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Curriculum - Prof.ssa Monica MEINI

Curriculum

monicameini_en.pdf

SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC, TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY


Full Professor of Geography at the University of Molise, Department of Biosciences and Territory (DiBT), since December 1, 2016. Previously, Associate Professor at the same University, since September 1, 2005. Lecturer in Human Geography in the master's degree program in Tourism and Cultural Heritage Management and in Tourism Geography in the degree program in Tourism Science. In previous years, she also taught Geography (University of Florence, University of Molise), Applied Geography (University of Molise), Geography of Tourism (University of Florence), and Didactics of Geography (University of Florence) at Degree Courses (three-year, single-cycle, master's), Master's Schools, Postgraduate Schools for Secondary Teaching and in Training Centers. She has carried out teaching activities in university settings with a high level of internationalization both in Italy and abroad.

She is scientific head of the MoRGaNA (Mobility, Regions, Geo-economics and Network Analysis) Research Laboratory, which she founded in 2012. A member of the Coordination Committee and the UGQ of the research of the Department of Biosciences and Territory, she coordinates the Research Section "Landscape, Economics, Planning" and is Delegate for the Termoli University Location. Delegate of the Rector for relations with the United Nations World Tourism Organization, she represents the University of Molise in scientific councils and in the ITS Tourism and Culture Molise Foundation. She was Director of the Center for Tourism Studies and Deputy Director of the Department of Biosciences and Territory. President of the Bachelor of Science in Tourism Studies (certified by the World Tourism Organization, Tedqual-UNWTO) from 2013 to 2015, she subsequently held the roles of Vice President and Head of the Quality Management Unit of the Aggregate Bachelor of Science in Tourism and Cultural Heritage Council.
Member of Selection Boards in Competitions for the Recruitment of Professors of first and second rank (SC 11/B1; SSD M-GGR/01 and M-GGR/02), she has gained several experiences in research evaluation procedures and methodologies, carrying out peer review activities within the ERC SH3 - Environment, Space and Population: Environmental studies, geography, demography, migration, regional and urban studies. In particular, she has been Reviewer for ex ante evaluation of scientific research projects on behalf of the Ministry of Education, University and Research (SIR calls); Reviewer for ex post evaluation of scientific research products on behalf of ANVUR (VQR 2004-2010); Reviewer for ex ante and ex post evaluation of industrial research projects (on behalf of the Committee for Research and Innovation of the Autonomous Province of Trento).

Graduated from the Faculty of Humanities, University of Florence, with an interdisciplinary thesis in Geography and English Literature entitled "The Tuscany of English Travelers in the Age of Enlightenment (1700-1770). Value System, Geographical Image and Perception of the Environment" (Rapporteurs Prof. Laura Cassi and Prof. Giuliano Pellegrini), she then obtained his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Geography from the University of Pisa, with a thesis entitled "Urban Traffic and Quality of Life in Historic Centers: a Comparative Investigation between Florence and Nuremberg" (Tutor Prof. Berardo Cori; Co-tutors Prof. Gisella Cortesi and Prof. Rolf Monheim).

She has carried out scientific activities in the field of Geography since 1990, with inclusion in various research groups on programs of relevant national and international interest (Murst-Miur, CNR, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft, International Geographical Union, Conicyt), as well as participating with her own scientific contributions in numerous national and international conferences. She has organized major national and international conferences and scientific visits to various states (Armenia, Albania, Chile, Senegal), coordinated applied research activities in various locations (also in collaboration with public bodies, research centers and private organizations) and training courses in Italy and abroad.

She has activated a rich network of international scientific relations, through research activities in foreign universities and research institutes qualified in geographical and socio-territorial disciplines: at the University of Bayreuth (Germany), the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the University of Shkodra (Albania), the University of Alicante (Spain), the Universities Austral de Chile and Los Lagos (Chile), and the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar (Senegal).

From 2000 to 2005, she was a Research Fellow, Adjunct Professor and Researcher of Geography on fixed-term basis at the University of Florence. From 2008 to 2016 she held adjunct teaching of Didactics of Geography and Laboratory of Geography at the Faculty of Education of that University.
 
