Publications

1.     (forthcoming) Pellegrinelli C., Silent Days and Sleepless Nights. The Mercurian: A Theatrical Translation Review.

2.     (forthcoming) Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., Breathing as intra-action. Contribution for the SI “On Breath” edited by Sozita Goudouna, Performance Research. For Vol. 29 (3).

3.     (forthcoming) Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C., Creativity. Encyclopedia Entry. Päivi Eriksson, Tero Montonen, Pikka-Maaria Laine, Anna Heikkinen (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Innovation Management.

4.     (forthcoming) Pellegrinelli, C, & Parolin, L.L., Change narrative thought theatre, The case of Bergamo ER theatre Covid play.  In L.L. Pulk, K., Labardin, P., & de Vaujany F-X., (eds), Historicity in Organization Studies: Describing Events and Actuality at the Borders of our Present. University of Cambridge Press.

5.     (2025) Pellegrinelli C., Performing Ensemble. Practices, Theatre, and Social Change, Brill Publisher.

6.     (2024) Pellegrinelli, C., & Parolin, L.L., Playing with theatre in research practices. On practising response-ability by doing research with an LGBTQIA+ theatre performance. In Cozza M., Carreri, A., Poggio, B. (Eds.) Ethics of Engagement in Research Practices: Response-ability in Organization and Management. Routledge, 59-73.

7.     (2024) Pellegrinelli, C., & Parolin, L.L., The cathartic value of applied theatre: a case from ER professionals in Bergamo. Nordic Theatre Studies, 36(1), 76-105. https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v36i1.152976.

8.     (2024) Pellegrinelli C., the drama play script “Giorni Muti, Notti Bianche” in P. Caponi, M. M. Coppola & F Di Blasio, (Eds.) When storytelling meets the cure: Interdisciplinary dialogues around illness and trauma, Other Modernities, Vol. 32.

9.     (2024) Pellegrinelli C. & Parolin L.L., Theatre, narration and memories of the pandemic. In P. Caponi, M. M. Coppola & F. Di Blasio, (Eds.) When storytelling meets the cure: Interdisciplinary dialogues around illness and trauma, Other Modernities, Vol. 32.

10.  (2024) Parolin L.L., Pellegrinelli C., Posthumanism and sociomaterial organising. The case of Superbergamo’s aid practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. In François-Xavier de Vaujany, Silvia Gherardi, Polyana Silva. Organization Studies and Posthumanism Towards a More-than-Human World. Routledge, pp. 183-208, ISBN 9781032614243.

11.  (2024) Parolin L.L., & Pellegrinelli C., Knowing in practice” in Posthumanist Practice Theory: A Cartography. Communication & Language at Work.

12.  (2023) Pellegrinelli C., Il teatro che da parola. Freak, mostri, cyborg e altre narrazioni postumane (The theatre that gives voice. Freaks, monsters, cyborgs and other posthuman narratives). Minority Report, 16 (1), 17-39.

13.  (2023) Pellegrinelli C, Extending Practice-Based Processual Organizational Creativity. Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-389-1

14.  (2023) Pellegrinelli, C., Parolin, L.L., Alice in Wondertheatre: an Affective Ethnography. In Cozza M. & Gherardi, S. (Eds) The Posthumanist Epistemology of Practice Theory: Re-imagining Method in Organization Studies and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 151-176. ISBN 978-3031422751. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-42276-8_6.

15.  (2023) Pellegrinelli, C., & Parolin, L. L. Post-anthropocentric Rehearsal Studies. A conceptual framework to account for the social and material mediations in performance-making. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 43(2), pp. 130-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2021.1979337

16.  (2023) Pellegrinelli, C., & Parolin, L. L., A dynamic view of organising: an integrative approach. In Secchi, D. Gahrn-Andersen R., and Cowley S., J., (Eds) Organizational Cognition. The Theory of Social Organizing, Routledge, pp.168-189.

17.  (2023) Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C., Media representation of mutual aid practices: Superbergamo as ‘good news’. Critical Discourse Studies, pp.1-18.  https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2022.2119267.

