Maria Flora Mangano
  • Scholar of dialogue among cultures and disciplines, with a combined background in the natural (biologist, PhD biochemistry) and the human sciences (PhD humanistic intercultural studies);
  • job experience in communication of health and environment (Milan, 2000-2006), and in social communication (Rome, 2006-2008);
  • since 2007, professor of communication of scientific research at the invitation of universities and public and private research institutes.
    Among them: University of Milan, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Brescia, University of Padua and University of Tuscia (Viterbo), the National Research Council, and Telethon Foundation; the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, and the University of West Bohemia (Czech Republic);
  • since 2008, invited professor of dialogue among cultures, and, since 2009, member of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, a network of scholars drawn from different cultures and disciplinary fields.

Focus on teaching and research

Academic teaching is strictly related to my area of study, focused on dialogue as a space of relationship among, across and beyond cultures and disciplines. This perspective takes inspiration from the transdisciplinary approach, proposed by Basarab Nicolescu, contemporary Romanian physicist and philosopher (“among, across and beyond” are the three meanings of the Latin prefix trans), and from the philosophy of dialogue, a branch of contemporary Anglo-European philosophy founded by Martin Buber.
In this perspective, dialogue is the basis for the relationship, rather than a tool for establishing the relationship among, across and beyond cultures and disciplines; dialogue and relationship may become the same.


To learn more
About method, content, and characteristics of CSR training:
1) Mangano, M. F. (2013, 2° ed). Manuale di comunicazione della ricerca scientifica. [Handbook of Communication of Scientific Research]. Trento, Italy: Tangram Edizioni Scientifiche. Available in Italian, in paper and e-book versions.
It is thought as an accessible tool – as the term “handbook” originally means – addressed to young scientists who attend the CSR training program, as PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. It centres on how to communicate one’s own research within the international academic community, why it is important to communicate and for whom.

2) Mangano, M. F. (2018). Relationship as a space “in between” – A transcultural and transdisciplinary approach to academic teaching mediated by dialogue – Bergamo, Italy: University of Bergamo Press.
Available as an open access e-book: http://ciret-transdisciplinarity.org/biblio/biblio_pdf/Maria_Flora_Mangano.pdf

About the application of “CSR method” in some young researchers’ daily life:
1) Mangano, M. F. (2013). Si può immaginare Sisifo felice. [One may imagine Sisyphus happy]. Trento, Italy: Edizioni del Faro.
Available in Italian, in paper version.
It is a brief essay consisting in two parts: the first one introduces the topic, which takes inspiration from the figure of Sisyphus; the second one focuses on the stories of several “young Sisyphus,” as the author calls the young researchers involved in the CSR teaching experience.
The protagonists of these stories are Italian young researchers, mainly in the natural sciences, who tried to face their effort in job, study and choice of life. They decided to build their present and future in their native country, Italy, with responsibility, trust, and creativity.

2) Mangano, M. F. (2023). Le parole dei giovani Sisifo. [The words of the young Sisyphus]. Trento, Italy: Edizioni del Faro.
Available in Italian, in paper and e-book versions.
After 10 years from the publication of the first essay on Sisyphus, this volume intends to deepen the meaning of fatigue. The book gives hospitality to some “young Sisyphus” of yesterday and today: some who had lived during the Second World War together with others of their same age, who belong to the contemporary time. All these youths have different stories and sceneries, but they can understand each other, as are able to use the same words: theirs.