Room 118
Donatella Germanese studies the interface between literature, the arts, technology and science. With a focus on the twentieth century, she examines how technology and scientific topics were presented to the public, and how they were elaborated in literary theories, debates, and works.
In 2020, Donatella started a collaboration with Maria Rentetzi (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) on the history of atomic mobile exhibitions shown around the world during the Cold War, their role in science diplomacy, as well as their culturally performative aspects. As a result, in 2023 they edited a Special Issue for the journal Annals of Science: “Science Diplomacy on Display: Mobile Atomic Exhibitions in the Cold War.”
Corporate magazines in postwar Italy constitute further a group of Donatella’s primary sources, as they offered authors and readers interesting sites of encounter for the popularization of technology and science, and for literature, photography, and the fine arts to engage with modern industrial society. Donatella’s research keeps in mind the legacy of Italy’s fascist past, inclusive of its crimes, contradictions, and push towards modernity.
Donatella also engages with translation studies, organizing a “Science in Translation” reading group at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
Donatella studied philology, foreign languages, and literature at the University of Florence. She completed her doctoral degree in 1998 in German Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin with a monograph on the literary journal Pan (1910–15). Her general research interests include science popularization, modern and contemporary German, French, and Italian fine arts and literatures.
Donatella is Associated Scholar at the Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg; she was a Visiting Scholar at the European University Institute in Florence in 2015–16, at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in 2009–10, and a member of the study group led by Mazzino Montinari at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin in 1985–86.
Projects
Selected Publications
Germanese, Donatella (2024). “Atoms for Peace: Convincing the World of the Goodness of Atomic Energy.” In Transform! Designing the Future of Energy, ed. M. Kries and J. Eisenbrand, 156–165. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum.
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Germanese, Donatella (2023). “The Ingredients of a Successful Atomic Exhibition in Cold War Italy.” Annals of Science 80 (1): 10–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2164794.
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Rentetzi, Maria and Donatella Germanese (2023). “Science Diplomacy on Display: Mobile Atomic Exhibitions in the Cold War: Introduction to Special Issue.” Annals of Science 80 (1): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2164794.
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Germanese, Donatella (2021). “L’ardua democrazia: la stampa aziendale Pirelli (1945–1948).” Passato e presente 39 (113): 83–102. https://doi.org/10.3280/PASS2021-113006.
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Germanese, Donatella (2018). “‘Una forza universale incomparabile’: petrolio e sublime nelle riviste aziendali degli anni ’50.” Azimuth 6 (12): 31–44.
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Germanese, Donatella (2017). “‘We Will Make Europe There’: Italian Intellectuals in Search of Europe and America in Hitler’s Germany.” Modern Intellectual History 14 (2): 451–476. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479244315000074.
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Germanese, Donatella (2014). “‘Civiltà delle macchine’ (1953-1979).” Parolechiave 51: 145–152.
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Germanese, Donatella, ed. (2011). Siena. Eine literarische Einladung. SALTO. Berlin: Klaus Wagenbach Verlag.
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Germanese, Donatella (2005). “Antihelden auf Goethes Spuren: Italien als Schauplatz bei Hans-Ulrich Treichel,.” 2005.
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Germanese, Donatella (2000). Pan (1910–1915). Schriftsteller im Kontext einer Zeitschrift. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
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Germanese, Donatella (1992). “L’angelo e il poeta. Alcune considerazioni sul motivo dell’angelo in Rilke e George.” In Tra simbolismo e avanguardie. Studi dedicati a Ferruccio Masini, ed. C. Graziadei, 83-95. Roma: Editori Riuniti.
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Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
Conference, 11th ESHS, Barcelona
10th International ESHS Conference, Brussels
Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Bibliotheca Hertziana Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte
Conference, 9th International ESHS Conference, Bologna (virtual)
Conference, 13th European Conference of the Society for Science, Literature & the Arts, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens
Conference, 3rd International Conference on Science and Literature, Sorbonne University, Paris
Workshop, Future Challenges in the History of Science, MPIWG
Conference, 7th ESHS Conference, Prague
Conference, Beyond Nature in Science and Literature, The International Commission on Science and Literature, Syros, Hermoupolis