18.  (2022) Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C., Communication Technologies and Aid Practices: Superbergamo, Group chats, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers of Communication. Vol. 7, pp. 1-13.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.787202.

19.  (2022) Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., Castagna M., The Aesthetic Dimension of Care: Arts and the Pandemic. Organizational Aesthetics. Vol. 11 (1), pp. 180-198.

20.  (2022) Pellegrinelli C., Out of mind: radici, mappe e percorsi della creatività socio-culturale (Out of mind: roots, maps and paths of sociocultural creativity). Connessioni. n.9 http://connessioni.cmtf.it/out-of-mind-radici-mappe-e-percorsi-della-creativita-socio-culturale/

21.  (2021) Pellegrinelli, C., & L.L. Parolin, Bergamo Resiste. Storia di Superbergamo, solidarietà e attivismo al tempo del covid-19(Bergamo Resists: History of Superbergamo, Solidarity and Activism at the Time of Covid-19). People, Milano. ISBN 9791259790002.

22.  (2020a) Parolin, L.L., Pellegrinelli, C., Unpacking distributed creativity: analysing sociomaterial practices in theatre artwork. Culture & Psychology, vol. 26 (3), pp. 434-453. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X19894936

23.  (2020b) Parolin, L.L., & Pellegrinelli, C., Where does it come from? Collaborative emergence in creative work practices. New Ideas in Psychology, vol. 59, pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2020.100800.

24.  (2018) Parolin L.L., & Pellegrinelli C., Collective work practices in theatrical rehearses, Proceedings of the Participatory Innovation Conference PIN-C 2018, pp. 192-200. http://pin-c.sdu.dk/2018.html

Conferences

Convenor at Conference

2025

• Mattozzi, A., Parolin, L.L., & Pellegrinelli, C., “Creating, crafting, designing, fashioning, moulding, shaping, fixing. Aesthetic practices as instaurative practices: how to account for them and for the good they produce?”. 10th STS Italia Conference – Technoscience for Good. Polytechnique of Milan (Milan, Italy, June).

Conference Presentations on an Accepted Abstract

• Bruzzone S., Stridsberg H, & Pellegrinelli C, “Art-based methodologies for sustainability. Exploring ways of relating”. 10th STS Italia Conference – Technoscience for Good. Polytechnique of Milan (Milan, Italy, June).

• Parolin L.L., & Pellegrinelli C., “The affirmative force of queer joy”. International CriticalnManagement Studies (ICMS) (University of Manchester, UK, June).

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., “Queer Joy as Affirmative Force: The case of Orlando Queer Festival”, National Gender Conference. D’amore e di lotta. Disegnare politiche, alleanze e relazioni di genere, University of Trento, 14-15 February 2025 (Trento, Italy, February).

• Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C., “Participatory theatre methods for social research” presentation at the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry 2025 (Edinburgh, UK, January).

2024

• Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C., (2024) “Posthuman queering: The case of the ‘Stone’ play” European Group of Organization Studies, 40th EGOS Colloquium, University of Milan-Bicocca, (Milan, Italy, July).

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., “Storytelling for ethical, relational medical practices: Affective knowledge and the role of a theatre script”, Storytelling and Collaborative Future Making, Malmö University (Malmö, Sweden, May).

2023

• Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C., “Caring geographies of togetherness for a good life”, full paper presented at the European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS), Conference (Cagliari, Italy, July).

• Parolin L.L. & Pellegrinelli C, “´We don’t talk about abuse here. Flying monkeys and silence practices in academia”, Gender Work & Organisation Conference (GWO), (Cape Town, South Africa and Hybrid, June).

• Pellegrinelli C. & Parolin L.L. “A theatre drama, the pandemic and how to study storytelling as a continuous process of becoming” presented at the 13th Organizations, Artifacts & Practices (OAP) workshop, (Barcelona, Spain, June).

2022

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., “Posthumanism and sociomaterial organising. The case of Superbergamo’s aid practices during the Covid-19 pandemic” presented at the 12th Organizations Artifacts & Practices (OAP) workshop. (San Francisco, USA and Hybrid, June).

