2022-2026 RESEARCH AGENDA AND SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMMES

At the École française de Rome, scientific policy is laid out in a multi-year development contract. Policy covers the École française de Rome’s areas and geographical regions of expertise: archaeology, history, and social sciences, in Italy and the Central Mediterranean, Maghreb, and the countries bordering the Adriatic Sea.

Supported scientific programmes are structured into six theme-based axes:

  • Structural Programmes, lasting five years and approved by the Scientific Council (2022-2026). Based on expertise and proposals from the administration, the École française de Rome Scientific Council selected twenty-six structural programs for a five-year term, commencing on 1 January 2022 and integrated into the institution’s five-year contract. 
  • "Impulse" Projects (2020 call)
  • Programmes with Allocated Resources

The Assistant Director are responsible for supervising actions and projects within each thematic axis.

Shorter-term scientific initiatives are also welcome upon submission to the Committee for the Coordination of Scientific Policy, pursuant to approval by the Scientific Council at the French School of Rome.

2022-2026 SCIENTIFIC AGENDA 

Scientific policy research support mechanisms are structured to prioritize six thematic axes:

  1. Maritime Spaces, Coastlines, Insular Environments 
  2. Creation, Heritage, Memory
  3. Populations, Resources, Techniques
  4. Territories, Communities, Citizenship 
  5. Beliefs, Practices, and Religious Institutions
  6. Italy in the World

Axis 1 – Maritime Spaces, Coastlines, Insular Environments

This axis examines the forms and modalities of anthropization in all aspects of coastal and insular spaces, encouraging cross-discipline input and approaches spanning archaeology, history, the social sciences, environmental sciences, and marine sciences. How do societies, at all spatial and temporal scales exploit, appropriate, contest, and imagine their liquid expanses, the various seas that make up the Mediterranean, and their terrestrial boundaries? The sea has played a leading role in shaping social constructs as a space of separation and connection, borders, the movement of goods and people, dominion and conflict. Starting from Mediterranean habitability and how it has evolved over time, programmes in this axis conduct original research at various scales, from local communities to the dynamics of globalization, encompassing maritime societies and economies, maritime professions, conflicts of use and legal constructs; ecosystems, marine resources, and naturalistic or cartographic knowledge; the coastalization of populations and activities, coastal developments, port structures; and landscape, aesthetics, and the emotional aspects of maritime borders.

Programmes structurants 2022-2026

Projets financés par le Conseil Européen de la Recherche (ERC)

Axis 2 – Creation, Heritage, Memory

The programmes in this axis focus on artistic, cultural, archival, linguistic, industrial, ecological (etc.) material and immaterial heritage within each particular historical context, addressing that heritage’s creation and preservation. Discussions centre around the question of transmission and, consequently, tradition, for example, philological tradition. The axis embraces conflict, endangerment, and the destruction of works, heritage, and aids to remembrance. The themes explore in this axis over the long term are: practical and aesthetic aspects of creation, their social significance, the establishment of heritage, “archiving”, preservation, and promoting heritage (e.g., architectural heritage), as well as related legal issues, from artistic creation in antiquity to past and contemporary utilization of heritage, encompassing the spheres of politics and tourism.

Programmes structurants 2022-2026

Projets Impulsion

Projets financés par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Axis 3 – Population, Resources, Techniques

This axis considers populations as age and gender cohorts in terms of access to resources and the impact of a wide range of technical practices, ranging from agricultural to medical, accounting, industrial, logistical, etc.. In this axis, the key spheres are health, ageing, mortality, nutrition, subsistence, the role of markets, and people’s relationship with their environment, especially in rural areas. Among other factors, it considers the history of human relations with that particular environment, the effect of living conditions in pre-industrial societies characterized by long-term prevalence of a subsistence rural economy, as well as concerns about the health status of populations in the present and future, and in the context of demographic growth and environmental degradation – all questions that continue to challenge humanity’s food making and supply capabilities.

