgical structures of collaborative play, with a particular focus on how game design influences audience experiences of agency. His writing has appeared in Canadian Theatre Review, Theater, and CANNOPY. He is currently working on his dissertation, “Game Play: Participatory Theatre in the Ludic Century.”
Mariel Marshall Artist and technology entrepreneur, Bluemouth inc., Toronto, Canada
Mariel Marshall is an interdisciplinary artist and creative technologist specializing in immersive and interactive performance. As a 2025 Chalmers Arts Fellowship recipient, she explores the intersection of emerging technologies and live performance, with a focus on audience experience design.
She co-leads bluemouth inc., an internationally acclaimed performance company based in Toronto, Canada. Their latest work, Game of Life, premiered at The Theatre Centre in Toronto and La MaMa in New York, earning the 2025 “Dora Award for Innovative Experience”. Mariel’s creative research spans applied AI, software development, and creative coding, with a growing interest in mixed reality and tangible interfaces. Her curiosity centers on how technology can expand the possibilities of presence, intimacy, and connection in performance. She is an alum of the Creative Destruction Lab and Vector Institute’s Fastlane AI program, and a participant in York University’s Connected Minds initiative. She also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee for York University’s Faculty of Art, Media, Performance, and Design, and is an advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration and the integration of technology in the arts.
Alejandra Medellín De La Piedra Centro Nacional de Investigación de Danza “José Limón”, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, Mexico City (México)
Holding degrees from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) and Mexico’s National School of Theatre Arts, Alejandra Medellín has led innovative archival projects such as INBA Digital—the research repository of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura—and Mexico’s Digital Assets Strategy, a national initiative of the Ministry of Culture aimed at the creation of a decentralized network of cultural heritage repositories.
Her work bridges performance studies and digital curation—an approach that involves creatively organizing, contextualizing, and ethically sharing cultural content through open-source platforms. She is particularly interested in developing technological solutions that are accessible to researchers, enabling the creation of sustainable and autonomous platforms that do not rely on fluctuating budgetary conditions. She also actively advocates for open access to the collections safeguarded by memory institutions in Mexico, as a means to democratize knowledge and promote inclusive cultural participation.
Medellín currently coordinates the Repository of Archives and Collections of the National Dance Research Center “José Limón”, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainable documentation practices.
Esther Merino Peral Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
From 1995, when she was awarded a PhD in Art History at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid UAM, taught in the Department of Fine Arts at Salamanca University USAL until 2003. From this date until 2007 she lectured in the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture and Geodesy ETSAG, at the University of Alcalá de Henares UAH and is now Associate Professor in the Department of Art History, at the Complutense University at Madrid, where this year she begins to teach the subject of Art and Scenographic Culture, in the Degree of Theatre Studies, the only one of its kind in Spanish universities.
She was a guest researcher in the Department of Architecture, History and Design of Florence University in 2015.
Her research focuses on the history of stage design and performance arts and new technologies, intangible, cultural heritage, performing arts archives and their pedagogy, topics on which she has published widely
Creator and editor of the website Mnemosine. Atlas escenográfico, which includes monographic publications, in the form of book and magazín associated.
Florinda Nardi, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
Florinda Nardi is an Associate Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata.” She is co-editor of the international journals «Pirandelliana» and «Dante», and director of the series LeA – Literature and Other Arts (Armando Editore). Her research focuses primarily on the theories and phenomenology of the comic from the 16th–17th centuries and the 20th century. She is also interested in the relationship between literature and other arts, particularly in the processes of transcodification, exchange, and interaction among literature, theatre, and cinema. Among her recent publications is Teorie del comico nel Cinque-Seicento: Trattatisti, Accademici e Comici dell’Arte (Armando, 2023).
Angela Norwood York University, Canada
Angela Norwood is an Associate Professor of Design in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University. Her research explores the intersection of contemporary practice, local knowledge, participatory design, and feminism for devising environmentally and culturally sustainable outcomes. As a former professional graphic designer, she worked with national and international, corporate and cultural clients. As design consultant for Democrats Abroad, her work reached US citizens in 71 countries for participation in US elections. Norwood’s scholarly work appears in design journals: Visual Communication and Design & Culture, and edited volumes: Ethics in Design & Communication: Critical Perspectives, and Qummut Qukiria! Art, Culture, and Sovereignty in the Circumpolar North. Her professional work has been recognized by several organizations and publications and is included in the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) National Design Archive.
