HealthXCross

19/03/2026

Lucilla Barchetta's latest article on "Digital Technoscientific Socialities as an Entangled Commons" is finally out.
The article explores collaborative, data-intensive health research and the sociomateriality of knowledge coproduction.

Check out the full article (open access) here:

In this contribution I examine digital technoscientific socialities through ethnographic fieldwork with Health for All, an interdisciplinary network formed at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak. I ex...

03/03/2026

Double event this week:

Thursday, March 5th 14.00-18.00:
Andrea Núñez Casal in dialogue with Antonia Majaca
"Manuals of Immuno(i)logical Possibilities: Embassy, Letters, Biocapital, and the Microbiomisation of Difference" -
https://apps.unive.it/server/eventi/112347/Poster_LearningWith_05.03.26.pdf

Friday, March 6th 14.00-16.00:
Andrea de Antoni, with Roberta Raffaetà (chair) and Matteo Benussi (discussant)
"I is Somebody Else. Inspiration, Affective Creativity, and the Remaking of Selves in Contemporary Okinawan (Shamanic) Possession"
https://www.unive.it/data/agenda/1/112087

12/02/2026

🌟"Friends or Foes: Women Navigating Precarious Academia",

📅25/02/2026, 3.30PM CET

🎓The EASA Mentorship Programme is happy to announce the second webinar in its series “EASA Women in Leadership Development Series: Building Inclusive Academic Allyships,” co-organised by Drs. Sertaç Sehlikoglu (UCL) and Roberta Raffaetà (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice).
https://easaonline.org/event/easa-women-leadership-webinar-2/

🧭The session, titled “Friends or Foes: Women Navigating Precarious Academia,” will take place on February 25. We are delighted to welcome Drs. Elisabetta Costa (University of Antwerp), Elżbieta Drążkiewicz (Lund University), and Ana Ivasiuc (PrecAnthro/University College Dublin) as guest speakers. The session will be moderated by Dr. Sultan Doughan (Goldsmiths, University of London).

🪢This is the second of a three-part series which addresses the critical gap in leadership development for women anthropologists, with particular attention to intersectional challenges and inclusive leadership practices. The webinar-workshops accompany the one-to-one mentoring process sponsored by the EASA Mentorship Programme but remain open to all, programme members and non-members alike (zoom registration is required).

👉The final session, “Women and Leadership: Allyship, Power, and Graceful Assertion,” will follow later in 2026. Stay tuned for more details!

Join us on 25 February for the the next webinar of the EASA Women in Leadership Development series. With Drs. Sertaç Sehlikoglu, Roberta Raffaetà, Elżbieta Drążkiewicz, Ana Ivasiuc and Sultan Doughan.

20/01/2026

🌿 Microbi e diritti della natura: un intervento da non perdere!

📅 Il 28 gennaio 2026, Roberta Raffaetà terrà un intervento dal titolo "Microbi e diritti della natura: problematizzazione del soggetto e delle forme del conoscere" nell'ambito del Campus "Echoing More-than-Human Voices".

🏛️ Il Campus si svolge dal 26 al 29 gennaio presso il Monastero di San Nicolò al Lido di Venezia, con un evento conclusivo il 30 gennaio (ore 10.00) al Salone di Ca'Bottacin, NICHE - Ca'Foscari, con una conversazione speciale con Helena Gualinga.

🌍 Il Campus offre un'indagine transdisciplinare sul pensiero ecologico, integrando filosofia, diritto, scienze sociali e naturali, e arti. Ispirato all'Ecologia Profonda di Arne Næss, promuove una visione ecocentrica che riconosce il valore intrinseco di tutte le forme di vita e invita a ripensare il rapporto tra esseri umani e natura.

🦋 Attraverso seminari, laboratori e tavole rotonde con studiosi, artisti, giuristi e attivisti, il programma esplora strategie per promuovere i Diritti della Natura e amplificare le "voci più-che-umane" negli ecosistemi del Nord-Est italiano, dalle Dolomiti alla Laguna di Venezia.

