Research Funding Developer
As a Research Funding Developer, Laura works with UCA academics and ECRs to identify external funding opportunities; provide advice and guidance on the funding landscape; develop research proposals; organise workshops, seminars and meetings to highlight funding opportunities and provide information on upcoming calls. She is also responsible for developing dedicated training programmes and documentation, as well as providing comprehensive pre-award support.
Bio
Laura Abbatino is a classically trained violinist and an experienced post-doctoral researcher in the field of philosophy of music, who has carried out funded research projects on musical aesthetics in 19th century Europe and published two monographs.
She began a brilliant career in classical music at a very young age, performing in concerts (as soloist and chamber musician) all over the world (Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, Mexico, China, Thailand, South Korea, Spain and Greece). For many years she has been first violin in the Symphonic Orchestra in Lecce, and in this role she played with the most prominent contemporary musicians (such as Richard Bonynge, Peter Maag, Gianandrea Noseda, Roberto Abbado, Ruggero Raimondi, Juan Diego Flores, Leonidas Kavakos, Ennio Morricone, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Salvatore Accardo, Paul Badura Skoda, Beatrice Rana, etc., to name just a few).
During this period, she also devoted her time to teaching (in state and private schools, as well as conservatoires), and managing symphonic and opera productions in the theatres of Palermo, Spoleto, Parma and Lecce.
Driven by an avid thirst for knowledge and a deep interest in philosophy, she took up the challenge of combining the work in the classical music with academic studies in philosophy. Encouraged by excellent results, she actively pursued this academic interest in the philosophy of music by undertaking a PhD and post-doctoral research.
Laura now has more than ten years of academic research in the field of Arts and Humanities, and more than fifteen years of work activities in several European HEI. For her research projects she has received funding from national (Italian) and European programmes: Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR); Life-Long Learning Programme, Erasmus+; Fernand Braudel – FP7 PEOPLE, Horizon 2020.
After doctoral and postdoctoral experiences in Italy (Università del Salento, Lecce), Germany (Johannes-Gutenberg Universität, Mainz) and France (Ecole Normale Supérieure and Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris), she moved to England.
From January 2018 to January 2023, she has been Visiting Fellow in the Music Department of the University of Southampton. In this capacity, she has been carrying on her research on philosophy of music and taking part in conferences across Europe. In association with the School of Humanities at UoS, she has also been involved in various activities, including teaching duties, tutoring, conferences, workshops, concerts.
Before joining the UCA Research Office last March, she worked as Research Funding Coordinator first and Research Funding Officer later in the Research Funding Development team at the RIS (Research and Innovation Department) at the University of Southampton.
Laura holds a PhD (excellent) in Philology and Hermeneutics and BA Hons (magna cum laude) in Philosophy from the Università del Salento – Lecce, Italy (respectively 2013 and 2006), a MA in Art Management from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milan, Italy, and a Diploma in Violin from the Conservatoire of Music “E.R. Duni” – Matera, Italy.
As an expert reviewer, she serves as an Expert Evaluator on the Social Science and Humanities panel for the European Commission Calls, and Peer Reviewer of EC-funded projects.
Research statement
From the beginning of her research career, Laura has tried to combine her dual expertise in philosophy and music, with a special interest in German culture. Her first book, a monograph entitled Nietzsche tra Wagner e Bizet (Pensa Multimedia, 2007), explores the relationship between the German philosopher and the world of music. Through an in-depth analysis of Nietzsche's life and thought, as well as his relationship with Wagner and the culture of the time, Laura convincingly argues that Nietzsche's praise of Bizet's Carmen was not driven by a simple desire of revenge against Wagner but was rather the product of a genuine evolution of Nietzsche's aesthetic thought.
Her second monograph, based on her doctoral thesis, further develops her interdisciplinary approach, but this time she focused her attention on a musician and his connections with the field of philosophy. In Robert Schumann filosofo. L'arte poetica romantica (Mimesis, 2016), Laura Abbatino brings forward the significance of Schumann's intellectual and critical work, and successfully demonstrates how the aesthetic ideas of the greatest thinkers of his epoch (Hegel, Schelling, Fichte, Schopenhauer, Jean Paul, and E.T.A. Hoffmann) influence his poetical and musical thought.
In 2015, Laura was awarded a Fernand Braudel International Fellowship. This grant allowed her to work on a new project on Debussy's aesthetics at the ITEM (Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes), a joint ENS-CNRS research institute in Paris. She is still working on this research, trying to trace the influences of Schopenhauer's philosophy in Debussy's artistic path, and, in particular, in his masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande. The analysis of the documentary corpus related to the opera and to the composer's life will shed light on the whole history of this opera and give new insights into Debussy's artistic creation.
Research outputs
Publications:
Monographs
- Abbatino, Laura, Robert Schumann filosofo. L’arte poetica romantica, pref. Elio Franzini, Mimesis Edizioni, Milano 2016, 310 pp. ISBN 978-88-5753-538-8
- Abbatino, Laura, Nietzsche tra Wagner e Bizet, Pensa MultiMedia, Lecce 2007, 208 pp. ISBN 978-88-8232-528-2
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Contributions to books
- Abbatino, Laura, La Lebensphilosophie schopenhaueriana e il Simbolismo francese, in: F. Ciracì, A. Mascolo (ed. by), Schopenhauer e la Lebensphilosophie, Diogene Edizioni, Napoli (forthcoming)
- Abbatino, Laura, Robert Schumann musicien philosophe, in: De Musica, Seminario Permanente di Filosofia della Musica, Università degli Studi di Milano (forthcoming)
- Abbatino, Laura, La musica «poetica» di Robert Schumann, in: Per mari inesplorati. Studi in onore di Domenico M. Fazio, Pensa MultiMedia, Lecce 2017, pp. 169-186. ISBN 978-88-6760-445-6
- Abbatino, Laura, From Kant’s «aesthetic idea» to Schumann’s «poetic idea», in PHILHIST 'สน16/ III. International Multitrack Conference on History of Philosophy, Delta Publishing, April 2016, Istanbul, pp. 18-26. ISBN 978-605-9207-22-5
- Abbatino, Laura, «Ich, Schopenhauer, bleibe Mozart und Rossini treu». Ein Konzert für Schopenhauer, in: Musik als Wille und Welt. Schopenhauers Philosophie der Musik, hrsg. von Matthias Koßler, Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, pp. 297-309. ISBN 978-3-8260-4423-6
- Abbatino, Laura, «Ich, Schopenhauer, bleibe Mozart und Rossini treu». Come costruire un concerto per Schopenhauer, in: La passione della conoscenza. Studi in onore di Sossio Giametta, Pensa MultiMedia, Lecce 2010, pp. 31-47. ISBN 978-88-8232-771-2
- Member of ARMA UK (Association of Research Managers and Administrators)
- Member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (RIP)
- Member of the British Society of Aesthetics (BSA)
- Member of the European Society for Aesthetics
- Member of the Società Italiana di Estetica (SIE)
- Member of the Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft
- Member of the Società Filosofica Italiana (SFI)
- 2006, 2nd Prize (essay-writing section), Premio Nazionale Letterario “La città dei Sassi”, Matera (Italy), with a text entitled “Un lembo di mezzogiorno in musica. La Carmen di Bizet vista da Nietzsche”
- 2009, PhD scholarship, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR)
- 2010, LLP/Erasmus+ grant, Germany – European Commission
- 2015, Post-doctoral Fellowship "Fernand Braudel”, France – European Commission, FP7 PEOPLE, Horizon 2020