Mario Panico is research fellow (contrattista di ricerca) and adjunct professor at the University of Bologna – Department of the Arts.
He was awarded a Ph.D. in Semiotics (2020) from the University of Bologna with a thesis on the relationship between nostalgia and spaces of memory.
He has been post-doc at the University of Bologna (2021-2022) under the EU-funded project MSCA-RISE-2017 "Questioning traumatic heritage: spaces of memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia". After the first post-doc he has been research fellow and lecturer at the department of Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam (2022-2025), working on a project titled "Perpetrator Heritage: Material Culture and Visual Imaginaries" that was awarded in a public competition by the Dutch Ministry of Education and University for the so-called "Heritage Sector Plan". At the university of Amsterdam, he taught heritage and memory theory for the MA in Heritage and Memory Studies.
He is an external fellow at the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM)at the University of Amsterdam and member of TRAME - Centre for the Semiotic Study of Memory at the University of Bologna.
For his research, he has conducted fieldwork on difficult heritage sites in Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands.
In 2023 and 2024 he has been visiting researcher at the University of Buenos Aires.
His research ranges between cultural and visual semiotics, cultural studies, heritage and memory studies.
At the moment, he is working on the relationship between heritage and emotions, as well as the representation of perpetrators of crimes against humanity in sites of trauma. He is currently working on how the houses and villas of perpetrators built near concentration and transit camps in Europe and detention centres in South America have been musealised and/or artistically resematised to critically discuss issues such as the ordinariness of violence and the discomfort of the visitor.
His recent publications include the Italian translation of the work by feminist scholar Marianne Hirsch, published with il Mulino (Rileggere Marianne Hirsch. Postmemoria e riscrittura del passato traumatico familiare) and his book titled Spaces for Nostalgia. Difficult Memories and Material Consolation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
Mario Panico works for the following academic journals:
- Versus. Quaderni di Studi Semiotici (Bologna, Il Mulino)
- Studi Culturali (Bologna, Il Mulino)
- Heritage, Memory, and Conflict -HMC (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press)
- Journal of Perpetrator Research -JPR (Winchester, Wincherster University Press)
Mario Panico has obtained the habilitation for the functions of associate professor in 2025 for the disciplinary field 11/PHIL-04 - aesthetics and philosophy of languages
