MAIN RESEARCH

From January 1999 to 2003 Anna Lisa Tota carried out qualitative research on individual, collective and public memories of the Bologna massacre (a terrorist bombing of the Bologna central railway station which occurred August 2, 1980). The research design primarily involved ethnographic observation sessions in the station waiting room and in front of the plaques located next to the city hall, during the annual days of commemoration of the massacre (August 2,1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002), and during the annual meetings and lunches of the association. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with travellers passing through the station waiting room, with citizens of Bologna, with the steering committee of the association of the families of the victims of the massacre and the municipal officials who worked there in the past or at the time of the research, with surviving victims and relatives of the victims of the Bologna massacre, with local politicians, journalists from the local and national press, railway workers, and municipal officials who provided and/or organised first aid, the people responsible for commemorative initiatives, members of the national organisation of the victims of terrorist attacks, surviving victims of the massacres of train 904, the Italicus train and the Georgofili massacre, the president and members of the National Association of Italian Partisans, officials of the German workers’ trade union who attend the anniversary of the Bologna massacre every year to jointly commemorate the Oktober Fest massacre in Munich. The research also included an analysis of the narratives used to describe the massacre and its subsequent commemoration (on 2 August every year) in the local and national press. In particular, articles that appeared in the newspapers “La Repubblica”, “Il Corriere della Sera”, “Il Giornale” and “Il Resto del Carlino” were analysed in the period between August 2, 1980 and October 2002. As for the year 1980, all articles that appeared in the period between August 2 and December 31 were analysed, while for all subsequent years, only the month of August was considered, in addition to periods in which the massacre was covered because of the ongoing trial. In particular, these dates are: July 11, 1988 (first degree sentence of the Court of Assizes of Bologna), July 18, 1990 (second degree sentence of the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Bologna), February 12, 1992 (annulment of the sentence of the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Bologna and referral to a new trial by the Court of Cassation – United Sections), June 16, 1994 (referral to new trial by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Bologna), November 23, 1995 (sentence of the Court of Cassation confirming the life sentences for Mambro and Fioravanti), June 18, 1996 (second referral trial, sentence of the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Florence).

The commemorative posters printed from 1981 to 2002 on the anniversary of the massacre, the press releases of the association of the families of the victims, the websites or portals dedicated to the memory of all the Italian attacks, the publications edited or sponsored by the association or the union were analysed, the registered documents contained in the archives of both the association and the centre for historical and political documentation on the massacre, the tickets and objects left immediately after the massacre at the “wailing fence” in the station and now kept in the association’s basement, the programmes and video recordings of all the editions of the August 2 international composition competition. Finally, all the speeches of the association’s two presidents, Torquato Secci and Paolo Bolognesi, on the occasion of the memorial day, from 1981 to 2002, were analysed. The study of this vast amount of data made it possible, firstly, to highlight the social trajectories of the public memory of the Bologna massacre in the first two decades after the attack and, secondly, starting from this case of institutional and civil commemoration, to outline a series of best practices to be extended to other cases that have gained less attention in the national and international public discourse.

From 2002 to 2004 she carried out qualitative research on the public memory of the massacre of the high-speed train 904 (December 23, 1984), as its theoretical and methodological framework was the natural continuation of the previous research.

From 2004 to 2005 she coordinated a qualitative research on cultural consumption of the past with departmental funding, in which the relationship between public memory and the media from 2005 to 2006 was investigated.

From 2007 to 2009 with funding from PRIN 2007 she was a member of the local research unit of the University L’Orientale of Naples on the project “Le memorie domestiche” (Domestic memories) coordinated at national level by Giuliana Mandich (University of Cagliari).

From October 2008 to February 2009 she participated in a research project for an ethnographic survey on the quality of life of the population over 65 years of age residing in the Lazio Region carried out by the Piepoli Institute in Rome, which involved conducting in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation sessions and the production of a video for the research project “65+. Analysis of life conditions of people over 65” commissioned by the Lazio Region (research manager: Giampietro Gobo, University of Milan).

From 2011 to 2013, she coordinated a research project on “Dance-therapy and bodily memory”, financed with departmental funds, which included ethnographic observation sessions with groups of dancers from the contemporary scene (e.g., dance in nature).

From 2013 to 2018 she coordinated a longitudinal research of museum ethnography at the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions in Rome based on data collected through: a) ethnographic observations at the museum, carried out every year, in several observation sessions; b) 42 in-depth interviews with the museum’s organisers and visitors; c) documentary analysis of the information materials produced by the museum in the above-mentioned time period and conveyed through different communication channels.

From 2015 to 2017, she carried out research on the public memory of events in the Diaz school and Bolzaneto barrack during the G8 in Genoa, with Sergio Splendore (University of Milan) in the initial phase.

From 2017 to 2018 she carried out qualitative research on the public memory of the Gorla massacre in Milan, which included participation in the annual commemoration ceremonies and in-depth interviews conducted with some survivors (children at the time of the massacre or relatives of the victims who were still alive).

In 2018, she initiated qualitative research on the public of the Brera Art Gallery in Milan.

From December 2018 to March 2019 she was Principal Investigator and coordinator of the project team of the international research project “TRUST – To Reconfigure Spaces of Trauma through the arts” submitted in March 2019 within the European HORIZON 2020 programme (Call: H2020-Sc6-Transformations-2018-2019-2020- Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations in the Context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution). The project evaluation was announced in July 2019. The score obtained was 14.5 out of a maximum of 15. The project was subsequently selected for funding under the University of Roma Tre’s “Programme to encourage design and participation in competitive calls”.

From November 2020 to January 2021, together with Dr Lia Luchetti, she carried out qualitative research on commemoration at the time of Covid-19, with a specific focus on the case of the massacre of Piazza Fontana.

From 2019 to 2022, with funding from the PRIN 2017, she was a member of the Main Research Unit within the project “The formation of art music publics in Italy from the 20th century to the present”, coordinated by Luca Aversano, Department of Philosophy, Communication and Entertainment, University of Roma Tre, https://filosofiacomunicazionespettacolo.uniroma3.it/ricerca/progetti-di-ricerca/prin

From 2023 to 2024 she carried out research for the Italian national television (RAI) on the importance of language in public service broadcasting for the purposes of respecting cultural diversity and combating all forms of discrimination.

From 2023 to 2025 in the framework of PRIN 2022 she is Principal Investigator of the Project “(TRAMIGRART) From ‘places of violence’ to ‘spaces of memory’: the role of artistic practices in the inscription of forced migration as cultural trauma in the public discourse” in collaboration with the University of Milan and the University of Salento, www.tramigrart.it

From 2023 to 2025 in the framework of CREA 2022 she is Chair of the Gender Balance Board and member of the Roma Tre University research unit of the Project “We Produce Podcasts. Crossborder collaborative Postcast Production” (WePod) funded by Creative Europe Programme, European Commission, https://www.wepodproject.eu