Mara Benadusi

Associate professor in anthropology at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Catania. Her research interests focus on vulnerability, resilience and risks related to disasters and environmental crises, as well as on humanitarian interventions, and the social and political consequences of the liberalization of nature and of green grabbing. She has carried out long periods of fieldwork in Sri Lanka on many occasions, first studying the emergency phase following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and later dealing with the long-term effects of the disaster in a frontier zone bordering Yala National Park. From 2015 to 2019, she carried out research on the ecological frictions affecting a large petrochemical corridor on the south-eastern coast of Siracusa, in Sicily, studying humans/animals relations, environmental struggles and the uneven topographies of energy transition. For her commitment to the study of disasters, she was awarded the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2013 . She is co-founder of DICAN, Disaster and Crisis Anthropological Network within the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).

https://unict.academia.edu/MaraBenadusi

Selected Publications

✜ Edited Books

  • 2016 Benadusi M., A. Lutri & C. Sturm (eds). Onto-Politics. Rethinking the relations between humans and non-humans, special issue, Anuac, vol. 5, no. 2. (Open Access)
  • 2011 Benadusi M., C. Brambilla & B. Riccio (eds). Disasters, Development and Humanitarian Aid. New Challenges for Anthropology. RIMINI: Guaraldi.

✜ Articles & Chapters

  • 2019 Benadusi M. « Sicilian Futures in the Making. Living Species and the Latency of Biological and Environmental Threats », Nature and Culture, vol. 4, no. 3: 79-109.
  • 2018 Benadusi M. « Oil in Sicily: Petrocapitalist imaginaries in the shadow of old smokestacks », Economic Anthropology, vol. 5, no. 1: 45-58.
  • 2016 Benadusi M., & S. Revet. « Disaster Trials: A Step Forward« , Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo, Anno XIX, Vol. 18, no. 2: 7-15. (Open Access)
  • 2015 Benadusi M. « Cultivating Communities after Disaster: A Whirlwind of Generosity on the Coasts of Sri Lanka », in S. Revet & J. Langumier (eds), Governing Disasters: Beyond Risk Culture, PARIS: Palgrave MacMillan / Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy: 87-126.
  • 2015 Benadusi M. « Learning to Survive in Sri Lanka: Education and Training in Times of Catastrophe », in P. Smeyers, D. Bridges, N. C. Burbules, & M. Griffiths (eds), International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research, Springer: 551-578.
  • 2014 Benadusi M. « Elephants Never Forget: Capturing Nature at the Border of Ruhuna National Park (Yala), Sri Lanka », Capitalism Nature Socialism, vol. 26, no. 1: 77-96.
  • 2014 Benadusi M. Pedagogies of the Unknown: Unpacking “Culture” in Disaster Risk Reduction Education, “Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management”, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 174-183.
  • 2013 Benadusi M. « The Two-faced Janus of Disaster Management: Still Vulnerable Yet Already Resilient », South East Asia Research, special issue “Life After Collective Death: Part 2”, vol. 21, no. 3: 419-438.
  • 2012 Benadusi M. « The Politics of Catastrophe. Coping with “Humanitarianism” in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka », in F. Attinà (ed.). The Politics and Policies of Relief, Aid and Reconstruction. Contrasting Approaches to Disasters and Emergencies, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan 151-172. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137026736_9
  • 2011 Benadusi M. « On the Crest of the Tidal Wave: Adrift in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka », in M. Benadusi, C. Brambilla, & B. Riccio (eds), Disasters, Development and Humanitarian Aid. New Challenges for Anthropology, RIMINI: Guaraldi: 67-86.