UB to host Marie Curie fellow Ilenia Pittui

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Art historian Ilenia Pittui has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at the University at Buffalo on the iconography of the Ottoman and Safavid worlds.

Pittui, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Venice, will receive $470,000 from the program, which is the flagship fellowship of the European Commission. She will work under the supervision of Marco Faini, a former Marie Curie fellow who serves as an assistant professor of Italian in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

“The Marie Curie program is the most competitive European fellowship and one of the most prestigious overall,” says Faini. “The fellowship is conceived as a two-way transfer of knowledge and skills that is mutually enriching for the researcher and the host institution.”

Both Faini and Pittui are scholars focusing on Mediterranean history and culture, with a focus on how cultural artifacts – such as books, paintings and illuminations – shape the perception and construction of cultural and ethnic identities. Faini’s focus is on Renaissance and early modern Italian history and literature, while Pittui concentrates on broader Mediterranean cultures.

“Yet, we both engage with questions concerning the truthfulness, verisimilitude and reliability of early modern flows of textual and visual information, as well as forms of cultural hybridization,” he says.

Pittui will analyze images from the Ottoman and Safavid worlds, from 1400-1762, to reconstruct the iconographic legacy of both cultures by collecting, labelling and systematizing a representative sample of a larger data set. By the end of her project, she hopes to propose a new periodization to highlight key points in the development of these representations and their assumptions from a transcultural perspective, tracking their flow within the Mediterranean basin.

Drawing from his experience as a Marie Curie fellow, Faini will help Pittui navigate this ambitious project. More broadly, he notes that UB offers incredible resources such as the Humanities Institute, the Office for Postdoctoral Scholars, and the Center for Information Integrity, with which Pittui plans to work.

“I chose to work with Dr. Faini because of his remarkable experience as a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, which provided him with unique insights and skills that are essential for overseeing this type of funding program,” Pittui says. “Furthermore, his deep and nuanced understanding of Renaissance culture and history has significantly shaped my perspective while drafting the proposal.”

Pittui hopes to participate in UB’s interdisciplinary research environment and foster international synergies over the long term.

“Not only will I have the honor of serving as the main interlocutor for Dr. Pittui during her stay; I will also work with her to communicate her results creatively to local and international audiences,” Faini says. “In my experience, this is the most thrilling aspect of the Marie Curie fellowship, and I look forward to involving UB’s community of colleagues and students.”