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., “A posthumanist approach to practice base creativity: the case of the new projection screen”. Full paper presented at After Methods (AMOS) - Mälardalen University, (Västerås, Sweden, June).

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., Castagna M, “The aesthetic of care: reflections from an art festival during the pandemic”. Presentation at the Art of Management & Organization (AoMO). (Liverpool, UK & Hybrid, August).

2021

• Parolin, L.L., Pellegrinelli C., “Superbergamo and the practice of care” Presentation at the Nordic Science and Technology Studies Conference 2021, (NSTS), (Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hybrid, May).

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., “Unfolding differences on stage. Bodies, practices and individuals in practice theory” Abstract accepted for Standing Conference in Organizational Symbolism –SCOS, CBS, Copenhagen (cancelled for COVID-19).

2020

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L. “Perform embodied storytelling. The case of Stella scorching” Abstract accepted for the conference The Role of Narratives and Storytelling in Organising for Sustainability: Perspectives in Dialogue, University of Southern Denmark, Odense (cancelled for COVID-19).

• Pellegrinelli C., Parolin L.L., “Working with senses: collective attuning in theatre artwork” Abstract accepted for the Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities Conference (OLKC), University of Aalborg, Copenhagen (cancelled for COVID-19).

2018

• Parolin L.L., Pellegrinelli C., “Collective work practices in theatrical rehearses”, paper presented at PIN-C Conference, (Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna).

2017

Parolin L.L., Pellegrinelli C., “Creativity in action. How to account for creative practices in the emergence of the new play process” abstract accepted at ARTEM Organizational Creativity and Sustainability International Conference. (Nancy, France).

  List of theatre plays written and directed   

  • 2023, Stone. Spettacolo teatrale diretto e scritto da C. Pellegrinelli. Con Laura Mola. Adattamento teatrale del romanzo "Stone Butch Blues" di Leslie Feinberg. Lo spettacolo è stato prodotto con Orlando Festival (Bergamo), maggio 2023.

  • 2023, Inedite, parole che cercano spazio. Spettacolo teatrale scritto da C.Pellegrinelli e diretto da Chiara Donizelli. Produzione dell'Eco di Bergamo per la Giornata Internazionale della Donna.

  • 2023, Giorni Muti Notti Bianche. Spettacolo teatrale scritto da C. Pellegrinelli e diretto da Silvia Briozzo. Una produzione Centro Isadora Duncan con il sostegno di ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII e Regione Lombardia. www.iltempodellacura.it.

  • 2021, La distanza della luna. Regia di C. Pellegrinelli. Adattamento teatrale del romanzo di Italo Calvino. Produzione di Luna e Gnac.

  • 2020, Pedala, Gino e Adriana Bartali nell'Italia del dopoguerra. Scritto da Federica Molteni. Regia di C. Pellegrinelli, produzione Luna e Gnac con Residenza Initinere, con il Comune di Selvino (Bergamo) e con il sostegno del Museo Ebraico di Sciesopoli.

  • 2019, Papavero, la tata che non poteva più volare. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli - produzione Teatro Prova, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo e Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo.

  • 2018, Parole in trincea. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, sostenuta da Regione Lombardia e Comune di Boltiere (Bergamo).

  • 2017, Ruote Rosa. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere. Sostenuta da Fondazione Cariplo e Regione Lombardia con NEXT 2016- Laboratorio di idee.

  • 2017, Urlo. Del tentato omocidio delle donne della mia generazione. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Università di Trento nel convegno nazionale "Saperi di Genere" come iniziativa del progetto europeo GARCIA, Gendering the Academy and Research combating Career Instability and Asymmetries (PI prof. Barbara Poggio)

  • 2016, Affoga nel mio corpo, non nel mare, scritto da Briozzo S. e C. Pellegrinelli, regia di C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo.

  • 2016, G.A.S, le avventure dei gruppi solidali d'acquisto. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere. Sostenuta da Fondazione Cariplo.

