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Assistant Professor of Arts Management Laura Ricciardi Earns Fulbright Award

She’ll spend 2021–2022 at the University of Messina in Sicily.

Congratulations to Laura Ricciardi, assistant professor of arts management and lecturer in entrepreneurship in the arts, for winning a Fulbright Award to teach at the University of Messina in Sicily, Italy, ​during the 2021-22 academic year.

Ricciardi will be teaching a course on comparative intellectual property and cultural heritage law. “I’ll be asking similar questions that I’ve considered alongside my students here at Purchase,” she says. “What are the assumptions embedded in law about creativity, cultural identity, and artistic expression? How do these ideas reflect and shape cultural policy and creative output? How do individual nations and communities balance local understandings with international norms and directives?”

She will also be conducting research on fascist-era monuments throughout Italy, bringing her work on the legal landscape of contested monuments in the United States into a global context. “I’ll also be examining the ways in which cultural preservation law in Italy considers artistic interventions and political dissent at public monuments.”

Ricciardi is excited by the opportunity and what it will mean to her students here at Purchase. “I’m thrilled at the chance to teach and conduct research in Sicily next year, and to bring this experience back to our students,” she says. “One of the most exciting aspects of the Fulbright program is the opportunity to forge deep connections between seemingly disparate worlds. I hope to return with concrete possibilities for future collaboration between Purchase and Messina, and new perspectives that will enrich my work both as a teacher and a scholar.”