Marco Argentina University of Bologna, Italy
Marco Argentina obtained his doctorate in History, Criticism and Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Padua. He is a member of the editorial staff of the journals «Arti dello spettacolo/Performing Arts» and «Danza e Ricerca» and of the research group Filologia della danza at the University of Bologna. He is currently a research fellow of the PRIN 2022 Hyperstage project at the Department of Arts, University of Bologna, partner of the project.
Roberto Basili University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Basili is full Professor in Computer Science at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, where he has carried out research, since the 1990s, on Artificial Intelligence problems, methodologies and technologies in the areas of Machine and Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and in the engineering of NLP-based Systems for Distributed Information Retrieval and Knowledge Management. He is currently President of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, for which he is a member of the Scientific Committee. He is currently coordinating the PhD program in Data Science at the University of Tor Vergata. He is the author of more than 200 publications in scientific journals and International Conference, Proceedings and books with international dissemination, in the area of NLP, Machine Learning as well as their application to Web data. He has also coordinated, as principal investigator, several international research projects funded by the European Community, on the topics of NLP and applications of AI to industrial challenges in the banking, media, tourism and medicine domains.
Sarah Bay-Cheng York University, Canada
Dr. Sarah Bay-Cheng is the Dean and Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) at York University (Toronto). Her research focuses on the intersections among theatre and media including histories of cinema, social media, and technology in performance, most recently the effect of data and large language models (aka, AI) on theatre. She is the author or co-editor of 4 books, including Performance and Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field (2015) and Mapping Intermediality in Performance (2010) as well as more than 50 academic academic articles and essays. Prior to becoming Dean of AMPD at York, Bay-Cheng served as Chair of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College and as the Founding Director for the Techne Institute for the Arts and Emerging Technologies at the University at Buffalo. In 2015, Bay-Cheng was a Fulbright Scholar in Media and Cultural Studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She is currently Vice-Chair of the Canadian Association of Fine Arts Deans and serves on the boards of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans. Bay-Cheng is grateful for her liberal arts education at Wellesley College (A.B. with honours, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1996) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ph.D., 2001).
Cécile Chantraine Braillon La Rochelle Université, France
Cécile Chantraine Braillon is Professor of Hispanic Studies at La Rochelle Université since 2018, and her research focuses on Spanish-American theater and performing arts, as well as the computerization of research on the performing arts (Digital Humanities). She has held a doctorate in Hispanic Studies from the Université de Lille Nord de France since 2007 and a habilitation to direct research (HDR) since 2017.
She works on contemporary and ultra-contemporary Hispano-American theater, more specifically from the Rio de la Plata (Uruguay and Argentina). Her analyses combines several critical methods (philological, semiological, genetic, archival and computer-based) and her post-doctoral research (Filosofía del Teatro, Performance studies). She has since directed several complementary programs in the field of digitization of research in the Performing Arts: VISUAL STAGING (CPER Hauts de France, 2016-2023), ESNA (École du Spectateur de Nouvelle Aquitaine – 2021-24) and the Working-Group THEATRALIA (DARIAH, 2024-2025).
Emanuele Bellini LOGOS Research&Innovation, Florence – University of RomaTRE, Italy
Emanuele Bellini PhD is an assistant professor (tenure track) in Information Engineering and director of advanced training course on Cyber Humanities and Heritage Security with the University of Roma Tre (Italy). He is president of LOGOS Research and Innovation Association and research fellow with Centre of Cyber Physical Systems – Khalifa University (UAE). His research interest includes cyber humanities, heritage security and resilience of human-cyber-physical systems. He is co-chair of IEEE SMC TC Homeland Security, general chair of IEEE Cyber Security and Resilience Conference (IEEE CSR), Chair of IEEE SMC TC Cyber Humanities, and deputy chair of the Europen Integrated Mission Group for Security (IMG-S) WG on Resilience.
Giovanni Bergamin LOGOS Research&Innovation, Florence, Italy
Librarian. I currently lead Digital Humanities research at Logos-RI. I am an active member of the Library and Information Science (LIS) community as a teacher, author, and seminar speaker. Previously, I served as Head of Information Technology Services at the National Central Library of Florence (1990-2017) and was a Board Member of the Italian Library Association (AIB) from 2017 to 2023.