  • 2016, Gino Bartali, eroe silenzioso. Scritto da Federica Molteni, diretto da C. Pellegrinelli, produzione Residenza Initinere, sostenuto da Fondazione Cariplo.

  • 2016, El Chambalache, libera digressione sul tango. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli, produzione 'Compagnia teatrale Essere e Tempo', con MAITE, Bergamo Alta Social Club e Teatro Filodrammatici di Treviglio (Bergamo).

  • 2015, La cura, una storia per la Resistenza. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, con il sostegno di Consorzio Parco dei Colli, ISREC Istituto per la Resistenza e la Storia Contemporanea di Bergamo, AMPI Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia con Fondazione Cariplo e Fondazione Credito Bergamasco.

  • 2015, Mostri! Inno all'infanzia. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo e Regione Lombardia.

  • 2014, La vie de Carmen, fosse solo una questione d’amore. Scritto, interpretato e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo Milano e Orlando LGBTQIA+ Festival (Bergamo).

  • 2013, Fiatone, io e la bicicletta. Scritto e diretto da C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo, Regione Lombardia con NEXT 2013 - Laboratorio di idee, e della Settimana Europea della Mobilità 2014.

  • 2010, Serate Bastarde 2. Scritto da R. Ciaravino e C. Pellegrinelli, con R. Ciaravino, C. Pellegrinelli e S. Gallerano.  Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi, con il sostegno di Regione Lombardia NEXT 2012-Laboratorio di idee.

  • 2009, Serate Bastarde. Scritto da R. Ciaravino e C. Pellegrinelli, con R. Ciaravino, C. Pellegrinelli e S. Gallerano. Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi, in prima assoluta al Piccolo Teatro di Milano Festival Mix, Fringe Festival di Edimburgo, Kilowatt festival 2010, Teatro Out-off di Milano.

  • 2004, In provincia del mondo. scritto, diretto e interpretato da C. Pellegrinelli, produzione della compagnia Dionisi con il sostegno di Teatro Prova di Bergamo, Teatro Litta di Milano.

List of theatre performances as an actress

  • 2017, Urlo. Del tentato omocidio delle donne della mia generazione, di e con Carmen Pellegrinelli, con Silvia Briozzo & Simona Zanini, Università di Trento in Conferenza Nazionale "Saperi di Genere" e progetto europeo GARCIA.

  • 2016, Storie dal nido, di e con M. Eynard , F. Molteni e C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, sostenuta da Fondazione Cariplo e Regione Lombardia.

  • 2015, Medieval Night@Art2Night, produzione Residenza Initinere, con Consorzio "Parco dei Colli" di Bergamo e Art2Night Bergamo. Con C. Pellegrinelli, M. Eynard, F. Molteni, L. Baronchelli, P. Frugnoli.

  • 2014, La vie de Carmen, di e con C. Pellegrinelli, produzione Residenza Initinere, sostenuta da Fondazione Cariplo Milano e Orlando Festival (Bergamo).

  • 2014, Fuoriclasse, di e con Enzo Valeri Peruta, con C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione della compagnia teatrale La Pulce.

  • 2013, Storie e Rime disegnate, di e con M. Eynard, F. Molteni e C. Pellegrinelli. Residenza Initinere, con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo Milano e Regione Lombardia.

  • 2012, Pam, Parole a Matita, di Michele Eynard e Federica Molteni, con C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione Residenza Initinere, sostenuta da Fondazione Cariplo e Consorzio "Parco dei Colli" di Bergamo.

  • 2011, Serate bastarde 2, di e con R. Ciaravino e C. Pellegrinelli, con S. Gallerano. Produzione della Compagnia Teatro Dionisi.

  • 2011, Potevo essere io, di R. Ciaravino, con C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione della Compagnia Teatro Dionisi con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo.

  • 2010, BastHard Show, di e con R. Ciaravino e C. Pellegrinelli, con S. Gallerano. Produzione della Compagnia Teatro Dionisi, spettacolo di cabaret a Milano.