Carmelo Occhipinti Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy
Carmelo Occhipinti trained under the direction of Paola Barocchi at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. He is a Full Professor at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he teaches History of Art Criticism, Museology and History of Collecting, Philology and History of Artistic Enjoyment. At the same University, he is the Coordinator of the Master’s Degree Course in History of Art, Academic Senator and President of the II level University Master’s Degree in “New Technologies for Communication, Cultural Management and Teaching of Art History”. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Scientific Journal “Horti Hesperidum. Studies in the History of Collecting and Artistic Historiography”. He is the author of many books, including the recent Percorsi di storia artistica e storiografia. Rome, Italy and Europe between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Carocci 2021), and over a hundred scientific contributions, mostly dedicated to themes of artistic literature of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, but his interests range as far as contemporary art.
Valeria Paraninfi University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Valeria Paraninfi is currently a research fellow in the Hyperstage PRIN 2022 project at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. From 2014 to 2016, she collaborated with a research group at the same university on the design of the ontology for a knowledge base on the Performing Arts. She is a member of the Editorial Staff of the scientific journal “Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts”.
Valeria is also a choreographer and teaches dance history in the CSEN training courses since 2019.
Elisa Passone Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy
Elisa Passone is a PhD student in Data Science, Culture Arts and Society at University of Rome Tor Vergata. She is working with Artificial Intelligence, testing applications of Large Language Models to the field of Performing Arts, for preservation and enhancement of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Her PhD project started with ArTBase, the first italian national database for theatres and theatre archives. She worked on ArTLLaMA, a resource to automatically query the database using LLMs, producing also an evolution of the instrument called RAG-ArTLLaMA, using tables retrieval to obtain better performances in the generation of SQL queries. She is now completing this project exploring the possibility of intelligent agents to design an interactive portal that users could use to query the database and to connect with the Hyperstage platform.
Anna Peyron Teatro Stabile of Turin – Head of Historical Archives, Italy
After graduating in Modern Literature from the University of Turin with a thesis in Italian Philology in October 1993, she earned a Librarian diploma from a Piedmont Region course that same year. In 1996, she was hired by the Teatro Stabile di Torino, where she radically reworked the Study Centre’s library catalogue, providing analytical and specific analyses for theatre research. She has managed the library and its related documen- tary archives ever since. From June 2014 onwards, she has been the project manager for the digitisation of the Teatro Stabile di Torino’s performance archives to celebrate its 60^(th) anniversary, as well as the digitisation of the journal «Il Dramma» (1925–1983). Since June 2017, she has been Head of the Teatro Stabile di Torino’s Study Centre.
Paola Ranzini IUF, Avignon Université, France
Paola Ranzini, member of IUF (Institut Universitaire de France), is full professor at Avignon University. Her research focuses on aesthetic issues, theory and practice of the theatre. Several collective programs funded in recent years : Creative Europe: TraNet (Trans)National European Theatre: audiovisual tools and simultaneous interpreting for the internationalisation of theatre production and consumption (P.I., Collective Project); Cultural Transfers and Genetic Criticism. Marivaux on the European stage (Personal Project). A digital library (SEM, Scènes Europénnes et Extra-européennes Marivaux) is currently being implemented. Her recent publications include: A Classic “Modern” Author: Marivaux on Stage, special issue: European Drama and Performance Studies, 2023–2, 21; Marivaux, Teatro,CuePress (four published volumes, three volumes in preparation). She contributed to the Hyperstage project conferences with a paper about the criteria followed in building the SEM platform (SEM – Scènes Européennes et extra-européennes Marivaux : a ‘global’ digital archive), Siracusa, 2024) and with a presentation on the early steps of a virtual past performances reconstruction project (Past theatre productions: from archive to virtual reconstruction,Venice 2024, with Rémi Ronfard, Inria, Université Grenoble Alpes).
Riku Roihankorpi Tampere University and University of Helsinki, Finland
Riku Roihankorpi (FT, Docent), Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Drama Research in Tampere University and Associate Professor (Docent) in Theatre Studies in The University of Helsinki, has led numerous international arts and research projects on technological performance and virtually augmented live arts production and education (2009-) as well as The Centre for Practice as Research in Theatre T7 at Tampere University (2015-20). He has served as the Head of Digital Content Development (RDI and strategy) and Senior Researcher and Lecturer in Artistic Research in The University of the Arts Helsinki (2021-23).
His works on digital and mixed reality praxis, ecologies, and economies in the performing arts and related training; the ethics of theatre, performance, and Antonin Artaud as well as various topics relevant to contemporary performance philosophy have been published by Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, and recognized journals. Throughout his career, he has supervised, developed, curated and facilitated academic research and artistic work in the above fields and beyond.
