Chiara Cappelletto

Università degli Studi di Milano

Theatre, simulation, and mirror neurons

2009-2010: Spring

Chiara Cappelletto is currently Assistant Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Milan from which she holds a Ph.D in Philosophy in 2003 (The synoptic view. Essay on nature of form in Ludwig Wittgenstein's thought).
In 2001 she received a grant "for continuing education of young excellent students" at the University of Milan. She spent a year at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, invited by George Didi-Huberman to take part in his seminar and to the workshop "Morphologies", focusing on link between Aesthetics and Natural Sciences. In 2003 she took her Diplôme d'Études Approfondies at EHESS on the concept of Darstellung in Aby Warburg and Ludwig Wittgenstein (supervisor Fernando Gil).
In 2004, her book Il rito delle pulci. Wittgenstein morfologo [The flea's rite. On Wittgenstein's Morphology] obtained the ninth Castiglioncello Philosophy Award (president of jury Paolo Rossi, section "Young scholars, Antonella Musu").
In 2005/2006 she held an one-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Philosophy Dept. of the University of Milan (Aesthetics and Morphology in Wittgenstein. Origins and prospects). Her work focussed on the Wittgensteinian development of Goethe's morphological paradigm, relating sciences with culture.
Since 2006, her research deals with the study of empathy and fiction in performing arts, taking in account the new perspectives in neuroaesthetics. Her most recent book is then devoted to Neuroestetica. L'arte del cervello [Neuroaesthetics. Brain's Art] (2009).
She is currently developing theatrical researches. She has recently edited and prefaced Scena e dramma [Stage and Drama] by Waldemar Conrad and she is the author of several essays on aesthetics of theatre.