Maria Stella Di Trapani, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Main Focus

  • Relationships between arts and architecture in the twentieth century;
  • Palaces of power and identity between Italian Unification and the fall of Fascism;
  • Rural foundation villages and post-disaster reconstructions in the twentieth century;
  • History of exhibitions with focus on colonial, identity and representative themes of Italy abroad;
  • Reception, diffusion and reworking of official iconographic and architectural models in peripheral contexts or abroad

Research project

The “Case d’Italia” (Italy Houses) Designed by Clemente Busiri Vici: Models and Expressions of “Italianness” Abroad During Fascism

Curriculum Vitae

Maria Stella Di Trapani is a postdoctoral researcher at the Weddigen Department of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, specialized in Architectural History. She graduated in Art History at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and obtained her PhD in Art and Architectural History at the University of Palermo, defending the thesis Variations of the relationship between arts and architecture in the first half of the twentieth century: the Palazzi di Giustizia in SicilyAs a Research fellow at the University of Catania within the framework of the Census of Italian architectures from 1945 to today, she is currently a member of the research units of the University of Catania for the following projects:
- “SPAZIDENTITA: Material and immaterial spatiality of Italian national construction from the Cisalpine Republic to the end of Fascism: cities, architecture, museums;
- “Building civic identity. For a historical atlas of municipal palaces in the Italy of cities (XII-XX century).
She is a contract lecturer in History of Architecture at the Department of Humanities of the University of Catania and in 2023 she won the first edition of the International Competition for the Gianni Franzone Scholarship at the Wolfsoniana Study Center - Palazzo Ducale in Genoa.

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