Sara Di Giorgio Consortium GARR, Rome, Italy
Sara Di Giorgio works at GARR and is the Coordinator of the Skills4EOSC project, which is establishing a pan-European Competence Centre Network to support skills and training in Open Science practices. She is also involved in ICDI (the Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure), aiming to strengthen the participation of Italian National Initiatives, data services, and infrastructures, and to enhance their representation within the EOSC ecosystem.
Sara has extensive experience in EU-funded projects for the development of research infrastructures in the fields of Open Science, Digital Humanities, and Cultural Heritage. She was involved in EOSC-Pillar, focusing on the coordination and harmonization of National Initiatives and Infrastructures across Italy, Germany, Austria, and Belgium.
Since 2004, she has participated in numerous European projects related to cultural heritage digitization, online access, and digital preservation. She coordinated tasks on policy definition concerning the data lifecycle, addressing IPR management, Open Data, and Open Access practices in both the ARIADNE project (a research infrastructure for archaeological data) and PARTHENOS (a thematic cluster of European Research Infrastructures in the areas of linguistic studies, humanities, cultural heritage, and archaeology).
Nina Marie Evensen Center for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo, Norway
Nina Marie Evensen serves as the Head of the Digital Archives at the Center for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo. She has worked as a scholarly editor and/or project leader in various editorial projects focused on Norwegian classic playwrights. Currently, she supervises the database IbsenStage (https://ibsenstage.hf.uio.no/), the digital edition of Henrik Ibsen’s Writings (https://www.ibsen.uio.no/), and several other digital resources at CIS available from the website The Virtual Ibsen Center (https://www.uio.no/ibsen/).
Erica Faccioli Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy
Erica Faccioli holds a PhD in Theatre Studies and a Post-Doctorate in Historical-Artistic Studies at the University of Bologna. She has spent several periods of research abroad, in particular in Paris and Kyiv.
She is full Professor in History of Theatre and History and Theory of Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. She is chairman of the Department of Scenography and Costume, member of the Academic Council and of the Open Space Doctorate Board. Her research area is focused on twentieth-century and contemporary dramaturgy and performance, in particular concerning the former Soviet countries, through a methodology combining geopolitics and postcolonial studies. For over fifteen years she has been devoting her research to the Ukrainian theatre, to which she has dedicated several international conferences and publications.
Silvia Garzarella University of Bologna, Italy
Silvia Garzarella is a PhD student in Visual, Performing, and Media Arts at the University of Bologna. She holds a master’s degree in Italian Language Studies from the same university, where she catalogued the archive of choreographer Valeria Magli (2019-2020). Her research focuses on making dance heritage accessible to a wide audience, utilizing advanced movement analysis and extended reality tools. For her doctoral project, she collaborates with the Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory (VARLab) at the University of Bologna and the Mobisys Lab at the University of Cambridge. She is a member of the University Theatre Council (CUT) and an editorialist for the journal “Danza e ricerca. Laboratorio di studi, scritture, visioni”.
Donatella Gavrilovich University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Donatella Gavrilovich is Associate Professor of History of Theatre and Digital Technologies at University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Her research focused on the Performing Arts digital archives and theatrical exhibitions and on Russian theatre, dance, set designer and visual art.
From 2024 she is the Director of the IDOS_ARTS Research Centre (International Digital Open Space on the Performing and Visual Arts Cultural Heritage), founded about her project proposal. Since 2023 she is PI of the research project HYPERSTAGE PRIN 2022 (Italian Ministry of Culture – European Union-Next Generation EU). She is founding Editor of the Scientific Publishing Series, Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts, and of the ASPA International Scientific Journal http://www.artidellospettacolo-performingarts.com.
In 2012 she was expert in the ECLAP-EUROPEANA project and in 2014 designed the new model of ontology: Performance Knowledge base (PKb). From 2014 to 2016 she was the scientific coordinator of the project «Vera Komissarzhevskaya (1864-1910)» Virtual Museum, in collaboration with the ITMO University of St. Petersburg and University of Lorraine. Fellow of CERCLE (University of Lorraine) and a member of CINI WG-Cyber Humanities, LODEPA, W3C-PAIR CG, WG “Theatralia” DARIAH, SIBMAS, SEFER, she is author of books as well as numerous publications in scientific journals and creator of national and international conferences.
Klaus Illmayer University of Vienna – Departement of Theatre, Film, and Media Studies
Klaus Illmayer studied theater, film and media at the University of Vienna. Staff member at the Austrian Center for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Research Assistant at the Institute for Theater, Film and Media Studies, University of Vienna. Main research interests: Digital humanities, history of science, digital infrastructures, digital modeling and processing of cultural and performative forms of expression.
