Publishing date: 8 October 2026 Immagine notizia Immagine Paragrafo For the first time, the University of Insubria has secured a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Global Fellowship in its role as coordinating institution. This European funding scheme aims to promote research excellence through activities carried out in Europe and countries outside Europe. The fellowship was awarded to researcher Maddalena Napolitani for the project VHisGeo – Visual Histories of Geological Sciences and Technology. Mining Imagery across Europe and Japan in the Long Nineteenth Century, submitted under the supervision of Professor Ezio Vaccari.The project has received €385,000 in funding from the European Commission and will run for 36 months. The research activities will be coordinated by the Research Centre for the History of Mountains, Material Culture and Earth Sciences, based at the Dipartimento di Scienze Teoriche e Applicate (DiSTA), headed by Professor Alberto Coen Porisini. Immagine The research activities, which began in September 2026 and are scheduled to continue until September 2029, will take place in Italy, France and, above all, Japan, where they will also be coordinated by Professor Nobumichi Ariga of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, in his role as associated coordinator.“VHisGeo aims to carry out the first comparative study of the visual culture of geological sciences in Europe and Japan from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century,” explains Maddalena Napolitani. “We will investigate a fragmented field of research, in which European studies tend to focus on local contexts and generally do not extend beyond 1850, while Japanese studies on the visual culture of mining remain little known outside Japan.By analysing Japanese emaki – illustrated scrolls that often depict underground mining activities – alongside European images, ranging from illustrated French geological treatises to exhibition displays (such as those at international industrial exhibitions and exhibitions held during the Meiji era), the project will explore contrasts and parallels in the visual representation of geological sciences.It will also define and digitise a corpus of sources, reconstruct the contexts of their production and reception, and trace their patterns of circulation.” Immagine “The project combines the history of science, geosciences and iconography within a transdisciplinary framework,” adds Professor Ezio Vaccari. “It introduces a twofold innovation, both comparative and methodological, filling a significant gap in the historiography.”In addition to scientific publications, the dissemination of the research findings will include thematic exhibitions and participation in cultural events, with the aim of highlighting how images have shaped scientific knowledge and the public perception of the Earth, while also providing a historical perspective on current debates about environmental sustainability and geological heritage.