Mapping Memories, Charting Empathy. Framing a collaborative research-creation project

This short dialogue presents the theoretical framework used by the two authors – a visual artist and a social anthropologist of Judaism – as the starting point for the development of a scientific partnership. The aim of the collaboration is to explore the potential of “research-creation” (Giacco et al. 2020) to find alternative ways of representing ‘difficult stories’, like those of Jewish migrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. Specifically, the authors are experimenting with creative visualisations inspired by maps, in all their various forms and in all meanings of the word.