[photo G. Lupinacci/Raw-News]
The CO>SEA research team invites eveybody to join the creative workshop “Marine Social Research. Present and Future of science, creativity and participation for the Ocean” that will be held on the 3rd of October 2025 at Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep (via del Castro Laurenziano 9, Rome). The worshop is part of the EU Horizon project PartArt4OW and included in the activities of the SAP&O Science+Art+Participation in&about the Ocean group and the CO>SEA pilot research.
If you are interested in participating please send us your proposal for a pitch and mention materials you want to bring (see below provisional program) with a 200 words abstract by the 15th of April 2025 at chiara.certoma@uniroma1.it; luca.bertocci@uniroma1it; caterina.pozzobon@uniroma1.it.
Please note the workshop will be in Italian and will be held in Rome. We are open to creative proposals and happy to accomodate different participation forms – as far as possible, so write us if you want to discuss them.
We want to share and discuss with friends, colleagues and partners our <Marine Social Geography> approach, a field of research that explores the socio-ecological transformations (biological, chemical, physical, socio-political and cultural) affecting the global ocean and reflected in local seas, for researching society’s relationship with the Ocean, by presenting the CO>SEA pilot research on the Gulf of Anzio. And share the fascination and vibrancy of the cognate research that will be presented, discussed and cross-fertilised during the day. We want to exchange ideas, consolidate knowledge and build collaborations in the field of social research about the Ocean, with particular attention to the geographical-cultural perspective. The workshop will lead to the writing of a collective position paper on Marine Social Geography, with the idea of a future publication (see overview program below).
Programme overview
📅 Date: 03.10.2025
📍 Location: Aula Master, 5 piano, Dipartimento MEMOTEF, Università di Roma Sapienza, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, Roma
🎤 Organized by: CO>SEA – Collaboratorium for Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean https://crowdusg.net/cosea/
The United Nations’ Ocean Decade 2020-2030 program and the European Commission’s Starfish Mission have called on scientists, governments, companies and civic associations to mobilize in order to define “the science we need for the Ocean we want”, in the belief that with the health of the Ocean comes the possibilities for equitable and sustainable global development. From a social sciences perspective, in order to rethink the relational values, not merely the utilitarian aspects that connect society to the Ocean, and to support deep social change, international and research institutions agree on the necessity to develop practices of ocean literacy, ocean education, scientific research and participatory planning, as well as co-creative and artistic processes. In this context, the “oceanic turn” in the social sciences is an emerging strand that contributes to understanding the relationship between society and the OceanSea. This relation becomes a key element in promoting a paradigm shift in an era of enormous ecological transformations and global crises, to address which, as Donna Haraway suggests, we need to mobilize “our best emotional, intellectual, artistic and political creativity, individually and collectively.”
The workshop takes part in the recent debate in Marine Social Science and Critical Ocean Studies, with the aim of deconstructing and redefining our relationship with the OceanSea, contributing to the emerging movement of ideas and practices that see it as a material and semantic space in which our biological and cultural life is rooted in relation to the complex and changing ecological systems of the Anthropocene. Through our dialogue we intend to advance an understanding that takes into account both the material, bodily and historical dimensions of the ocean and the assemblages of human, non-human and more than human that have shaped it over time. We will try to understand the narratives, imaginary strategies, and pragmatic conditions that influence marine life, presenting field experiments to stimulate new critical, grounded, and transformative forms of attachment to the OceanSea. Integrating scientific, artistic, and activist perspectives is essential to understand these connections as hybrid forms of exploration often prove to be the only means capable of capturing the complexities of the subject while transcending conventional narratives. Specifically, CO>SEA will start the debate by presenting its Marine Social Geography as a field of research that explores the socio-ecological transformations (biological, chemical, physical, socio-political and cultural) affecting the global ocean and reflected in local seas.
Key Themes:
🔹 Participatory Action-Research & Citizen science in social research on sea and ocean;
🔹 The contribution of ocean literacy and ocean education ;
🔹 The link between art, creativity, and social and natural sciences in ocean exploration.
