SPAH Seminar Series Week 11: Dr Cristina Manzetti

Part of the SPAH Seminar Series, YUFE fellow Cristina Manzetti gives a talk on 'Deep Mapping the Grand Tour: a European perspective' as part of a joint initiative organised by SPAH, History and the DCCRN.

So far, research about the Grand Tour has focused on the itineraries the travellers followed, the visited places and the forged relationships during the trip. In this seminar I want to move the attention on to the feelings, emotions and impressions that travellers had visiting different places and on the possible influence their opinions had on their compatriots through the dissemination of their travel journals.  This project is a work in progress whose purpose is to create a deep map, through GIS, based on the descriptions of the Grand Tour travellers who visited Sicily and Cyprus, which can be analysed with both a quantitative and qualitative approach to investigate the ideas and feelings that specific locations used to evoke. Places are solidly tied to the identity of populations. The examination of sensations and opinions about places is a valuable starting point to achieve a deeper level of knowledge about the identity of communities and how such identities were perceived and described by foreigners.

About the speaker:
Maria Cristina Manzetti is a Roman archaeologist who specialises in digital technologies for Cultural Heritage. She is currently a YUFE Post-doctoral researcher at University of Cyprus and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Essex. She collaborates with several Universities and research Institutes in Europe, such as Lund University (Sweden), University of Padova (Italy) and the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Greece. Her main expertise is 3D modelling and 3D analyses. Her research focuses on senses and experiences of past cultures.

If you cannot attend in person, please email spahpg@essex.ac.uk for the Zoom link.