MappingSalvation aims at establishing a novel methodology for the study of salvation experiences and theories, structured around a newly developed epistemic model that allows for a thorough investigation of salvation itineraries across multiple cultural contexts. The geographical-historical framework of reference for this research is the Mediterranean basin in the early Roman imperial age, a world animated by a strong, pervasive desire for salvation, which permeated most areas of human experience: philosophical reflection, religious cults and beliefs, political life and ideology, ritual and divinatory practice. This project relies on the groundbreaking hypothesis that only by conceiving the ancient Mediterranean world as a wide, intricate network of salvation itineraries, can we fully exploit the heuristic potential of the category of ‘salvation’, understand the profound philosophical-religious dynamics of the first centuries AD, and even discover unexpected similarities between this age and our contemporary world, where the needs to save human lives, animal species and our planet are all the more urgent and intense. By analysing the Greek and Latin works of two apparently distant thinkers (Seneca the Younger and Clement of Alexandria), MappingSalvation will attain a twofold aim: first, to validate empirically a new analytical model and taxonomical system for the examination and categorisation of salvation itineraries; second, to inaugurate a wide-ranging discussion around the concept of salvation, and a cooperation among different scholars and fields of expertise that have worked separately until today. If successful, MappingSalvation will revolutionise the way in which we look at salvation in antiquity and beyond, and will establish a shared conceptual apparatus and common epistemic standards for its study.

This project combines a wide geographical perspective and network dynamics applied to the circulation of Tantric Buddhist agents, texts, and icons across the maritime swathe of territory called ‘Maritime Asia’. It aims at reshaping the scholarly understanding of Buddhist Tantra as both a historical phenomenon and a dynamic discourse that was never limited to South Asia nor to Sanskrit texts. Making use of the innovative approaches promoted by recent scholarship in global and maritime history and Intra-Asian connectivity, the project will apply the geo-environmental metaphor of Maritime Asia as a heuristic device to study the emergence and circulation of Buddhist Tantra alongside the movement of human agents, texts, and artefacts across this vast yet interconnected geographical area. In so doing, it will attempt to capture the spatial, temporal, and social dynamics linking seemingly disconnected actors, geographies, objects, and discourses. The project aims at changing how scholars of Buddhism, Tantra, and Indic religions in general understand the boundaries of their fields, both in terms of disciplinary specializations and regional foci, which still largely and strictly follow the artificial geographical borders drawn by the post-WWII Area Studies framework. No less importantly, it hopes to enrich the public’s understanding of the translocal history and multi-cultural religio-philosophical heritage of Buddhism.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

Reefs are of critical importance to human survival, providing subsistence food for a substantial portion of the population, serving as the principle coastal protection structures for most tropical islands, and contributing major income and foreign exchange earnings from tourism. According to a United Nations estimate, the total economic value of coral reefs range from US$ 100,000-600,000 km2yr-1. However, coral reef ecosystems worldwide are under threat from environmental and anthropogenic disturbances encompassing global climate change, storms, Crown-of-Thorns starfish outbreaks (COTS), sedimentation, pollution and unsustainable exploitation of reef resources. Such disturbances, while global phenomena, have largely been local in their effects. In 1998, however, unprecedented levels of coral bleaching indicated that global warming was likely to impact coral reefs at global scales, with the potential for simultaneous, large-scale impacts. The latest global climate change models predict continued warming and carbon dioxide increases, and with escalating threats from other human interventions, coral reefs are threatened worldwide. Unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s biological diversity has serious consequences for the goods and services that humans derive from coral reef ecosystems. Although biodiversity covers a multitude of scales, here our definition mainly focuses on species (i.e. species diversity) and their traits (i.e. functional diversity). Effective conservation of biodiversity is essential for human survival and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. In addition to its effects on the functioning of ecosystems, biodiversity influences the resilience and resistance of ecosystems to environmental change. Reductions in biodiversity due to environmental change can lead to a decrease in resilience (i.e the capacity of an ecosystem to tolerate disturbance without collapsing into a qualitatively different state that is controlled by a different set of processes). Therefore, if biodiversity is decreased, resilience is reduced and regime shifts are more likely. Regime shifts can in turn drastically affect ecosystems and the goods and services they provide. Understanding the capacity for biodiversity to persist or recover after disturbances, is crucial for devising appropriate management actions to mitigate biodiversity loss. Resilience to changes and potential regime shifts are complex phenomena, involving non-linearities and can be documented only once they have occurred. It is very difficult to predict them and determine which traits of the ecosystem determine resilience to multiple stressors. Long-term records are required in order to measure large-scale resilience from disturbances, but such records are scant, and there are thus few opportunities to study large-scale impacts and long-term recovery. Our project aims to resolve these problems. The need for sensitive metrics for evaluating resilience is of paramount importance and presents an ongoing challenge in coral reef management. Four factors have been proposed as critical in the maintenance of coral reef populations: i) recruitment, ii) zooxanthellae clades, iii) maintenance of grazing fish and benthic populations and iv) management of human activities. Our project is the first to consider all these factors in combination, assess those most important for biodiversity and determine the resilience of coral reefs in the face of multiple stressors.