[photo G. Lupinacci and C.Certoma’]
Agenda
🔹 10:30 – 11:15 Greetings and presentation
Greetings from the Director of the MEMOTEF Department, Professor Donatella Strangio, Sapienza University of Rome
Greetings from the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Professor Giovanni di Bartolomeo, Sapienza University of Rome
Chiara Certomà (Sapienza University of Rome). “CO>SEA. Explorations in Marine Social Geography”
Caterina Pozzobon and Chiara Salari (Sapienza University of Rome) “CO>SEA. The Gulf of Anzio: Marine Social Geography into Practice”
Federico Fornaro (Raw-News Visual Production Agency) video reportage “CO>SEA” Luca Bertocci, Francesca Felici, and Chiara Gabrielli (Sapienza University of Rome) “PartArt4OW. Participatory Art for Society: Engagement with Ocean and Water”
🔹 11:15 AM – 1:00 PM Pitch presentation of the research by participants (first part)
Filippo Celata (Sapienza University of Rome), “Submerged Landscapes: Scenarios and Geographies of the Environmental Crisis on Italian Coasts and Beaches / Submerged Landscapes: Scenarios and Geographies of the Environmental Crisis on Italian Coasts and Beaches”
Roberta Gemmiti (Sapienza University of Rome)
Riccardo Morri (Sapienza University of Rome)
Matteo Marconi (Sapienza University of Rome): “Land and Sea: Towards a “Hybrid” Geopolitical Paradigm”
Raffaele Maddaluno (Sapienza University of Rome), “An Ocean to Protect, a Sea to Exploit. The Ambiguities of Blue Economy Policies from the Margins of the Indian Ocean”
Enrico Squarcina (University of Milan-Bicocca), “From Sea Hoarding to Sea Sharing”
Marcella Smidth Di Friedberg (University of Milan-Bicocca), “Environment and Heritage: The Case of the Maldives”
Renato Carafa (Roman University Delegation, Italian Naval League)
Luca Brignone (Municipality of Anzio, Councilor for Environment and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome), Valentina Corrado (Councilor for Tourism and Entertainment, Sport and Youth Policies, Anzio), Eugenio Monaco (Ente Monti Cimini – Lago di Vico Nature Reserve), “Zero Plastic”
Tommaso Valente, Marco Matiddi, Cecilia Silvestri, Raffaella Piermarini, Laura Ciaralli, Eleonora Monfardini (ISPRA), “The impact of marine litter on food webs” and “Anzio: A sea of research for Europe”
Marco Pisapia (ISPRA), “Comic strips to communicate research”
Alice Rotini (ISPRA), “The ecological beach”
Michela Angiolillo (ISPRA), “Submerged Mountains / Seamounts”
“Hands-on-research” (each participant is invited to bring a material object of their choice that symbolically represents the theme of their research or their connection to the sea)
🍽 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Light lunch with poster corner
📷 2:00 PM – 2:10 PM Photographic exhibition “CoSea_Lab. COMPLETE TITLE” by Giuseppe Lupinacci/Raw-News
🔹 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Pitch presentation of the research by participants (second part)
Loren March and Cheldon Paterson (SlowPitchSound), “Thinking with the Spit: Sounding Urban Marine Ecologies”
Gabriella Palermo (Department of Cultures and Society, University of Palermo), “Blueish regenera(c)tions and more-than-wet archives / Blueish regenera(c)tions and more-than-wet archives”
Antonella Passani and Stella Diakou (T6 Ecosystems), “Analyzing the transformative potential of participatory art practices in promoting ocean literacy and behavioral change”
Anna Pagnone, (Cluster of Excellence ‘Climate, Climatic Change, and Society’ (CLICCS), Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), University of Hamburg), “Art and Science in the climate stories of the North Sea”
Stefania Benetti (Department for Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition, University of Eastern Piedmont), “Walls in rebellion: geographies and environmental symbologies to save the oceans”
Arturo Gallia (Department of Humanities, University of Roma Tre), “OurCommonIslandFuture. Imagining and building their own future: adolescents in the smaller Italian islands / Imagining and building their own future: Youth in the Italian small islands (PRIN 2022 “Islands 4 Future”)”
Pietro Agnoletto (University of Milan-Bicocca), “Valuing the past to rethink the future. Participatory filmmaking with young generations”
Lorena Rocca (Department of Education and Learning / Graduate School of Teacher Education, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland), “AMOS Floating Lab: a Floating Laboratory for Ocean Literacy and Participatory Research”
4:00-4:30 PM: Final discussion on the three workshop themes
=> How does your work intersect with the three themes?
☕ 4:30-5:00 PM: Word Café and welcome to chat with other participants or ask questions about the presentations.
!!! During the event, Raw-News Visual Production Agency will produce video and photo footage for dissemination materials, and Ischire Studio will record live graphics.
Chiara Certomà 
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