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UID:pretalx-citizen-science-communication-trust-2026-B8RTTR@ifkw.rz.tu-bs.d
 e
DTSTART;TZID=CET:20261006T111500
DTEND;TZID=CET:20261006T113000
DESCRIPTION:This presentation examines one of Europe’s earliest universit
 y-organised festivals devoted to scientific documentary film\, established
  at the University of Padua in 1956 and active until 1975. Conceived in cl
 ose collaboration with the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica 
 di Venezia\, the initiative rapidly acquired international visibility and 
 became a significant reference point for scientific and educational cinema
  during the Cold War period.\n\nThe analysis situates the festival within 
 the epistemic and institutional framework of the post-war deficit model of
  science communication. From the outset\, the event was explicitly designe
 d to serve academic needs: it was organised by the university\, directed b
 y senior professors\, supported by successive rectors\, and oriented towar
 d higher education. Its intended audience was not a lay public but what co
 ntemporaneous reports described as an “extremely specialised” one: uni
 versity students in scientific disciplines\, researchers\, and disciplinar
 y experts. Films were selected and evaluated primarily for their didactic 
 and scientific value\, often through the involvement of academic specialis
 ts who assessed their relevance for university teaching. The festival thus
  operated less as a space for widening access to science than as an extens
 ion of disciplinary pedagogy and institutional authority.\n\nBased on arch
 ival documentation and oral history interviews\, the presentation reconstr
 ucts how this configuration generated a relatively coherent institutional 
 arrangement that endured for nearly two decades. The festival’s governan
 ce was markedly vertical and strongly personalised around its directors\, 
 whose authority shaped both programming choices and organisational structu
 res. Student participation played an important role\, yet mainly in the fo
 rm of extra-role organisational work embedded within academic hierarchies 
 rather than in decision-making processes. Participation\, in this context\
 , reinforced the boundaries of an expert-oriented public rather than expan
 ding them.\n\nThe long-term viability of the festival depended on sustaine
 d institutional alignment. Over time\, however\, the relationship between 
 the leadership of the initiative and the broader academic body weakened. F
 aculty engagement declined\, tensions emerged regarding priorities and gov
 ernance\, and university financial support diminished. Despite maintaining
  international connections and a global profile from its earliest editions
 \, the festival proved structurally dependent on internal academic recogni
 tion. International visibility did not compensate for the erosion of suppo
 rt within the university. Once that alignment faltered\, the organisationa
 l and financial foundations of the event collapsed\, leading to its closur
 e in the mid-1970s.\n\nBy revisiting this early European university festiv
 al for scientific documentary\, the presentation offers a historical count
 erpoint to contemporary participation-oriented models such as citizen scie
 nce. The case shows that participation can take highly institutionalised a
 nd vertically organised forms\, and that the stability of science communic
 ation initiatives depends on continued institutional recognition and inter
 nal legitimacy. In this sense\, the study invites reflection on how presen
 t-day participatory infrastructures are embedded within  (and dependent up
 on) specific institutional configurations that shape both their publics an
 d their durability.
DTSTAMP:20260721T201001Z
LOCATION:Room 1
SUMMARY:Academic Publics and Vertical Authority in One of Europe’s First 
 University Festivals for Scientific Documentary (1956–1975) - Davide Lud
 ovisi
URL:https://ifkw.rz.tu-bs.de/citizen-science-communication-trust-2026/talk/
 B8RTTR/
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