Remi Ronfard INRIA, Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Remi Ronfard is a research director at Inria in Grenoble and an associate researcher at Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Before that, he has worked at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in New York, the French Institut National de l’Audiovisual (INA), the geometric modeling team at Dassault Systèmes, and the text-to-movie research team at Xtranormal Inc. in Montreal.
His research focuses on computer graphics, computer vision, and computer theater. He has supervised ten doctoral dissertations and published over eighty papers in journals and conferences including ICCV, CVPR, Siggraph and Eurographics.
Maurizio Rossi Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
Maurizio Rossi, MSc, PhD. Full professor at Politecnico di Milano where he is the scientific manager of Lab. Luce, director of the two Master program in Color Design & Technology and Lighting Design & Technology, and faculty member of the Design Ph.D.
Since 2000, at the Polytechnic University of Milan he has been the scientific director of 25 research projects funded by calls for proposals or contracts, dedicated to the themes of color, light and cultural heritage. He is the president of the AIC-International Color Association and the Editor-in-Chief of the Color Culture and Science Journal.
Luciana Ruggeri Teatro alla Scala – Head of Historical Artistic Archives, Italy Teatro alla Scala – Archive Manager Historical Artistic Archives, Italy. Sketches, historical documents and costumes – area.
She started working at La Scala in 2004 alternating between the roles of Assistant Director and Stage Director until December 2010. Between December 2010 and July 2022, she has been General Archive and Protocol Manager. From 1 August 2022 she is the Archive Manager Sketches, Historical Costumes and Documentary Archive. She pays special attention to the conservation, protection, and digitization of documents, sketches, costume designs, and historical costumes, also she oversees, when required, the management and logistics of temporary exhibitions of both sketches and costume designs and historical costumes. She took part in several conferences, symposia e publi- cations: May 2025 conference “Archivi Paralleli” – La Scala, May 2024 volume on Gae Aulenti, March 2024 Archives Conference 2024 – Palazzo Stelline, December 2023 International conference “Maria Callas at 100: Opera, Celebrety, Myth” University of Turin, May 2023 – Brera Academy Sala Napoleonica: Study Day on Gae Aulenti, December 2022 “Grandi voci alla Scala, Nicola Rossi Lemeni – La Scala. Since 2023 she took part in the activities related to PRIN 2022 – Hyperstage in Bologna (11/2023), Rome (01/2024) and Syracuse (05/2024), Milan (05/2025). Since September 2022, regularly publishes essays in the magazine of the Teatro alla Scala, within the section “Memories of La Scala,” on the heritage of the theater’s archives.
Elena Servito, Archive and Library of Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico of Syracuse, Italy
Elena Servito is responsible for the Archive and Library of Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico of Syracuse and for INDA communication. Degree in D.A.M.S. earned at the University of Bologna and Master degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage from the University of Udine. The archive and library of the INDA Foundation, founded in 1927, consist of over 15,000 pieces divided into materials of different types: theatre, dance, visual arts, stage costumes, music, audio-visuals.
Andrea Siniscalco Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
Associate Professor, graduated in Industrial Design (2002) and PhD in methods of Product Design and Development (2007). He works at the Laboratorio Luce (Light Lab.) of the Department of Design. His research focuses on issues related to light and colour, such as the development of luminaires, lighting design, digital reconstruction of light in the context of cultural heritage, lighting in the entertainment sector, visual perception and the physiological and psychological influence of light and colour on human beings.
He teaches Design Methods in the degree course in Interior Design (bachelor’s degree) and Lighting in Interior and Spatial Design (master’s degree). Deputy Director of the Master of the Politecnico di Milano – Lighting Design & Technology, where he teaches Lighting Engineering and Lighting with CAD & BIM.
He is the president of the Associazione Italiana Colore (Italian Colour Association), a third-sector organisation dedicated to the scientific, professional, and cultural dissemination of colour and light, which organises the annual Colour Conference. This international event addresses various issues related to colour. He is co-founder and chair of the Study Group on “Color in games and toys” of the International Colour Association (AIC).
Artem Smolin St. Petersburg State ITMO University, Russia
PhD in philosophy. Associate Professor at Faculty of Software Engineering and Computer Systems. Director of the Center of Usability and Mixed Reality. Head of the Bachelor’s Degree Program “Computer Technologies in Design”. Head of the educational program of the Master’s Degree “Multimedia Technologies, Design and Usability”. His research interests are IT technology, philosophy, art, history, architecture, archeology, and design.
