Maria Giovanna Belcastro

I study human skeletal remains in Evolutionary Anthropology with applications in Forensics, ethical and museum aspects. Since 2005, I am in charge of the Anthropological Collections of the University of Bologna. Research and Education are focused to reconstruct biology and behaviour of past populations. I coordinated the PhD Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences (2021-2024). I run for Unibo the HorizonEu COLUMN (Colonial Legacies of Universities: Materialities and New Collaborations) (2025-2029).I was head of the H2020 MSCA project “Baby Pace” (2020-2023) and I am Member of the Board of the ERC project “Making Ancestors: The Politics of Death in European Prehistory” (University of Cambridge) (2020-2025). Member (2020-2022) of the Self-Steering Committee in Cultural Heritage of Una Europa and of the Una Europa Joint Doctoral Committee for the University of Bologna. In 2008 I have set up the Master in “Skeletal and Forensic Anthropology and Paleopathology” (with UNIMI and UNIPI), headed until 2020. Since 2023 I have been Benedictine Academician of the Institute of Sciences in Bologna. President of the Italian Anthropological Association (2024-2029).