Internationalisation Days

Studying the digital: unpacking epistemic areas, frameworks, and policies from an interdisciplinary perspective

Departmental days for Internationalisation 2025

 

Feb. 27 (Aula Seminari, U6 Agora, 4th floor)

- 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

  Seminar: Digital humanities and technology black boxes

  • Braxton Soderman, Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies and co-chair of the Humanities Center’s Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX), University of California, Irvine.

  • Chair
    Francesca Antonacci, Full Professor in General and Social Pedagogy, University of Milano-Bicocca
  • Discussants
    Maresa Bertolo, Researcher, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano
    Federica Pallavicini, Associate Professor in General Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca

 

- 15.00 - 17.00 p.m - Research design and international collaborations: case histories and workshop by the Grant Office

  Seminar: From online risks to digital skills and children’s rights: two decades of research and policy on children and digital media in Europe

  • Giovanna Mascheroni, Professoressa Ordinaria in Sociologia dei Processi Culturali e Comunicativi presso la Facoltà di Scienze Politiche e Sociali dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italian Team Leader e International Vice Coordinator di EU Kids Online

  • Chair
    Stefano Malatesta, Associate Professor in Geography, University of Milano-Bicocca
  • Discussants
    Guido Veronese, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca
    Davide Cino, Researcher in General and Social Pedagogy, University of Milano-Bicocca

  Workshop by the Grant Office

  • Federica Fumagalli, Direzione Generale Centro Servizi di Scienze della Formazione, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Feb. 28, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. (Aula Polivalente, U6 Agora, 4th floor)

  • Award ceremony of the “Internationalization Days”
  • Poster presentation of the 2024 Edition winners

Refreshments

Digital Humanities and technology black boxes 

Professor Braxton Soderman, University of California, Irvine

This seminar will explore methodologies within the digital humanities, particularly in relation to the emergence of platform studies which seeks to understand the importance of the technological structures of new media and “black box” systems. Through a discussion of the recent co-authored book, Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie, seminar participants will examine how technology shapes the aesthetics and meaning of digital media products, such as games, and how social, historical, and cultural forces also shape technological development.

Focusing on the often-hidden technological structures of media—including hardware, code, and platform architectures—offers a rich perspective through which to understand a technology’s impact on history and culture. As illustrated through research conducted in the book Intellivision, technical perspectives can also help scholars reinterpret the “black box” of the history of videogames, understanding digital transformations in new ways such as the influence of analog games and toys on the history of digital games or how social and gendered inequalities in game culture are historically founded and perpetuated.

Image
Braxton Soderman

Braxton Soderman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies and co-chairs the Humanities Center’s Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX), a group of faculty, staff, and graduate students who share interests in developing digital avenues for humanities research at UCI.  He researches videogames, critical theory, new media aesthetics, and theories of play. He is the author of Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject (MIT Press, 2021) which critically analyzes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of psychological flow in relation to game studies and the concept of play.

He recently completed a co-authored book on the Intellivision videogame system, developed by the toy company Mattel in the late 1970s. Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie™ will be published within MIT’s Platform Studies Series in Fall 2024. In addition to his books, Professor Soderman has published articles in differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, The Journal of Visual Culture, Games and Culture, and elsewhere. He is excited to be working with the Digital Humanities team at UCI and extending its work through a new critical data studies initiative.

 

 


From online risks to digital skills and children’s rights: two decades of research and policy on children and digital media in Europe

Professor Giovanna Mascheroni, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano

The diffusion of the internet, social media, and, more recently, AI-based technologies among children and adolescents has been accompanied by a wave of media panics in terms of its potential negative effects on children’s wellbeing. In the European context, however, these recursive waves of media panics have been counterbalanced by a policy and research framework that moved beyond the risk-based approach. In fact, while in the time frame 2000-2014 the Safer Internet Programme funded research networks, including the EU Kids Online, with the purpose of examining the opportunities and risks of the internet for children in a comparative perspective, the findings fed back into the policy and research framework, suggesting future directions for research.

Based on the finding that online risks and opportunities go hand in hand, that children are far from being ‘digital natives’, and that online vulnerabilities are grounded in offline vulnerabilities, the Better Internet for Kids Strategy focused on digital skills to foster online resilience and children’s rights to participation and provision, besides their right to protection. The presentation will review these shifts based on my experience as a researcher in the EU Kids Online network, the ySKILLS H2020 consortium, and my participation in expert consultations with the EC, the JRC, OECD, and CoE on AI and children’s rights.