Mariel Marshall Canadian artist and technology entrepreneur, Bluemouth inc., Toronto and New York
Mariel Marshall is a celebrated Canadian artist and technology entrepreneur, known for her work in immersive performance. She co-leads bluemouth inc., an interdisciplinary performance company based in Toronto and New York, and is the co-founder of Tandem Experiences, a social-tech company developing solutions to experience discovery. Her work centers on the integration of emerging technologies within the creative sector, with a particular emphasis on applied AI. She is proud to serve on the Dean’s advisory committee for the Faculty of Art, Media, Performance, and Design at York University. Mariel is also a part of the
Vector Institute for AI’s Fastlane Program, which supports Canadian startup founders in accelerating their AI commercialization journey. She recently represented Tandem Experiences in the Creative Destruction Lab, for founders developing state of the art technological innovations across diverse industries. With her unique blend of artistic vision and technological expertise, Mariel Marshall continues to push the boundaries of how technology can enhance and transform the performing arts sector.
Alejandra Medellín de la Piedra Centro Nacional de Investigación de Danza “José Limón”, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, México
Alejandra Medellín holds a Master’s degree in Performing Arts from the University of British Columbia (Canada) and a Bachelor’s degree in Theater from the Escuela Nacional de Arte Teatral (Mexico). She began her career as a researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigación Teatral “Rodolfo Usigli” of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL), where she worked from 1993 to 2001. In 2002 she joined the Centro Nacional de Investigación de Danza “José Limón”, first as coordinator of the Research Area and later as a researcher. In 2014 she led the creation of INBA Digital, a digital repository designed to provide open access to the institutional academic production. From 2018 to 2023 she worked at the General Directorate of Information Technologies of the Mexican Ministry of Culture, where she participated in the design and implementation of the Digital Assets Management Strategy, aimed at the creation of a decentralized network of cultural heritage repositories. She is currently coordinating two projects: the creation of the Repository of Archives and Collections of the National Dance Research Center “José Limón” and the repository “Ethnographic Atlas of Dances of Mexico”.
Esther Merino Peral Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
From 1995, when she was awarded a PhD in Art History at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid UAM, taught in the Department of Fine Arts at Salamanca University USAL until 2003. From this date until 2007 she lectured in the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture and Geodesy ETSAG, at the University of Alcalá de Henares UAH and is now Associate Professor in the Department of Art History, at the Complutense University at Madrid, where this year she begins to teach the subject of Art and Scenographic Culture, in the Degree of Theatre Studies, the only one of its kind in Spanish universities.
She was a guest researcher in the Department of Architecture, History and Design of Florence University in 2015.
Her research focuses on the history of stage design and performance arts and new technologies, intangible, cultural heritage, performing arts archives and their pedagogy, topics on which she has published widely
Creator and editor of the website Mnemosine. Atlas escenográfico, which includes monographic publications, in the form of book and magazín associated.
Johan Oomen Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, Netherlands
As Head of Research and Heritage Services at the Netherlands Institute for
Sound & Vision, Johan Oomen spearheads efforts to provide access to digital
heritage. Additionally, he contributes as a researcher at the User-Centric
Data Science group of VU University Amsterdam. Next to projects at Sound
and Vision, he works on international collaborative initiatives such as
Time Machine Organisation, EIT Culture & Creativity, TransMIXR, Europeana
and RECHARGE. Johan Oomen’s research focuses on the relationship between participatory culture and institutional policy, drawing on his background in information science, media studies, and computer science. Prior to joining Sound & Vision, he worked with the British Universities Film and Video Council and RTL Nederlands. Oomen currently serves on the boards of the Europeana Foundation, the EUscreen Foundation, and the PublicSpaces Foundation. In 2021, he received the Ray Edmondson Advocacy Award for his contributions.
Valeria Paraninfi University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Valeria Paraninfi is currently a research fellow in the Hyperstage PRIN 2022 project at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. From 2014 to 2016, she collaborated with a research group at the same university on the design of the ontology for a knowledge base on the Performing Arts. She is a member of the Editorial Staff of the scientific journal “Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts”.
Valeria is also a choreographer and teaches dance history in the CSEN training courses since 2019.
