Giacomo Parrinello is an historian with an interest in the relationships between humans and the environment through time. His research deals with disasters and society, urbanization processes, and resources use and conservation, with a specific focus on Europe over the last two centuries. He earned a PhD in history at the University of Siena (2011) funded by grant from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca). He spent part of his doctorate in Canada as visiting scholar at the Université de Montréal, thanks to a grant from the University of Siena. Parrinello studied at the Université Denis Diderot - Paris VII and the University of Bologna, where he received a BA in contemporary history (2004) and an MA in the European history (2007). He has been awarded grants and scholarships from the European Society for Environmental History, the American Society for Environmental History, the European Association for Urban History, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His research at the Center deals with the impact of earthquakes on urbanization processes, and is aimed at completing a manuscript tentatively entitled “Disaster Urbanism: Earthquakes and the Making of Modern Urban Environments.”
RCC Research Project: Urbanization and Disasters: The 1908 Messina Earthquake and the 1968 Belice Valley Earthquake (pdf, 28kb)
Film Interview with Giacomo Parrinello
Selected Publications
- “The City-Territory: Large Scale Planning and Development Policies in the Aftermath of the 1968 Belice Earthquake (Sicily).” Planning Perspectives: An international journal of history, planning, and the environment (forthcoming).
- “Post-Disaster Migrations and Returns: The 1908 Messina Earthquake and the 1968 Belice Valley Earthquake (Sicily).”, in “Environmental Change and Migration in Historical Perspective,” edited by U. Luebken and F. Mauelshagen, special issue, Global Environment: Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences (forthcoming).
- “Chi gioca solo e chi no. Ricerca sociale e azione democratica in Sicilia, 1952–1968”, in Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea, Dossier: Luoghi e non luoghi della Sicilia contemporanea: istituzioni, culture politiche e potere mafioso 3, no. 2 (2010).