Image
Giovanna Mascheroni

Giovanna Mascheroni PhD in Sociology, is a sociologist of digital media, and Full Professor in the Department of Communication, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Her work focuses on the social consequences of digital media, datafication and AI for children and young people, and families. She has jShe joined the EU Kids Online network in 2007 as the Italian team leader, and since 2023 has been its Vice-Coordinator. She has had a leading role in the Horizon 2020 funded ySKILLS Consortium —leader of the in-depth research on the role of digital skills in the wellbeing of vulnerable or at risk children; and is a Partner Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

She has worked closely with the EC, JRC, CoE and OECD on the implications of AI for children and sits on the Consultative Group for the BIK Knowledge Hub (previously she was on the BIK Map Advisory Group). She has published extensively in international journals (over 50 articles, including New Media & Society, Journal of Children and Media, Big Data & Society, Social Media + Society, and Information, Communication & Society) and edited volumes, and is the author of three monogrpahs. Her latest book is Datafied childhoods: Data practices and imaginaries in children’s lives, co-authored with Andra Siibak.

In line with the objectives of the Inter-Commission for Internationalisation and with the DISUF Programme Document 2024-2026, the award aims at enhancing the internationalisation of researches carried out by resear4ch fellows and PhD students belonging to the Department of Human Sciences for Education "Riccardo Massa". The award is one of the initiatives of the "Internationalisation Days" promoted by the Department.

Implementing international researches is one of the strategic objectives of our University.  Early-career scholars (PhD students and research fellows) often cope with extra challenges to improve the visibility to their research within their scientific community. Therefore, the Inter-Commission for Internationalisation promotes, within the framework of the "Internationalisation Days", an award for PhD students and research fellows.

The action aims to encourage the international dimension of their research projects. The prizes linked to that award will support the presentation of the research in international contexts (publications, participation in conferences).

The award is open exclusively to PhD students and research fellows belonging to the Department of Human Sciences for Education "Riccardo Massa". Applicants should produce a concept note of no more than 10000 characters structured as follows:

  • Foreword and background
  • Research question
  • Methods
  • Research implementation plan
  • Expected results
  • International follow-up of the research

Concept notes should be sent in pdf format by 15 January 2025 (17.00 CET) to internazionalizzazione_DISUF@unimib.it.

Applicants can choose whether to submit the concept note in Italian or English, justifying their choice.

In addition, applicants must attach a draft of a working plan (maximum one page) illustrating the use of the award by indicating:

  • Timing
  • Type of expenditure. Eligible expenses are: publications in open access journals, international conference fees, expenses related to presentations at international symposia or seminars.

The concept notes will be evaluated by the Organising Committee - Jury based on the following criteria:

  • Clarity, rigour and coherence of the research framework - max.20 points
  • Relevance, originality and innovation - max. 20 points
  • International outlook (breadth of literature, collaborations, periods abroad) - max 20 points

The Organizing Committee is composed by Davide Cino, Stefano Malatesta, Guido Veronese.

The Jury is composed by Cristina Palmieri, Alice Bellagamba, Claudia Bonsi, Chiara Bove, Davide Cino, Edoardo Datteri, Stefano Malatesta, Guido Veronese, Franca Zuccoli.

  • The work of the Organising Committee - Jury will end on 15 February 2025.
  • Two separate rankings will be drawn up: 1. PhD students and 2. research fellows.
  • The final rankings will be announced on the last day of the Internationalisation Days.
  • A certificate of merit will be awarded to the top three in the two rankings.
  • Each list will indicate a winner (who will receive a prize of €1200.00) and a second winner (who will receive a prize of €750.00) to be used mandatorily  before the end of the research contract or doctoral period
  • In the event of a tie, the youngest candidates will be awarded the prize.
  • In the event of renouncement of the prize or expiry of the time limit for its use, the Jury will award the prize to the second (or possibly third) placed in the ranking.

Gallery of awards - 2022 edition

PhD Students

  • Camilla Carabini (Internationalisation Award)
  • Valeria Cotza
  • Lucia Carriera

PostDoc Fellows

  • Federica Cavazzoni (Internationalisation Award)
  • Elisa Farina
  • Chiara Carla Montà 

Gallery of awards - 2023 edition

PhD Students

  • Anna Chinazzi
  • Alessandra Maiorano

PostDoc Fellows

  • Alessandra Mussi
  • Elena Bartolini

Gallery of awards - 2024 edition

PhD Students

  • Daniele Mario Buonomo
  • Costanza Franceschini

PostDoc Fellows

  • Silvy Boccaletti
  • Cristina Liviana Caldiroli

Gallery of awards - 2025 edition

PhD Students

  •  
  •  

PostDoc Fellows

  •  
  •