Maria Rita Mancini – DREST, DSAAM, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2023–present)

Recipient of a PhD scholarship funded by the UBI Research Center.

Dr. Mancini studies post-humanity, relational ontologies, and multispecies ethnography. Her research focuses on the cultural and epistemic space of Sherpa communities, analyzing how local belief systems and Himalayan cosmologies contribute to the co-construction and negotiation of space with other earth inhabitants, human and non-human.

Using an ethnographic approach attentive to multispecies relational complexity, the project explores natural and cultural boundaries to understand how environmental knowledge is produced, shared, and legitimized. It highlights how communities codify their relationship with the environment and the non-human world, contributing to broader reflection on situated knowledge and relational ecologies.