  • 2009, Serate Bastarde, di e con R. Ciaravino e C. Pellegrinelli, con S. Gallerano. Produzione della Compagnia Teatro Dionisi, in prima assoluta al Festival Mix di Milano, al Fringe Festival di Edimburgo, al Kilowatt festival 2010, al Teatro Out-off Milano.

  • 2008, Commedia, all'improvviso! Arlecchino precario servitore di due amori  di Renata Ciaravino, con C. Pellegrinelli a A. Centron, G. Baraldi, S. Gallerano. Produzione del Teatro Stabile della Sardegna e della Compagnia Teatro Dionisi con il sostegno di Fondazione Cariplo.

  • 2007, Polis, di R. Ciaravino, regia di V. Talenti con C. Pellegrinelli, musiche dal vivo di E. Longato & Carmen Pellegrinelli. Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi, con Out-off Theatre, Milano.

  • 2007, Eros, di R. Ciaravino, regia di V. Talenti con C. Pellegrinelli, produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi, con Out-off Theatre, Milano. Una produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi, con Out-off Theatre, Milano.

  • 2007, Opera Notte (senzacuore), di e con Renata Ciaravino. Regia di V. Talenti. Con C. Pellegrinelli, S. Gallarano, E. Brioschi, L. Piccolo, A. Centron, G. Baraldi, musiche dal vivo di E. Longato, M. Betti, D., Biscione, G. Sagone. Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi con Teatro Filodrammatici di Milano, Fondazione Culturale di Gallarate, Comune di Milano.

  • 2006, Zelig Lab, Carmen Pellegrinelli interprete per le serate di cabaret di Zelig, Milano.

  • 2005, Patate una parola senza denti sulla Guerra, di e con Renata Ciaravino, con C. Pellegrinelli, S. Gallerano, M. Facheris. Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi con Associazione Alef.

  • 2005, Lavandare, di e con Silvia Barbieri, con C. Pellegrinelli G. Marchesi, F. Carminati. Produzione Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 2004, In provincia del mondo, di e con Carmen Pellegrinelli. Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi con il Teatro Prova di Bergamo e il Teatro Litta di Milano.

  • 2003, Molti amori (diversi odii), di e con R.Ciaravino, con C. Pellegrinelli, S. Gallarano, A. Kian, A. Sanpaoli, M. Facheris & T. Lepore. Produzione della compagnia teatrale Dionisi con CRT e Teatro Verdi, Milano.

  • 2003, Colori e storie, di Oreste Castagna, con C. Pellegrinelli & A. Sachitellea produzione Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 2003, Sulle tracce di Puck, di F. Comana, con C. Pellegrinelli, E. Valeri Peruta, B. Covelli M. Eynard. Produzione del Teatro Ramli, Bergamo.

  • 2003, Un, due, tre: stella, di Silvia Barbieri con C. Pellegrinelli, S. Mecca, C. Masseroli. Produzione di Teatro Prova, progetto sostenuto dalla Provincia di Bergamo.

  • 2003, La strega, di Oreste Castagna, con C. Pellegrinelli, produzione Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 2002, Disco 80, educazione sentimentale e monopolio televisivo, di R. Ciaravino, con C. Pellegrinelli, M. Facheris S. Gallerano. Produzione Dionisi con "Teatro casa Alfieri" di Asti e Teatro Verdi di Milano.

  • 2002, Fantasia, di Silvia Barbieri, con C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione del Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 2001, I musicanti di Brema, di Silvia Barbieri, con C. Pellegrinelli. Produzione del Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 2001, L'opera da tre soldi di Bertolt Brecht, con C. Pellegrinelli. produzione Aslico "I Pomeriggi Musicali"-Teatro Dal Verme, Milano.

  • 2000, La piccola fiammiferaia, di Max Brembilla, con C. Pellegrinelli. produzione Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 1999, La bella e la bestia, di Silvia Barbieri, con C. Pellegrinelli. una produzione Teatro Prova, Bergamo.

  • 1999, I' vulesse fa' 'mmore co' Dioniso!, di Renata Ciaravino, con C. Pellegrinelli, M. Facheris, S. Gallerano. Produzione della Compagnia Teatro Dionisi con il Teatro Filodrammatici di Treviglio.

