Introduction and presentation of the AISTHiM Management Committee
Between 12 and 15 September 2017 more than thirty Italian researchers working on Tibetan, Himalayan and Mongolian civilizations gathered at Scuola di Procida for the Alta Formazione – University of Naples "L’Orientale") for the founding conference of the Italian Association of Tibetan, Himalayan and Mongolian Studies (Associazione Italiana di Studi Tibetani, Himalayani e Mongoli) - AISTHiM.
This conference was the initiative of Giacomella Orofino, Professor of Tibetan Language and Literature at the University of Naples "L’Orientale" (Università degli Studi di Napoli "L’Orientale") and was organised by Emanuela Garatti (doctoral student at both the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris and Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich), Valentina Punzi (postdoctoral fellow at the University of Naples "L’Orientale"), Carmen Simioli (Chinese language teacher at the Istituto Statale di Istruzione Superiore Leonardo da Vinci in Naples) and Davide Torri (postdoctoral fellow at the University of Heidelberg).
The conference addressed the following topics : religious traditions and the most pressing issues in the modern and contemporary cis-Himalayan and trans-Himalayan world, including ecology, medicine, art and iconography. The disciplines represented included, among others, history, social anthropology, philology, archaeology and linguistics. Participants, who studied at the major Italian universities (Rome, Venice, Turin, Bologna and Naples), came not only from Italy, but also from France, Germany, Greece, the United States and Canada.
On 14 September the founding assembly of the Association adopted the general Rules and Regulations of the Association. The main objectives given in the regulations include promoting research on Tibet, Mongolia and the Himalayan region through the organization of conferences and artistic and cultural events, the publication of scientific works and the popularisation, dissemination of information on the civilizations in these regions, as well as collaborations with other institutions.
The founding assembly also elected the AISTHiM Management Committee for a first three-year term. The Board comprises five members :
the President, Giacomella Orofino, Professor of Tibetan Language and Literature at the Asia, Africa and Mediterranean Department, University of Naples "L’Orientale" ;
the Secretary, Andrea Rocco, lecturer in Indo-Aryan Linguistics at the Department of Studies on Asia and Mediterranean Africa, Ca ’Foscari University, Venice ;
the Treasurer, Carmen Simioli, Chinese language teacher at the Istituto Statale di Istruzione Superiore Leonardo da Vinci, Naples.
The other two members of the management committee are :
Chiara Letizia, professor of religious traditions of South Asia, Department of Religious Studies, University of Quebec, Montreal (UQAM) ; and
Federica Venturi, researcher at the Centre de la Recherche sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale in Paris for the TibArmy ERC project and Visiting Research Scholar at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University Bloomington.
The Management Committee’s first task will be the publication of the conference proceedings.