FORMENTI LAURA
- U06, Floor: 4, Room: 4162
Please write an email if you need to meet me.
Biography
Full Professor of General and Social Pedagogy, Laura teaches Family Pedagogy and Family Counselling at the Department of Human Sciences for Education, where she also coordinates the Research Workshop “Pe.Tra.Lab” (a Pedagogy for Transformations in Work). She is the President of the Italian Society of Universities for Lifelong Learning (RUIAP): a consortium of 33 universities that invest on new policies and practices for lifelong learning in HE.
Trained as a systemic family therapist and expert of complexity theories, especially in their epistemologic and operative dimensions, Laura developed her own model of intervention within human systems, that overcomes the dominant individualistic cumulative view of knowledge as “possession”, to explore its dialogic, interactional and transformative dimensions.
Since 1992, she has been active in the international arena of Adult Education and Learning; she is active in several groups, networks and societies, such as the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (of which she has been the Chairperson from 2014 to 2019), and Joint Convenor of the “Life History and Biography” research network, LHBN (together with Linden West and Alan Bainbridge, Canterbury Christ Church University). She started with others the European Conference for Qualitative Inquiry – ECQI and the Asiatic (South Korea) Biography, Lifelong Learning and Culture, IBLLC.
In 2019, Laura was awarded the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE)’s Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education for the book “Transforming Perspectives in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education. A dialogue”, written with Linden West and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.
Laura is presently working on several research projects on empowering professionals of education in Residential Child Care (Erasmus Plus KA2 ERRCI, Turku, FI, p.i. Eeva Timonen-Kallio); on using collaborative and arts-based methodologies in exploring themes of social justice in museums (Feminist Workshop, Victoria, BC, 2017-2020, p.i. Darlene Clover); on senso-biographic methods in searching migrants’ experience (ALSOS, 2018-2020) and the relationship with a territory (Sensotra, ERC 2017-2021).
Publications
Formenti, L., Bufali, M., Cataldi, L., Marzullo, M., Compagni, A., Nazio, T., et al. (2024). Transitions in older age: an interdisciplinary meta-narrative. Intervento presentato a: General Meeting Age-It, Venezia, Italia. Detail
Cino, D., Formenti, L., Loberto, F. (2024). Formal, informal, and technology-mediated care: reframing older adults’ learning and care through the lenses of complexity and systems theory. Intervento presentato a: General Meeting Age-It, Venezia, Italia. Detail
Formenti, L., Cino, D., Loberto, F. (2024). Learning in longevity: a critical ecosystemic approach to research and intervention. Intervento presentato a: Third International Conference of the journal “Scuola Democratica”, Cagliari, Italia. Detail
Formenti, L., Cino, D. (2024). Senso comune e lavoro educativo con le famiglie. Intervento presentato a: Convegno Nazionale Educazione Professionale tra esperienza e teoria. Verso uno statuto epistemologico per l’educazione professionale italiana, Palazzo Piomarta, Rovereto, Italia. Detail
Formenti, L. (2024). Formazione permanente. In D. Simeone (a cura di), Dizionario di Pedagogia generale e sociale (pp. 174-180). Brescia : Morcelliana. Detail
Research projects
Awards
Awards
- SCUTREA Ian Martin Award, SCUTREA is the Standing Conference for University Teaching and Research on the Education of Adults; it was established in 1971 as a network of adult educators involved in researching and teaching adults. Initially members were drawn from university adult education departments throughout the United Kingdom. Today the membership is diverse and global, mainly from Australia, Canada and the US. SCUTREA assigns 4 awards every year: to the best paper from a student, to the best papers in social justice, international and comparative research and art., 2017
Scientific fellowships
- Presidente - RUIAP - Rete Universitaria Italiana per l'Apprendimento Permanente, 2018
- Vice-Presidente - ASSIMSS Associazione Italiana di Medicina e Sanità Sistemica, 2017
- Componente del Consiglio/Comitato Direttivo - RUIAP - Rete Universitaria Italiana per l'Apprendimento Permanente, 2015
- Presidente - ESREA - European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, 2014
- Componente dell'Advisory Board - International Research Network on "Culture, Biography & Lifelong Learning", c/o Department of Education, Pusan National University, 2014
- Altra carica sociale - Life History and Biography Network of ESREA, 2009
- Componente del Consiglio/Comitato Direttivo - ESREA - European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, 2008
Research and teaching assignments
- Visiting Researcher - Expert of research: attività di ricerca, supervisione e insegnamento (livello dottorato), per studenti e staff. - University of Eastern Finland - Joensuu, 2018
- Attivita' didattica - Experienced supervisor at the Graduate School, Christ Church University, Canterbury. Attività di supervisione dei dottorandi, seminari e workshop per dottorandi e staff, conferenze. - Canterbury Christ Church University, 2013 - 2019
Congresses/Conferences
- Program committee - Urban-Related Sensoria: Environments, Technologies, Sensobiographies(Finlandia), 2020
- Program chair - ACTIVISM IN A TROUBLED WORLD - AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL AND NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON STRUGGLES FOR THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL(Regno Unito), 2020
- Program committee - Qualitative Inquiry as Activism(Regno Unito), 2019
- Program chair - Artful Languages and Narratives of Adult Learning(Norvegia), 2019
- Program chair - Quali conoscenze per quale società? Ricerca, alta formazione e apprendimento permanente: un dialogo tra università, pubblica amministrazione, imprese e terzo settore(Italia), 2018
- Program chair - Togetherness and its discontents(Italia), 2018
- Program chair - Contemporary Dilemmas and Learning for Transformation(Italia), 2018
- Program chair - "Discourses we live by"(Danimarca), 2017
- Program chair - "Imagining diverse futures for adult education: questions of power and resources of creativity" Maynooth University, Irlanda, ESREA VIII European Research Conference, 2016
- Program chair - "Resources of hope. The role of hope in adult education research"(Regno Unito), 2016
- Program chair - Stories that make a difference. Exploring the collective, social and political potential of narratives in adult education research(Italia), 2015
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Program chair - "Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative"
Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, ESREA, Life History and Biography Network:, 2014 - Program chair - “Researching Learning Lives: on discipline, inter-disciplinarity and imaginative imperatives in auto/biographical and narrative research” Christ Church University, Canterbury (UK), ESREA Life History and Biography Network, 2013
- Program chair - “Committed reflexive researchers and the challenges of interdisciplinarity in researching human lives”, International Seminar in Qualitative Methodologies, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, 2012
- Program chair - “Expanding connections: Learning, the body and the environment" University of Southern Denmark, Odense (DK), ESREA Life History and Biography Network, 2012