🤝 Organizzato dall'area Ecologia di Unione Buddhista Italiana in collaborazione con NICHE – Ca' Foscari e il Global Campus of Human Rights.

🔗 Link e più info: https://www.unive.it/data/33113/26/108041.

conferenza/convegno

19/01/2026

🔬 Please consider applying to the EASA 2026 (Poznań, Poland) panel
"Encoding Biodiversity: Between Techno-imperialisms and Nativism, Data Extraction from Ridges to Deeps across Europe and the Pacific"

🌍 As our planet faces unprecedented ecological crisis, "planetary biology" is emerging as a new scientific frontier — driven by sequencing technologies and AI algorithms that reveal unexpected biological patterns across the globe. But what are the social, political, and ethical implications of this rush to sample and map the entire planet?

🏔️🌊 This panel brings together critical ethnographic perspectives on how data extraction unfolds across two interconnected ecosystems on the frontlines of climate change: mountains and oceans — from European ridges to Pacific deeps. We explore how these sites become contested spaces where competing conceptions of Indigeneity, locality, and place emerge, challenging both techno-imperial formations and reactionary nativisms.

⚡ Key questions: How do technologies rooted in military research reshape our relationship with biodiversity? What new forms of ecological imperialism and (neo)colonial entanglements are taking shape? How can anthropology help us think beyond polarizations?

📅 Deadline: 26 January

👥 Convenors:
Roberta Raffaetà (Ca' Foscari Venice University)
Alexander Mawyer (Director, Center for Pacific Islands Studies)

📝 Submit your proposal and join us in theorizing planetary futures beyond extraction!

⛓️ Link to apply: https://easaonline.org/easa-conference/easa2026/easa2026-programme/ #18509

“Rethinking Contemporary Spiritualities through Social Movements” — Contemporary ‘Spiritual’ Practices Network Panel (EASA2026)

08/01/2026

🌏 Within the FARE project (Framework per l'Attrazione e il Rafforzamento delle Eccellenze) of the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Roberta undertook a three-location journey across Asia.

🎓 First, she was invited to Kyoto University by Andrea de Antoni, Research Coordinator of the Italian School of East Asian Studies (Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale - ISEAS), where she delivered a special lecture on October 22nd entitled 'Microbiome Biopolitics Between the West and the East' (pics #1 and #2).

⛩️ In Kyoto, she also visited the Manshuin Temple, home to a tomb dedicated to bacteria and other germs called "Kinzuka" (mound for germs). The site is visited by microbiologists and others to express gratitude for the microbial lives sacrificed for science. Established in 1981 by Takeo Kasabo, then president of an enzyme manufacturing company in Japan, the tomb contains the ashes of bacillus subtilis buried in a lacquered vessel. An inscription on the back reads: "We will offer our sincere respects to the spirits of the countless billions of microbes that have contributed so much to the survival of humankind and sacrificed their lives, and would like to memorialize them from the bottom of our hearts" (pics #3 and #4).

🇭🇰 Roberta's journey continued to Hong Kong, where she gave a lecture and discussed the FARE project with colleagues at the Anthropology Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, meeting with FARE postdoc Tam Mankei (pics #5 and #6).

🔬 Finally, she arrived in Beijing, invited by microbiologist Prof. Liping Zhao and Dr. Jingnan Li (Associate Director of the Department of Gastroenterology and Chief Physician) and his team at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. There, Roberta was invited to give a lecture exploring the microbiome and its relation to human health from different disciplinary perspectives, examining how these are shaped by culture and politics (pics #7, #8, #9, #10).

19/12/2025

✒️ We are glad to share this blog post by microbiologist Murat Eren on Valentina Marcheselli's article: https://merenlab.org/2025/12/15/reductionism-and-complexity/.

🧩 It reflects the HXC team’s ethnographic commitment to engage with scientists in a critical-and-generative way. With this approach, outcomes often emerge over the long term and sometimes, as in this case, in unexpected ways.

A paper on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices, and my 2 cents on it.