Volume 2: Objects, People and Texts explores the movement of individuals and peoples and the circulation of material objects and books and texts. Through a series of short chapters, mobility is employed as an elastic, inclusive and multifaceted concept across various disciplines to shed light on a geographically and chronologically broad range of issues and case studies. In doing so, the concept of mobility is positioned as a powerful catalyst for historical change and as a fruitful approach to research in the humanities and social sciences.
Like its sister volume, this volume is edited and written by members of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility and the Humanities (MoHu) at the Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and The Ancient World (DiSSGeA) of the University of Padua, Italy. The structure of the book mirrors the Theories and Methods, and Ideas thematic research clusters of the Centre. Afterwords from leading scholars from other institutions synthesise and reflect upon the findings of each section.
This volume, together with Volume 1: Theories, Methods and Ideas, makes a compelling case for the use of mobility studies as a research framework in the humanities and social sciences. As such, it will be of interest to students and researchers in various disciplines.
Lucio Biasiori is associate professor of early modern history at the University of Padua, Italy. He was previously a fellow of the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy, and assistant professor in early modern history at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy. His research encompasses the early modern period, with particular reference to the cultural, religious and political history of 16th-century Europe, studied in an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework.
Federico Mazzini is associate professor of digital history and history of media and communication at the University of Padua, Italy. His previous work has focused on the sociocultural history of the First World War, particularly the peasant experience of the trenches and the popularisation of technoscience. He is currently working on various aspects of digital history, including web archiving, metadata and historical communication online, and ‘technical cultures’, such as radio hams, phreaks and hackers, in the twentieth century.
Chiara Rabbiosi is associate professor of economic and political geography at the University of Padua, Italy. Her previous research has dealt with the social and spatial dimensions of urban studies and consumer culture, including the critical geographies of shopping tourism, cultural heritage and place branding. She is currently working on tourist spatial imaginations of Europe, and on the transit of tourism (including walking and multi-modal transport), approaching tourism mobilities in an embodied and performative way.
