Michelina Petrelli

Michelina Petrelli is an Associate Professor at Ababo specializing in aesthetics, visual perception, and literary theory. She teaches Theory of Perception and Psychology of Form across multiple art programs including Painting, Graphic Art, Sculpture, Graphic Design, and Art Education and Communication.

Her research spans aesthetics, philosophy of art, psychology of perception, and literary theory with a particular focus on Fernando Pessoa studies. Her work bridges phenomenological approaches to visual perception with contemporary art theory, examining how theories of perception interact with artistic poetics from creation to reception of artworks.

Her publications reveal consistent engagement with visual perception theories from classical doctrines (Ehrenfels, Helmholtz) through Gestalt psychology (Koehler, Arnheim, Kanizsa) to phenomenological and ecological approaches (Merleau-Ponty, Gibson). Her recent work explores the relationship between digital media and traditional art forms.

She serves on the scientific committee of Annali Ifor. Quarterly of Human Sciences and the editorial board of PsicoArt. Journal of Art and Psychology. Since 2022, she has been an ANVUR expert for evaluating AFAM institutions and courses.

Her educational background includes graduation in Aesthetics from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna, followed by research fellowships at the Italian Institute of Philosophical Studies in Naples (1997) and a Research Grant at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bologna (2003-2007).