Linking community archaeology and wellbeing in the Mediterranean

ended

The project ‘Linking community archaeology and wellbeing in the Mediterranean’ (LOGGIA), aims to understand to what extent archaeology can contribute to community wellbeing. LOGGIA will be led by the fellow, Dr Francesco Ripanti, under the supervision of Dr Giorgos Papantoniou in the Department of Classics, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and encompasses three fields of study: archaeology, wellbeing and disability studies. Archaeology may positively impact individual and community wellbeing and especially benefit vulnerable groups. Since the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan includes the employment of strategies of inclusion and empowerment to ensure equal and wide access to cultural heritage assets, LOGGIA will adopt a unique approach to address how archaeology can promote community wellbeing in the Mediterranean context, by focusing on the inclusion of persons with disabilities through case study research. As first and second research objectives, LOGGIA will outline a novel theoretical and evaluation framework linking community archaeology and wellbeing, and assess the impact of archaeology programs on community wellbeing in two case studies of ‘People and Things in Vignale’ (Italy) and ‘Xeros River Valley’ (Cyprus). The fellow has a background in archaeology and thanks to the support of the three interdisciplinary TCD Centres – the Medical and Health Humanities Initiative, the Centre for Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute – and the secondment at Manchester Metropolitan University, will acquire the necessary knowledge in the areas of wellbeing and disability studies. An integral part of the research is the non-academic placement at Silversky3D. As third objective, through the popular videogame Minecraft, LOGGIA will assess the extent to which the interaction with a digital environment based on the case studies can contribute to the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their wellbeing.