Gabriella Cianciolo Cosentino

 Università di Palermo

On the trail of Frederick II: European nationalism and the rediscovery of medieval architecture in Southern Italy

2010-2011: Fall

Gabriella Cianciolo Cosentino studied in Palermo and Madrid (Progetto Erasmus at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura), took a Laurea in Architecture in 1999 and received her Ph.D. in History of Architecture from the University of Palermo in 2004. She has taught History of Architecture in Palermo (2004-2009) as "professore a contratto" and has has been granted numerous fellowships: Progetto Giovani Ricercatori at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in MÉxico City, Assegno di ricerca at the University of Palermo, DAAD Research Fellowship at the Technische Universität München, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, Humboldt-Stiftung Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Technische Universität München. Her main interest is the History of Architecture in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. She focuses mostly on Eclecticism, Revivalism, Travelers and the Grand Tour, with particular attention to Italian-German relations. She has published widely on these themes; for example, she authored Serradifalco e la Germania. La Stildiskussion tra Sicilia e Baviera 1823-1850 (2004) and Francesco Saverio Cavallari (1810-1896). Architetto senza frontiere tra Sicilia Germania e Messico (2007). In 2004 she co-organized the international conference The Time of Schinkel and the Age of Neoclassicism between Palermo and Berlin and edited the acts of the conference (2006). Currently she is working on Italian Influence on German Architecture after the Second World War. Her research at the Italian Academy focuses on the impact of 19th-century European nationalism on the rediscovery and interpretation of southern Italian medieval architecture.