Since 1 January 2025, Gabriella Corona has been the director of the Institute of Mediterranean Studies of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMed), taking over from Salvatore Capasso, now director of the Department of Human and Social Sciences Cultural Heritage (CNR-DSU).
Research Executive, Editor in Chief of the international scientific journal Global Environment. A Journal of Transdisciplinary History and co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal Meridiana. Journal of History and Social Sciences. Since 2021 he has been vice-president of SISAm-Italian Society of Environmental History.
Professor of Environmental History at the Course of Historical Sciences of the Department of Humanities of the University of Naples Federico II, he has published articles in national and international scientific journals, essays in collective volumes, monographs and curatorships. Among the books published after 2000: Italy in the Anthropocene: paths of environmental history between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries of 2023; A Short of Environmental History in Italy of 2017, A Brief History of the Environment in Italy of 2015, The Problem of Waste Disposal in a Large European City and Waste. An unresolved issue with Daniele Fortini of 2012 and 2010 respectively, I ragazzi del piano. Naples and the reasons for urban environmentalism in 2007.
His research currently focuses on Environmental History issues, in a national and global perspective.
His vision for CNR-ISMed aims to strengthen the leading role of the Institute in the interdisciplinary study of the social, economic and environmental dynamics of the Mediterranean, in collaboration with university and scientific institutions and in particular with the countries of the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
The objective of the volume L’Italia dell’Antropocene. Paths of environmental history between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Carocci 2023) is to explore the history of Italy over the last 150 years through the lens of the Anthropocene, an era in which human activities have an increasing impact on natural systems.
The author, Gabriella Corona, analyzes how Italy has participated in these changes, evaluating causes, repercussions, implications and responsibilities. The book emphasizes the importance of recognizing human beings as a geological and ecological force, capable of transforming the laws of nature and, therefore, being part of it.
Corona proposes a series of paths to identify and interpret the ways in which our country has faced the climate crisis and other environmental problems related to structural factors, political choices, development models, social processes and cultural debate.
In “Italy of the Anthropocene. Paths of environmental history between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries” the book’s ability to intertwine climate change, political choices and socio-economic development makes its interdisciplinary approach very effective. Examining the various historical paths and peculiarities of the Italian context, the author highlights how Italy has participated and reacted to profound environmental changes.
The main elements of the text:
It examines how human action has profoundly changed the Italian environment in the last 150 years, using the category of the Anthropocene.
It analyzes the interactions between climate change, political choices and socio-economic development in Italy, identifying the turning points and national peculiarities.
It takes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates different perspectives to understand the long-term relationship between society and nature.
It focuses on Italian causes, consequences and responsibilities in the global environmental crisis.
The author’s interdisciplinary approach allows us to effectively intertwine climate change, political choices and socio-economic development. By analyzing the historical paths and peculiarities of Italy, the book highlights how Italy has reacted to profound environmental changes.
The concept that human beings are a geological and ecological force capable of transforming the laws of nature and being part of them represents a radical change in the way we interpret the relationship between the environment and society. This change requires the adoption of knowledge models that promote cooperation between different knowledge and disciplinary languages, and overturns the points of observation from which the past is investigated.
“Italy in the Anthropocene. Paths of environmental history between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries” by Gabriella Corona explores this change through a series of paths that aim to identify and interpret the ways in which Italy has participated in environmental changes, evaluating their causes, repercussions, implications and responsibilities.
The Anthropocene requires us to bring nature back into history, suggesting that in order to fully understand the past and the present, it is essential to integrate the environmental dimension into historical narratives. This book represents a significant contribution to this new form of historical understanding.