  • 1999, Lo Show stragicomico! Spettacolo concerto sulla strage di Piazza Fontana, di Renata Ciravino, C. Pellegrinelli, M. Facheris, S. Gallerano, produzione Compagnia Teatro Dionisi.

  • 1997, Fate , di Silvia Barbieri, con C. Pellegrinelli, G. Marchesi, P. Murinigotti una produzione di Teatro Prova con circuito ETI (Ente Teatrale Italiano).

           

bio

I am a postdoc at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Trieste and a research collaborator at the Department of Sociology at the University of Trento. I have a PhD from Lapland University and a long experience as a professional playwriter and director in theatre. I received my Master's degrees in Theatre (2003) and Clinical Psychology (2017) from the Universities of Bologna and Bergamo (Italy), respectively. I earned a PhD in multidisciplinary studies with a thesis on processual organisational creativity. I am a multidisciplinary researcher with a strong background in social science and an experienced performer, playwright, and director with over 25 years of experience.

Present scientific merits

My academic path started in early 2020, reflecting on collective creativity in organisations and exploring professional practices for staging a theatre show. My doctoral thesis (Pellegrinelli, 2023) emphasises organisational creativity’s relational, processual and sociomaterial aspects as a collective, collaborative, participatory process. It offers a new conceptualisation of organisational creativity as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon where knowledge, power, performance and sociomaterial dimensions intersect in practice to stimulate and produce creative emergence (Parolin & Pellegrinelli, 2020a; 2020b; Pellegrinelli, 2022; 2023; Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2022, 2024a, 2024b).

My interest in sociomaterial collaboration in creativity led me to investigate the collaboration in practice in spontaneous solidarity networks during the pandemic outbreak in Bergamo (Italy). With Laura Parolin (SDU), I studied an aid practice of Bergamo (Superbergamo) emerging from the civil society to support people in need during the worst peak of the pandemic in Western countries. The research produced a book addressed to the public (Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2021) and several academic publications (Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2024; Parolin & Pellegrinelli, 2022a; 2022b; Pellegrinelli et al., 2022).

The research focused on how people form solidarity networks by prioritising mutual care and assistance. One of the core elements that emerged in the study was how self-organised artistic activities were central to the people’s well-being during the pandemic. This reflection gave rise to an original conceptualisation, “care aesthetics”, conceived as a collective open-ended flow of mutual affect emerging from a collective ethical engagement in taking charge of a situation that elicits senses and tacit knowledge (Pellegrinelli et al., 2022).

An interest in deepening the care aesthetics concept guided me in further exploring how this flow of affects enabled collective expression, fostering relationships, collaboration, and healing. For example, I studied how ER doctors and nurses of the main hospital in Bergamo re-elaborate their traumatic experiences of COVID-19 through a theatre workshop, creating a collective performance. I was personally involved as a professional playwright in the ER workshop, and I wrote the text of the ER theatre play based on their testimonies (Pellegrinelli, forthcoming; Pellegrinelli, 2024a). The research, again with Parolin, carried out as affective ethnography, led to several research outputs (Parolin & Pellegrinelli forthcoming; Pellegrinelli & Parolin forthcoming; Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2023; Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2024a; 2024b).

On the same line, I investigated collaboration while theorising the concept of ensembles in theatre practices with a recent solo monography by Brill (Pellegrinelli, 2025). The book illustrates a sociohistoricalm and new materialist analysis of a European theatre company (ATIR) over thirty years. It highlights how a group’s performative capacity to make an ensemble stimulates its organisational and social processes. With a commitment to participation, listening, and horizontality, the ensemble challenges the structures of capitalism and fosters a vision of hope for societies. Here, I conceived the ensemble as an affective, sociomaterial and relational process that, from “being a chorus” in performance practices on stage, expands toward “learning-to-be-a-community” on an ethical and political level.

