Margins and Forgotten Places

In 2020, a group of doctoral students decided to submit an interdisciplinary proposal for the organisation of the first doctoral conference of the newly founded United Doctoral School of the University of Verona. Despite the outbreak and long-term, socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic – which put academic activities under a severe strain – the conference proposal was warmly welcomed and promoted by the School as an opportunity for dialogue that could transcend disciplinary boundaries, and as encouragement to continue the too often underappreciated but significant work of scientific research at the margins and on the margins . It was from the concept of margins – seen as limit, as an opportunity, as a meeting place for contact and cross-fertilisation between definitions, traditional perspectives, societies, cultures – that the international conference Margins and Forgotten Places was developed. Our main imperative since the conception of this work was the application of multifaceted expressions of research innovation to socially relevant challenges of the present age. For this purpose we brought the commitment to collective well-being to the forefront of every discipline’s attention, and we allocated a full day to delve into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. Together with outstanding keynote speakers, more than sixty speakers presented their contributions, which are still available online on our YouTube channel, and which are partially published in this volume. In an increasingly alienating and highly specialised academic world, we, the Organising Committee, wish to advocate the choral value of scientific research and advise as many colleagues as possible to promote interdisciplinary initiatives that deepen the little, the small and the useless. Only by actively listening what is different, indeed, can we truly appreciate what we already know, thus using our positive attitude towards learning and researching knowledge beyond borders to imagine and shape a different future.