Elisa Passone University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Elisa Passone is a PhD Student in Data Science, pillar Culture, Arts
and Society, at University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Her doctoral project
focuses on the creation of a national database of italian historic
theatres and theatres archive, that will be published online via an
interactive portal wich will apply AI technologies.
She is working on AI applications and she co-published a paper about
Interactive Grounded Language Understanding (IGLU) within Human-Robot
Interaction (HRI). She holds a master degree in Music and Spectacle.
Her thesis has studied the life and works of the russian actress Vera
Komissarzhevskaja, by comparing a large amount of data extracted from
the actress’s letters to the writings of Helena Blavatsky, Lev Tolstoj
and Mozart, highlighting an unpublished leit motiv about spiritual and
artistic inspirations. She is member of Editorial Staff of the scientific
Journal “Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts” and she collaborates
to the project Hyperstage PRIN 2022.
Paola Ranzini IUF, Avignon Université, France
Paola Ranzini is senior member of IUF (Institut Universitaire de France), is full professor at Avignon University. Her research focuses on aesthetic issues, theory and practice of the theatre. Several collective programs funded in recent years : Creative Europe: TraNet (Trans)National European Theatre: audiovisual tools and simultaneous interpreting for the internationalisation of theatre production and consumption (Collective Project); Cultural Transfers and Genetic Criticism. Marivaux on the European stage (Personal Project). A digital library (SEM, Scènes Europénnes et Extra-européennes Marivaux) is currently being implemented. Her most recent publications include: A Classic “Modern” Author: Marivaux on Stage, special issue: European Drama and Performance Studies, 2023–2, 21; MARIVAUX, Teatro, CuePress (three published volumes, four volumes in preparation).
Riku Rohiankorpi Tampere University and The University of Helsinki, Finland
Riku Roihankorpi (FT, Docent), Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Drama
Research in Tampere University and Associate Professor (Docent) in Theatre
Studies in The University of Helsinki, has led numerous international arts and
research projects on technological performance and virtually augmented live
arts production and education (2009-) as well as The Centre for Practice as
Research in Theatre T7 at Tampere University (2015-20). He has served as the
Head of Digital Content Development (RDI and strategy) and Senior Researcher
and Lecturer in Artistic Research in The University of the Arts Helsinki
(2021-23). His works on digital and mixed reality praxis, ecologies, and
economies in the performing arts and related training; the ethics of theatre,
performance, and Antonin Artaud as well as various topics relevant to
contemporary performance philosophy have been published by Palgrave Macmillan,
Routledge, and recognized journals. Throughout his career, he has supervised,
developed, curated and facilitated academic research and artistic work in the
above fields and beyond.
Rémi Ronfard Centre Inria de l’Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Rémi Ronfard is a research director at Inria. He has conducted research in a variety of domains, from geometric design to 3D animation and computer vision. This includes work on storyboarding and layout animation, action recognition and statistical analysis of image and film styles, directing virtual worlds. He has co-chaired international workshops on intelligent cinematography and editing, computational models of narratives and computer theater. For the Ministry of Culture, he was one of the authors of the first exploratory report on Metavers (2022). This document attempts to define the concept of Metavers as accurately as possible, as well as its opportunities, limitations and related challenges
Raffaella Santucci LOGOS Research&Innovation, Florence – University of RomaTRE, Italy
Raffaella Santucci fosters interdisciplinary research at the intersection of humanities, technologies, and science. She helps build international collaborations at the interface between cutting-edge science/technology and social sciences/humanities. She promotes open science policies that encourage transparency, data sharing, and collaboration. Her expertise includes proposal management, outreach strategies, team-building, and cultural mediation. She currently serves as the Chief International Operations Officer at LOGOS Ricerca e Innovazione, where she actively drives the organization’s growth within the international research community.
Her past contributions to digital humanities include pioneering projects such as Linked Heritage, DiXiT: Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network and EAGLE-Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy and ECLAP, European Collected Library of Artistic Performance. With over 20 years of experience, she has coordinated the dissemination and science communication activities for high-impact European Commission-funded projects such as Q-SORT, MINEON, SMART-Electron and PERSEUS. Dr. Santucci’s ongoing efforts to democratize data and promote open access are reflected in her advocacy for gender balance and open science, ensuring that research is more inclusive, accessible, and impactful.
As Vice Chair of the Quantum Flagship Public Relations & Outreach Thematic Committee, Dr. Santucci raises awareness of cutting-edge technologies and engages the public with scientific advancements. She also serves as Observatory Manager of the AI Act of the EU Council and Parliament, overseeing critical discussions on artificial intelligence governance and regulation.