This recent work also relates to reflections about art-based methods in education, with two projects I am involved in as a researcher and theatre professional. The first, carried out with the Philip Barker Centre for Creative Learning, University of Chester (UK) research group, explores caring culture for the elderly: nurses’ experiences with theatre and acting (HoLLIE). In this group, I am collaborating with Tatiana Chemi, University of Aalborg (DK), Kristian Firing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO) and Nick Ponsillo, University of Chester (UK). The HoLLIE research has now been merged into a chapter in preparation for The Handbook of Creativity in Higher Education, edited by Daniel X. Harris, Danah Henriksen and Tatiana Chemi for Bloomsbury Academic.

The second is the Mälardalens University´s ARMESS project: Art-based methods for science education and sustainability, led by Silvia Bruzzone (MDU). In this project, we are reflecting on artbased workshops we conducted for students and teachers at MDU on pedagogical approaches that encourage more transformational and responsible learning and doing. We will present the first insights of our reflections at the 10th STS Italia Conference in Milan in June 2025.

About artistic practice for collaboration, I am also interested in exploring the potential of art as a medium for fostering collaboration, with a particular focus on its role in stimulating the expression of non-conforming subjectivities. Contributions have been published by me on utilising a posthumanist lens to interpret “differences” in a favourable manner, and on the capacity of art to facilitate self-expression among subjects (Pellegrinelli, 2024; Parolin & Pellegrinelli, 2024; Parolin & Pellegrinelli, 2024, paper accepted at 40th EGOS; Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2025, paper accepted at Italian National Gender Conference). I am currently engaged in a project with my co-author Parolin, the aim of which is to study a queer art festival called Orlando that has taken place in Bergamo since 2014, and its impact on the city’s social and cultural life. We recently submitted article, now under revision, title “Theorising Radical Queer Joy: The Case of Orlando Festival”, in the Theory, Culture and Society Journal and an abstract accepted at the International Critical Management Studies (ICMS) conference that will take place at University of Manchester in June.

Finally, I’m currently involved in research at the University of Trieste that explores collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence in dementia care practices. Drawing on a theoretical framework inspired by Science & Technology Studies, Organisation Studies and Medical Sociology, ANTICIPATE (AI and Dementia Care in Practice) offers an innovative perspective both in the specific debate on dementia and the broader discussion on the automation of care, shifting the focus from the outputs of algorithmic machines to “how algorithms work in the world”. The project focuses on implementing intelligent algorithmic machines (IAM) in residential and home care settings, considering how tele-assistance and robotics-based technologies interact with humans in care practices. An article with the project principal investigator, Francesco Miele, is in preparation, and the abstract has been accepted for a Special Issue of Salute e Società Journal volume 1/2026.

The methodological foundation of my academic work is based on qualitative and post-qualitative methods. I am currently contributing to the debate on post-qualitative methods with an in-depth study of Affective Ethnography (Pellegrinelli & Parolin, 2023) and the use of theatre to produce new research methods for the social sciences. Regarding affective ethnography, I am currently involved in a book project with Silvia Gherardi (University of Trento), Michela Cozza (MDU) and Laura Parolin (SDU), titled Affective Ethnography—Canon and dissonance of a research style. The book will explore affective ethnography and its experimental features by focusing on research practices.

The book proposal passed the first-round reviews for Bristol University Press and is now waiting for the final round with the publisher´s Publishing Committee and Editorial Board. Regarding the use of theatre for qualitative research, I am involved with Laura Parolin in a book project for Routledge (contract offered) that will explore the potential of theatre and performance to contribute to social sciences research methodologically. The book will be titled: Participatory Theatre Methods for Social Research and should be published in early 2027.

I presented my work in numerous seminars (8) and international conferences (18) during my academic path. Furthermore, I will present at the International Critical Management Studies (ICMS) conference in Manchester in June. Finally, I will be one of the convenors at the 10th STS Italia Conference, “Technoscience for Good”, with Alvise Mattozzi (University of Turin) and Parolin (SDU), for the stream: “Creating, crafting, designing, fashioning, moulding, shaping, fixing. Aesthetic practices as instaurative practices: how to account for them and for the good they produce?”. The stream aims to discuss descriptive and analytical frameworks and methods for studying the role of artefacts within aesthetic practices