معرفی
Giacomo Parrinello is an Associate Professor of environmental history at the Centre for History (CHSP) of Sciences Po (Paris Institute of Political Studies). His academic work focuses on the intersection of environmental history, urban development, and resource management, with particular expertise in Mediterranean coastal regions, river systems, and the Anthropocene.
Parrinello holds a Ph.D. in history, geography, and law from the University of Siena (2011) and completed his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) in history from Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne (2023). His academic journey includes prestigious fellowships at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society and as a Marie Curie Fellow at Louisiana State University and the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna.
His research centers on environmental history with specific focus on urban environmental history, disaster history, water and river systems, energy history, and coastal transformations. Parrinello investigates how human interventions in natural systems, particularly along Mediterranean coasts and in the Po River Valley, have contributed to the geological transformations characterizing the Anthropocene. His work bridges historical analysis with contemporary environmental challenges.
Parrinello's scholarly output demonstrates a consistent focus on the historical dimensions of water management, coastal development, and the human-environment relationship in the Mediterranean. His publications reveal an interdisciplinary approach combining environmental history, geomorphology, and science studies to examine how societies have reshaped water systems and coastal landscapes, with particular attention to the political, technological, and ecological dimensions of these transformations.
His research has been recognized with significant academic honors:
- 2015 Book Prize of the American Association for Italian Studies for "Fault Lines: Earthquakes and Urbanism in Modern Italy"
- 2016 Anci-Storia Book Prize
- Shortlisted for SISSCO "Opera Prima" Book Prize
- Shortlisted for Turku Book Prize of the European Society for Environmental History
Parrinello has secured competitive research funding including a four-year grant (2019-2023) from the Bureau de l'Innovation of City of Paris for his "Shifting Shores" project investigating Mediterranean river deltas. He previously led the MEDCOAST project as Excellence Chair in Environmental History (2016-2018) and has held visiting positions at the Max Planck Institute, University of Bologna, and UC Berkeley. He served as Secretary of the European Society for Environmental History (2017-2019).
As Principal Investigator of the "Shifting Shores" project, Parrinello leads an international research team examining the Po, Rhône, and Ebro river deltas with collaborators in California, Spain, France, and Italy. His work connects historical scholarship with contemporary environmental challenges, particularly regarding sediment management, coastal stabilization, and water resource governance in the Anthropocene era.
