The Mobility Studies Podcast

Something as simple as recording a small portion of our daily commute can help us dive into complex questions about our agency, the use of public space, or even ethical questions of how to tell a story. Professor Chiara Rabbiosi, PhD in Urban and Local European Studies, and creator of the “Space, Place, Mobility” class, is very well aware of the potential of filmmaking as a research tool in the social sciences. In today's episode, Professor Rabbiosi goes into detail about how she started using this creative methodology as part of her in-class exercises, which unexpectedly led to insi...

One of the foundations of Mobility studies is its interdisciplinary approach to social phenomena in order to achieve the most comprehensive understanding of it. In today’s episode, Professor Matteo Bortolini, with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bologna, tells us about his rich research and academic background, his inspiration when designing a class, and the challenges of teaching sociology nowadays. With diverse research and teaching experiences in the United States and Europe, Prof. Bortollini emphasizes the importance of learning to extract and mobilize concepts from other disciplines, as well as the need to encourage students to write an...

How can Mobility Studies help to shape our personal growth and academic orientation? In this episode, we speak with Kosar Rousta, a recent graduate and tutor in the Mobility Studies program at the University of Padua. With a background in English translation and experience across education, and academic archives, Kosar offers a deeply interdisciplinary and international perspective on what mobility truly means—both as a scholarly concept and as a lived experience.
We trace her journey from translating texts across languages and cultures to researching overlooked figures in British Orientalism, particularly William Marsden, whose archival legacy spans continents and ce...

Technology has become essential in every aspect of life, and of course, the social sciences and humanities have taken this shift as an opportunity to re-think and re-imagine their craft. Professor Daniel Zilio has been working on understanding the mechanics of communication using technology as an extension to the historian’s research work. Join us in this discussion about his hands-on, creativity-driven approach to software and AI usage. We also talked about the challenges and possibilities of Zilio’s introductory course to Big Data analysis and programming and how his passion for board games inspired Maplee, a start-up that merges cult...

If mobility is everything, how can we limit our research? In this episode, Michael Vsemirnov, a former Master’s student in the Mobility Studies program and now a PhD student, told us about his academic journey and how he reinterpreted the term mobility, using it as a lens to study historical processes. We also discussed the possibilities and opportunities for Mobility Studies scholars and some tips and insights on the crafting and writing process of a Master’s thesis and a PhD proposal. 

This episode may be of parti...

We’re excited to welcome you to the very first episode of The Mobility Studies Podcast — a project created by Master’s students at the University of Padua.

Our first guest is Professor Lucio Biasiori, a historian of early modern Europe and lecturer of the course Ideas and Culture in Motion. In this episode, Professor Biasiori reflects on his academic path, how the concept of mobility unexpectedly became central to his work, and why it continues to shape his historical research today. Together, we explore what mobility means — not only as a subject of histo...