Carmen Belmonte is an Assistant Professor of Museology, History of Art Criticism and Conservation in the Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua. In 2022 she obtained the Italian National Scientific Habilitation as Associate Professor in Art History.
She is an advisor in Modern Italian Studies of the American Academy in Rome.

Before her position in Padua, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, New York, a Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (Researcher) at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florence, and a Researcher and Lecturer (RtdA) at Roma Tre University.

She studied at the University of Calabria (B.A. 2004, M.A. 2007), at the University of Pisa ("Diploma di Specializzazione" in Art History, 2011) and received her PhD in Art History from the University of Udine (2017).
She was awarded pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research fellowships from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa; the University of Pisa; the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History; the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – MPI; the University of Udine; the American Academy in Rome; and travelling and residential fellowships from the Getty Institute, Los Angeles, the Università della Svizzera Italiana; Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis.

Her research interests include XIXth and XXth Italian art and its entanglements with colonialism, the memory and legacies of fascism, Italian Futurism, history of exhibitions, history of museums, monuments in public space, the visual and material culture of Italian colonialism, cultural heritage in post-disaster scenarios, critical approaches to the conservation cultural heritage.
In 2022 she established the research unit Decolonizing Italian Visual and Material Culture at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History within the inter-institutional project SPAZIDENTITÀ, funded by the École Française de Rome (2022–2026).
At the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – MPI she co-directed the project Storia dell’Arte e catastrofi. L’Italia sismica together with Elisabetta Scirocco and Gerhard Wolf.

In 2021 she published the monograph "Arte e colonialismo in Italia. Oggetti, immagini, migrazioni (1882-1906)", Marsilio editori. She is also the editor of the multi-authored volume "A Difficult Heritage: The Afterlives of Fascist-Era Art and Architecture" (Silvana Editoriale, 2023).
She co-edited the special issue of the international Journal "Modern Italy" entitled “Visual and material culture of Italian colonialism” (Cambridge University press, 2022) with Laura Moure Cecchini and the multi-authored volume "Storia dell’Arte e catastrofi. Spazio, tempo, società" (Marsilio 2019) together with Elisabetta Scirocco e Gerhard Wolf.
She published the results of her research as articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Interventions. International Journal od Postcolonial Studies, Studi di Memofonte, Studiolo, Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte, Mitteilungen der Kunsthistorisches Institut, Memoires of the American Academy in Rome, and in several peer-reviewed edited volume.

Notices