Principal Investigator and scientific head of the University of Molise Operating Unit of the Prin IdeA "The Italy of Others. Geographies and governance of immigration between territorial rootedness and transnational networks" (Miur 2015 call); Vice Principal Investigator and scientific head of the University of Molise and University of L'Aquila Operational Unit of the Prin "MIND - Mountains INsiDe the Mountain. Narratives, dynamics and development paths: new readings" (Miur 2020 call). She has also participated in numerous coordinated research projects and programs in Italy and abroad.
 
Councilor of the Society of Geographical Studies (since 2019, elected for two terms), she is a member of various scientific and editorial committees. Reviewer of qualified scientific journals of geographical interest, including: Bollettino delle Società Geografica Italiana, Rivista Geografica Italiana, J-Reading. Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography, Geotema, Documenti Geografici. She is a member of the Teaching Board of the Doctoral Program in Ecology and Territory at the University of Molise.

Her scientific interests are directed to the analysis of territorial organization and the evolutionary and transformative processes of the territory, in its environmental, economic and social components; to the measurement and conceptualization of these processes; to territorial representations and images. The research methodologies used are quantitative and qualitative, favoring integrated approaches and mostly pertaining to the areas of population, historical, cultural, and social geography, including in the treatment of topics traditionally pertaining to economic-political geography (tourism, local development, spatial and urban planning). The research conducted, with theoretical-methodological and applied values, shows a constant focus on disciplinary advancement, while often including an interdisciplinary perspective.
 
Significant advances concern the 'geography of mobility,' the latter understood in the broad meaning of the possibility of movement conditioned by a multiplicity of factors; the object of study ranges from intra-urban commuter-type movements to urban-extra-urban relations, from tourist flows to international migrations, each examined in its essential characteristics, in the motivations behind its emergence, in its reflections on society and the environment, and in its reciprocal interactions. To this strand of human geography she has devoted not only numerous essays but also systematic treatises that frame the various types of mobility and processes of demographic redistribution at various scales in their territorial reflections and implications of an environmental, cultural, economic, and socio-political nature.
 

The research activity, with reference to the dynamics of central and peripheral spaces at different scales, covers a wide range of topics and geographical areas. As reflected in the scientific production as a whole, the following appear to be the favored ones:

  • - Settlement processes and regional spaces: nodes and networks; regionalization and political-economic planning; processes of demographic redistribution; new forms of rurality; processes of local development in rural and mountain environments. Areas investigated: Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Italy, Molise, Tuscany.
  • - Cities, health and quality of life: use, fruition and perception of urban spaces; attraction and dynamics of central areas; sustainable mobility and environmental impacts of urban traffic; evolutionary dynamics of historic centers. Areas investigated: Florence, Nuremberg, Verona, Lucca, Pontedera.
  • - Territorial heritage, cultural and environmental heritage, landscape, identity, sense of place and belonging, image of places. Areas investigated: Tuscany and Molise (Italy), Qarku i Shkodrës (Albania), Chiloé (Chile).
  • - Spatial perspectives of tourism development: identification and fruition of recreational resources; distribution of tourism flows; spatial articulations and regional configurations of tourism offerings; tourism image and local identities; impacts and strategies for sustainability; geotourism and landscape enhancement; geographic information for tourism; new technologies for knowledge, promotion and fruition of destinations. Areas investigated: Italy, Armenia, Croatia, USA, Albania.
  • - Migration phenomena: socio-spatial dynamics of migration flows; processes of territorialization and integration; intercultural practices; multicultural governance; ethnic and transnational networks. Areas investigated: Italy, Europe, Tuscany, Pontedera, Florence, Empoli, Molise.
  • - Management and critical use of geographic information: thematic cartography, geodata and geomedia, VGI.
  • - Geography teaching.

In addition to scientific activity, she combines an activity of third mission with dissemination of research results in the form of workshops and open laboratories, as well as monitoring and decision support, with constant attention to the transfer  of academic knowledge, methodologies for the analysis and enhancement of heritage resources, good practices from the perspective of sustainable development. Falling within these aims of public geography, also understood as participation in the growth of a civic consciousness, are a series of action-research interventions, carried out on a local and regional scale (also in the international arena), as an expert at local authorities, schools, associations. She has also acted as a consultant for various local authorities, universities and the third sector in the implementation of European Social Fund Projects (ESF 2005, 2008, 2009, 2013) and a series of professional collaborations including the Feasibility Study of the re-edition of Olinto Marinelli's Atlas of Geographical Types and the Tuscany Region's Mobility and Logistics Plan.