Chris Van Goethem Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) Erasmushogeschool Brussel, Belgium
Chris Van Goethem started his career as a stage manager and travelled around Europe with a multitude of Belgian companies. Later on he started to work as consultant and educator in technical theatre.
He teaches History of Technical Theatre and Practice based Research skills at the Technical Theatre Design department of the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) at the Erasmus University college Brussels. He is part of the PAKT research group (formerly Expertise Centre for technical theatre https://www.podiumtechnieken.be/en), researches the history of technical theatre and was part of multiple international research projects on the subject like the “Changement a vue” on the history of stage mechanics and “Fading lights” on the history of stage lighting. He lead the Canon I project that mapped historical-technical information through Open Data concepts that are visualised and initiated the Canon II project. He is member of the board of STEPP, the Belgian professional organization of technicians and long time OISTAT member.
Andrea Vitalini Teatro alla Scala – Head of Historical Artistic Archives, Italy
He started working at La Scala in 1989, while attending the University of Milan, Faculty of Political Science – Business Economics. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the economic aspects of Italian and international opera houses.
In 1990, he participated in the process of creating the historical database of performances at La Scala. Between 1996 and 1998, he collaborated with the Photographic Archive. In 1998, he joined the new Institutional Relations Department, expanded in 2008 into the General Management Department, dealing with institutional relations, audio-video recordings and tour projects. In 2013 became the Staff coordinator of General Management Department. From 1 August 2022 he is the Head of the new Historical Artistic Archive of the Teatro alla Scala.
Since 1996, he has edited the historical chronologies for the Theatre’s booklets and publications. Since September 2022, he regularly publishes essays in the new La Scala magazine. He took part in several conferences and symposia: about photographic archives (Ferrara, 09/2022), the singers Nicola Rossi Lemeni (Teatro alla Scala, 12/2022), Toti Dal Monte (Pieve di Soligo, 04/2023, and Paris, 12/2023) and Maria Callas (London and Turin, 12/2023). Since 2023 he took part in the activities related to PRIN 2022 – Hyperstage in Bologna (11/2023), Rome (01/2024) and Syracuse (05/2024).
Sarah Whatley Coventry University, United Kingdom
Sarah Whatley is Professor and Director of the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, UK. Her research interests extend to dance and disability, dance and new technologies, intangible cultural heritage, dance archives, and somatic dance practice and pedagogy; she has published widely on these themes. Whilst her expertise is primarily in dance, her research, funded by the AHRC, UKRI, the European Commission, Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust, is often interdisciplinary, collaborating with artists, designers and researchers from other disciplines including law, anthropology, psychology, digital media and computing science. Her current projects explore the interface between dance, disability, prosthetics and robotics. She served as panel member for UoA D35/33 in REF 2014/2021, is a member of the AHRC peer review college and Chairs the AHRC-sponsored ‘Dance Research Matters’ campaign. She was founding Editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the Editorial Boards of several other Journals.
Leila Zammar, Loyola University of Chicago JFRC
Leila Zammar holds a PhD from the University of Warwick (UK), two MPhils from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and an MPhil in “Lifelong learning” from the University of Rome ‘Roma Tre’. She has been an adjunct professor at Loyola University of Chicago JFRC since 1995, teaching Introduction to Opera. Her diverse teaching experience includes roles at various institutions and universities. She serves on the editorial board of Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts and is a member of SEFER and RSA. Her research and publications are primarily focused on theatre and scenography. Among her latest publications: “Opera, Scenography, and Social Standing – The Barberini Court in Rome 1628-1656” (forthcoming with Brepols Publishers NV, Belgium).
Anamarija Žugić Borić Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Anamarija Žugić Borić obtained her PhD in 2025 from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, with the highest grade, for the dissertation From “Rap Opera 101” to “Opera Industriale” – Dramaturgies of Music and Sound in Croatian Theatre 1991–2020. She holds an MA in Comparative Literature and Latin from the same university (2015). Since 2020, she has been affiliated with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, Croatia, where she currently works as a senior research assistant.
Her research focuses on contemporary theatre practices, with special attention to the dramaturgical functions of music and sound, the role of digital technologies in theatre research and production, and issues of theatre archiving. She regularly publishes academic articles and has (co-)edited several scholarly volumes. She is also involved in the development of national digital research infrastructure for the arts and humanities as a member of the DARIAH-HR project team, and serves on the programme committee of the DARIAH-HR Digital Humanities & Heritage conferences.
She is a co-leader of the DARIAH-EU working group Theatralia (together with Cécile Chantraine Braillon), which brings together researchers exploring the intersection of theatre and digital humanities.