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ELENA CANADELLI

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Position

Professoressa Associata

Address

VIA DEL VESCOVADO, 30 - PADOVA

Telephone

049 8278555

Elena Canadelli is a Historian of Science interested in visual studies in science, science museum studies, cultures of natural history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Italian natural history communities and institutions between nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the history of evolutionary thought and the relationship between science and popular culture during the nineteenth century. Elena’s current research project deals with the history of the botanical collections in Padua and the role of digitization in mobilizing the natural history objects, in connection with her Department’s project “Mobility & Humanities” and the new digitization infrastructure of the Italian National Biodiversity Future Center.
She's Associate Professor in History of Science at the Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche Geografiche e dell'Antichità (DiSSGeA) of the University of Padova. Here she teaches History of Science, Naturalistic Museology, and Museums, Collections, Heritage. Previously, she was Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track Researcher B-Type/Ricercatore di tipo B) in the same Department.
She is Scientific director of the Botanic Museum, University of Padova and member of Spoke 7 Biodiversity and Society. Communication, Education and Social Impact, coordinator of Activity 7 (digitization of Italian natural history collections), National Biodiversity Future Center – NBFC, Italian Ministry of Research.
She has been Editor-in-Chief at Nuncius. Journal of the Material and Visual History of Science and president of the Italian Society of the History of Science (SISS) since 2021.
She is member of the Scientific Committee of the Museo Galileo, Florence. She collaborated also with the National Museum "Leonardo da Vinci" of Science and Technology in Milan with a project on the history of the museum (1930-1964) and with the Muse, the Museum of natural sciences in Trento. She was part of the COST Action - Oceans Past Platform (OPP).
She worked as Researcher On Fixed-Term Contracts (A) at the Polythecnic University of Turin from January 2017 to September 2017. She taught History of Biology at the Biology Department of the University of Milan (2016/2017). In 2009 she held a Ph.D. in History of Science from the University of Pisa. She has been a postdoctoral Research Fellow in History of Science at the University of Milano-Bicocca and at the University of Padova.
She collaborated with the International Research Network “History of Scientific Objects”, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. From 2003 to 2005 she received a research scholarship of the University of Milano to stay at the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Medizin und Technik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany.
She is author of several books and articles and she is currently writing a book about how science uses images to be published by the Italian publisher Carocci. In 2019, she edited a volume for the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press on artefacts, scientific museums and exhibitions along the XX century, available on-line https://smithsonian.figshare.com

Notices

Information and final list with bibliography of the exams of History of Science, Natural History Museology and Museums, Collections, Heritage for students who have attended or not the course are available in Moodle.

Office hours

  • at Zoom or in the Office, Dipartimento DiSSGeA - Via del Vescovado, 30 - 35141 Padova
    The weekly office hours are held via Zoom or in the professor's office, at DiSSGeA: https://unipd.zoom.us/j/86570172561?pwd=aTNZQVV2bW5JTFRFcXVrRlJqOFNYUT09 Passcode 780727 At this time of year, students are kindly asked to contact the professor by email at elena.canadelli@unipd.it to arrange the date, time, and format of the meeting.

Research Area

History of Collecting and Scientific Museums; History of the Natural and Life Sciences from the 18th to the 20th Century; Science, Images, and Imagination; History of Naturalist Communities, with particular focus on the Italian context; Material and Visual History of Science; Critical Museology and Natural History Museology.

Thesis proposals

Thesis in the History of Collecting and Scientific Museums; History of the Natural and Life Sciences from the 18th to the 20th Century; Science, Images, and Imagination; History of Naturalist Communities, with particular focus on the Italian context; Material and Visual History of Science; Critical Museology and Natural History Museology.