RIOLI MARIA CHIARA

Maria Chiara Rioli is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Studies of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
She serves as Unimore Delegate for Peace and Social Equity.
She is also Delegate for Research at the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Studies.
She teaches courses in the field of history, with a particular focus on contemporary history. In 2023, she obtained the National Scientific Qualification (ASN) for Full Professorship in the History of International Relations, Societies, and Extra-European Institutions.

She coordinates the following projects:
1. AFAM PNRR JERUS-IT-ARTS – Between Italy and Jerusalem: Retracing Music and Arts Networks, Enhancing Education and Promoting Cultural Heritage Preservation, where she is also PI of the Unimore unit (total funding: €2,525,044.20; Unimore funding: €505,008.24).

2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship NatHum – Humanism and Nationalism: Reconsidering Zionism after the First World War, 1918–1938 (Unimore – Yale University, fellow: Stefania Ragaù) (total funding: €420,751.08).

3. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship FAITHBALL – Narratives, Myths, and Religious Rituals in Football under the Franco Regime and the Shifting Powers in Argentina (1939–1976) (Unimore – Universidad de Buenos Aires, fellow: Nicola Riccardi) (total funding: €272,351.16).

4. HEC – History, Erasure and Creation of Gaza’s Visual Archives, University Research Fund, Unimore (total funding: €60,000.00).

5. SOURCE – Supporting Open, Responsible, Communicated Research: Transnational Capacity Building between Italy and Africa (coordinating institution: Unimore; partners: University of Turin and University of Ferrara) (total funding: €249,963.00).

6. ARIADE – Digital Humanities and Internationalization for the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage, MUR internationalization project (total funding: €99,850.00).

She also coordinates the Unimore units in the following projects:

1. PRIN 2022 CATO-POPULISMOS – Nationalisms and Populisms in the Pius XII Pontificate: Cultural Circulations, Religious Perceptions and Devotional Practices across Europe and Latin America (1939–1958) (University of Rome Tor Vergata – Unimore) (total funding: €253,173.00; Unimore funding: €141,382).

2. ERASMUS+ EGAL-I – Fostering socio-academic inclusion, innovation and justice for refugee students (coordinating institution: Université Paris VIII) (total funding: €400,000.00; Unimore funding: €65,700.00).

She conducts research within the project PRIN VERNACOSM – Vernacular Cosmopolitanism: History and Archives of Italian Subalterns in Colonial Egypt (1864–1937).
She was co-coordinator of the European project H2020 ITHACA – Interconnecting Histories and Archives for Migrant Agency: Entangled Narratives Across Europe and the Mediterranean Region (2021–2025).
She was PI of the project DHABILITY – De-silencing and Digitising Archives and Narratives of Migrants with Disability in the Modena Municipality (1970–2020s), funded by the University Research Fund.
She co-coordinated the project EMILIA-GENIZAH – Revealing the Unknown Genizah: Hebrew Fragments in the Digital Age, funded by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.
She is a member of research projects at the interdepartmental center DHMORE: AvantCRAFT, RADICI, GIGAPIXEL, and READ-ME.
She was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Fordham University (New York) and Ca’ Foscari University (Venice) (2019–2022, H2020 program). She also received an MSCA COFUND fellowship at the University of Limerick (H2020 program). Previously, she was Project Manager and Postdoctoral Researcher for the ERC Starting Grant project OPEN JERUSALEM – Opening Jerusalem Archives for a Connected History of Citadinité in the Holy City, 1840–1940 (2014–2019).
She was a member of the research project ARCHIVAL CITY – Bridging Urban Past and Future (Université Gustave Eiffel, competitively funded with peer review).
She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Society of Women Historians (SIS) and of the “Research Observatory” committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Contemporary History (SISSCo). She coordinates the Academic Freedom Committee of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO).
She is Director of the second-level Master’s degree in Public & Digital History for Cultural Heritage at Unimore. She is a member of the doctoral boards in Humanities and in Humanities, Technology and Society, and of the scientific committees of the Fossoli Foundation and the AGO Foundation.

Education
She graduated with honors from the University of Bologna and Université Paris VII Denis Diderot, and obtained her Ph.D. from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (2010–2014). She was a student of the Collegio Superiore of Bologna.
She received research fellowships at the Institut français du Proche-Orient and the Centre français de recherche à Jérusalem.

Main Research Experience
Her studies focus on several key themes: in particular, she has conducted research on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with specific attention to the history of Christian communities—especially the Latin Catholic community—and the history of refugees.
Her publications also address the history of mobility in the contemporary Mediterranean, the history of disability, and archival history.
Since her doctoral studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, she has participated in international research groups.
She co-directs the Open Jerusalem series for Brill publishers.
She is a member of the board of the interdepartmental research center for Digital Humanities (DHMORE) and leads research projects related to the digitization of cultural heritage and Digital Humanities methodologies.
She serves as a peer reviewer for journals such as Journal of Refugee Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Oxford Bibliographies in Urban Studies, and Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique.
She regularly organizes public engagement initiatives related to her research topics.