Teaching visual anthropology in Italy Francesco Marano University of Basilicata, Italy
How and when the teaching of visual anthropology started in Italy The history of visual anthropology in Italian universities is relatively short. Until the 1990s, visual anthropology was taught by Paolo Chiozzi at Florence University, Antonio Marazzi at Padoa University and by Augusto de Vincenzo and Roberto De Angelis at La Sapienza University in Rome. Chiozzi and Marazzi, who trained and taught many young researchers with their books, can be considered the leaders of contemporary Italian visual anthropology. Now retired, they are well known in the international community, since they work as advisors in scientific journals and associations. In relation to film practice, the history of Italian ethnographic film from 1950 to 1980 was marked by filmmakers not trained in anthropology. None of the filmmakers inspired by Ernesto De Martino’s ethnographic research, including Luigi Di Gianni, Giuseppe Ferrara, Cecilia Mangini, and Vittorio De Seta, made their documentary films with an ethnographic approach based on participant
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