Remote Sensing Digital Data Coordinator and Project Manager
Stefania has a PhD in Archaeology (2011) and an MPhil in Remote Sensing and GIS (2002) – both from the University of Cambridge. She also holds an Honours degree in Classics and Archaeology from the University of Padova (2000).
Being part of the MAEASaM project reflects Stefania’s long-held academic passions in landscape archaeology in Africa and the role of the digital in humanities.
Whilst completing a PhD in 3D GIS for excavation in Cambridge and through her work as a tourist guide in Libya, Stefania developed an interest in the archaeology of the recent past in arid environments. She went on to conduct research work in the Wadi ash-Shati and Ubari sand sea (central Sahara) in 2007 and 2008, documenting the archaeology of the past millennium.
In 2007, Stefania took up a lectureship in computing archaeology at the University of Botswana (UB). Becoming interested in Tswana urbanism in the form of stone walled mega towns, she started a research programme with colleagues at UB to retrace the complex biographies of these more recent landscapes.
In 2013, Stefania moved to South Africa, as a lecturer in GIS in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. Whilst teaching there, she continued her research in Botswana and started to engage with communities in Sudan and South Africa to explore the meaning of memory, heritage and competing traditions. Her use of participatory digital techniques led her to explore their potential in decolonising and transforming engagement with the past. Teaching remote sensing alongside GIS at Wits revived Stefania’s interest in developing approaches for the use of remote sensing in detecting and predicting archaeological sites through the combination of field spectroscopy and image processing.
What I love most about archaeology is the possibility of making connections. Connections with objects, landscapes, the past and the present and, above all, with people. I find it rewarding and challenging that archaeology calls for questioning one’s positionality in their work on a daily basis.
In her spare time, Stefania loves travelling and discovering, but when in a fixed location her favourite pursuit is singing in a choir. Long ago, Stefania decided that if she did not succeed in her academic career, she would open a restaurant with friends and fellow archaeologists Salam and Susanne. The training and preparation for this continues on a daily basis. She says you never know in life…
You can read more about Stefania on the University of Cambridge website.