Maria Luisa Catoni

Scuola IMT Alti Studi Lucca (Italy)

Socrates’ ugliness

2022-2023: Fall

Maria Luisa Catoni is Full Professor of Ancient Art History and Archaeology at IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca (Italy), founder and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage and the Research Unit Lynx: Center for the Interdisciplinary Analysis of Images, Contexts, Cultural Heritage at the same University. She has held positions as Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin; Senior Research Associate at the J. Paul Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles; Fellow at the Deutsches Archäeologisches Institut in Rome; fixed-term researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore where she received her education and Ph.D. in Classics and Art History and where she was selected for- and offered a position of Full Professor in Ancient Art History and Archaeology.


She has published extensively in the field of Ancient Art History and Archaeology, with a special interest in non-verbal communication in Classical Antiquity, the functioning of image ecosystems, the relationships between images, medium and social practices, the technical and social processes and contexts of art production, the relationship between written and visual sources as well as the use of art narratives within political discourse in Antiquity. She has also actively researched in the field of Classical Tradition with a special attention to the contexts of XXth century art. She has participated or initiated collaborative projects at the international and national levels in the fields of Ancient Art History and Archaeology, the Classical Tradition, the role of Cultural Heritage and Classics in educational models in Italy and Europe. She has prompted a number of research collaborations with specialists in the fields of innovative methodologies for automatic data analysis, neuroscience as well as with specialists in management and economics in order to analyze the process of profound change that the professions of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage are undergoing.

Catoni has also served at the institutional level in terms of research and training in her fields of expertise.
She has long served as Panel Chair in the most interdisciplinary ERC Panel (SH5), on a number of international advisory Boards (France, Germany, Italy) as well as in national and international research evaluation and funding Committees; she sits on the Scientific/Editorial Boards of a number of scientific journals; she has served as advisor of the Italian Minister of Culture and has founded the new National School of Cultural Heritage in the Italian Ministry of Culture.