Programmes structurants 2022-2026

Projets Impulsion

Projets financés par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Axis 4 – Territories, Communities, Citizenship

This axis continues and renews the tradition of studying forms of collective belonging, focusing on practices, representations, normative mechanisms (legal in particular), and the spatial. Researchers will explore modes of civic and political participation in ancient and contemporary societies, spanning categories, boundaries, and limits of citizenship (i.e. gender, hierarchies, exclusion, and deviation), examining property regimes, scrutinizing inequalities, solidarity and, in its various manifestations, charity and social protection. Additionally, the axis looks into the co-presence of diverse populations and exchanges and conflicts that apply to them, including interactions between majorities and minorities. While the urban environment is a crucial feature, it is by no means exclusive; such approaches are applicable at all scales for analyzing transformations of space, actors involved, and the materiality of change.

Programmes structurants 2022-2026

Projets Impulsion

Projets financés par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Projets financés par le Conseil Européen de la Recherche (ERC)

Axis 5 – Beliefs, Practices, and Religious Institutions

The study of religious phenomena, a topic of enduring significance to EFR research, moves in multiple directions, the priority being the materiality and visibility of religions and their inscription in physical and social space. This may include the study of places of worship and religious landscapes, as well as forms of ritual and devotion, with a focus on gesture, image, word, or writing. A second area of interest in this axis is the legitimation and regulation of religious practices, beliefs, or norms. This may encompass the development of doctrines, narrative canonization processes, or the construction of religious expertise and knowledge. Among other aspects, it encompasses a reflection on the phenomena of appropriation, transmission or rejection, and on understanding how, in past or contemporary societies, different institutions and actors have defined and delimited the religious sphere in relation to other sources of power or normativity. Last, the economics of the sacred is an aspect worthy of special consideration.

Programmes structurants 2022-2026

Projets Impulsion

Projets financés par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Projets financés par le Conseil Européen de la Recherche (ERC)

Projet franco-allemand financé par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR) et la Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Axis 6 – Italy in the World

Italy has played a fundamental role in successive waves of globalization, from regional Mediterranean-scale globalization in ancient times to the global Italian diaspora in contemporary times, encompassing military and cultural conquests in which Italy has served as both conqueror and conquered territory, not to mention a cultural template. This axis investigates Italy’s role in connecting different parts of the world, as well as the Italian Republic’s modern-day role in European integration, focusing on movement of people, objects, knowledge, and ideas from Italy to the rest of the world, including return- and hybridization-related effects. For this axis, one important theme is the interface between Italy and the world through ports, borders, metropolises, and other nodal points within various regional, continental, and global networks under study. Crucially, the School is keen to leverage Italian documentary heritage, shedding light on past and present social phenomena worldwide, and highlighting Italy’s central role in documentary production.

Programmes structurants 2022-2026

Projets financés par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Page translated from French, last update 27/11/2023

PROGRAMMES

Programmes structurants (2022-2026)

Axe 1 – Espaces maritimes, littoraux, milieux insulaires

Axe 2 – Création, patrimoine, mémoire

Axe 3 – Population, ressources, techniques

Axe 4 – Territoires, communautés, citoyenneté

Axe 5 – Croyances, pratiques et institutions religieuses

Axe 6 – L’Italie dans le monde

Projets financés par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Axe 2 – Création, patrimoine, mémoire

Axe 3 – Population, ressources, techniques

Axe 4 – Territoires, communautés, citoyenneté

Axe 5 – Croyances, pratiques et institutions religieuses

Axe 6 – L’Italie dans le monde

Projet franco-allemand financé par l'Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR) et la Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Axe 6 – L’Italie dans le monde

Projets européens (Horizon 2020)

Axe 5 – Croyances, pratiques et institutions religieuses

Projets Impulsion

Axe 2 – Création, patrimoine, mémoire

Axe 3 – Population, ressources, techniques

Axe 4 – Territoires, communautés, citoyenneté

Axe 5 – Croyances, pratiques et institutions religieuses

 

 

PROGRAMMES PRÉCÉDENTS DEPUIS 2011 - archives

Programmes 2017-2021

Programmes 2011-2016

 

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