Emanuele Sinisi Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, Italy
After graduating from the School of Art Pino Pascali in Bari, he moves to Rome in order to continue his studies. He enrolls at the First School of Architecture “Ludovico Quaroni”, where in 2009 he receives his degree in Set Design-Exhibition Design-Interior Design. After an internship at the Scenography Labs of Foundation Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, he continues his studies in digital arts, interaction design and multimedia, acquiring specific competencies in the field of Information and communication technology. Since 2010 he combines the work as assistant designer to the stage managing, acquiring overall skills of the stage within many Theatres and Opera Houses, both in Italy and abroad. Since 2013 he designs sets for the directors, Rafael Villalobos, Roberto Catalano, Italo Nunziata, Stefano Vizioli, Leonardo Lidi, Marie Lambert-Lebihan, Bertrand Bonello, Silvia Paoli. He currently lives between Ferrara and Venice where he teaches Scenic Design at the School of Fine Arts. Upcomings productions include “OTELLO” by Verdi for the Opera House in Göteborg, “VOYAGE D’AUTOMNE” a world premiere by Bruno Mantovani at the Opera du Capitole in Toulouse, “I GROTTESCHI” a plot inspired by Monteverdi’s scores, new production of La Monnaie in Brussels.
Andrea Vitalini Teatro alla Scala – Head of Historical Artistic Archives, Italy
He started working at La Scala in 1989, while attending the University of Milan, Faculty of Political Science – Business Economics. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the economic aspects of Italian and international opera houses.
In 1990, he participated in the process of creating the historical database of performances at La Scala. Between 1996 and 1998, he collaborated with the Photographic Archive. In 1998, he joined the new Institutional Relations Department, expanded in 2008 into the General Management Department, dealing with institutional relations, audio-video recordings and tour projects. In 2013 became the Staff coordinator of General Management Department. From 1 August 2022 he is the Head of the new Historical Artistic Archive of the Teatro alla Scala.
Since 1996, he has edited the historical chronologies for the Theatre’s booklets and publications. Since September 2022, he regularly publishes essays in the new La Scala magazine. He took part in several conferences and symposia: about photographic archives (Ferrara, 09/2022), the singers Nicola Rossi Lemeni (Teatro alla Scala, 12/2022), Toti Dal Monte (Pieve di Soligo, 04/2023, and Paris, 12/2023) and Maria Callas (London and Turin, 12/2023). Since 2023 he took part in the activities related to PRIN 2022 – Hyperstage in Bologna (11/2023), Rome (01/2024) and Syracuse (05/2024).
Sarah Whatley Coventry University, UK
Sarah Whatley is Professor and Director of the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, UK. Her research interests extend to dance and disability, dance and new technologies, intangible cultural heritage, dance archives, and somatic dance practice and pedagogy; she has published widely on these themes. Whilst her expertise is primarily in dance, her research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the European Commission, Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust, is often interdisciplinary, collaborating with artists, designers and researchers from other disciplines including law, anthropology, psychology, digital media and computing science. Her current projects explore ‘what it means to perform’ and the interface between dance, disability, prosthetics and robotics. She Chairs the AHRC-sponsored ‘Dance Research Matters’ campaign. She was founding Editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the Editorial Boards of several other Journals.
Anamarija Žugić Borić The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Anamarija Žugić Borić studied Comparative Literature and Latin Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia, where she currently writes a Ph. D. thesis on the music as an aspect of dramaturgy in contemporary theatre in Croatia. Prior to joining Croatia’s National DARIAH Coordination Office at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in her capacity as an assistant, she worked as a TA at the Department of Classical Philology, University of Zagreb, and as an assistant in the Division of the History of Croatian Theatre, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She also worked as a publishing house editor. Anamarija Žugić Borić is also a freelance musician, music and theatre critic, copywriter, copyeditor, and proofreader. She was engaged in various DH projects and workshops, in particular in the Open Philology Workshop in Leipzig, the Croatiae auctores Latini (CroALa) collection and the project of digitizing theatrical materials for the Digital Collection and Catalog of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She is the co-chair of the DARIAH-EU working group Theatralia and a member of the Croatian Association of Theatre Critics and Theatre Scholars. Her research interests include performing arts, digital theatre, theatrical sound and music, archival processing, NLP, digital collections and digital editions.