The Possibilities of Graphic Ethnography: An Interview with Claudio Sopranzetti, Sara Fabbri and Chiara Natalucci

Claudio Sopranzetti, Sara Fabbri, and Chiara Natalucci are the team behind the new graphic ethnography The King of Bangkok (University of Toronto Press 2021). The King of Bangkok tells the story of Nok, an urban migrant from Thailand’s northeastern region as he moves back and forth from his home village and attempts to build a life in the country’s capital across periods of massive economic growth and collapse and periods of democratic expansion, state violence, and political closure. Structured around a series of flashbacks, The King of Bangkok shows how these historical events shaped Nok’s life and how Nok’s life came to shape those events. The book was originally published in Italian (Add Editore, 2019) and was subsequently translated into Thai as Taa Sawaang (Awakening, อ่านอิตาลี 2020). In this interview we ask Claudio, Sara, and Chiara about their experience creating this text, its relationship with more traditional ethnographic genres of writing, and the effects their project has had in Thailand. We are delighted to feature a small section of the book following the interview

Excerpts from The King of Bangkok

This is an excerpt from The King of Bangkok. Originally appearing in Chapter 3, the section we present is a flashback that follows the book’s protagonist, Nok, on his journey to the island of Koh Pha-Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand. Nok has secured work on a construction site there during the height of the country’s economic boom. The section demonstrates how opportunity and precarity, excitement and devastation are fundamental forces animating and shaping the experiences of migrant workers like Nok

Alexithymia, Metacognition, and Theory of Mind in Children and Preadolescents With Migraine Without Aura (MWoA): A Case-Control Study

Background: Some studies have demonstrated the high impact of headache and migraine in several areas of children and adolescents’ life. In recent years, there has been an increase in scientific interest in the relationship between migraine and emotional regulation, investigating the possible consequences of emotional dysregulation on physical and mental health. While some studies have been carried out on the relationship between alexithymia and headache or migraine (especially in adults), no data exist on relationship between Theory of Mind (TOM), metacognition, and alexithymia in children and adolescents with migraine. Methods: Children with diagnosis of migraine without aura (MWoA) (36 males and 34 females) were compared to a healthy control group (31 males and 39 females). The age range was from 8 to 13 years in both groups. All children completed the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC) for the assessment of alexithymia levels and the Domain of Social Perception included in the NEPSY-II to evaluate levels of TOM. Metacognitive development was evaluated with Io e La Mia Mente for children aged between 8 and 10 years and with Metacognitions Questionnaire for Children (MCQ-C) for children from 11 to 13. Results: There were no differences between children with MWoA and the control group in metacognitive abilities; only in the subscale “Negative Meta Worrying” of MCQ-C girls scored higher than boys, regardless of the group they were part of. Also, in the NEPSY-II subscale there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. Children with MWoA scored higher in the AQC subscales “Difficulty Identifying Feelings” and “Difficulty Describing Feelings” than controls. Moreover, children between 8 and 10 years statistically differed from older children in “Difficulty Identifying Feelings” and in Total Score. Conclusion: Our data suggest that children with MWoA have no metacognitive and TOM problems compared to a healthy group. The experimental group showed higher traits of alexithymia, confirming what suggested by other studies in the literature. Future research will have to focus on migraine with aura and tension-type headache to evaluate any differences with children with MWoA

Dialogues: The King of Bangkok: A collaborative graphic novel

Published versio

Un metodo per l'elaborazione del piano di manutenzione dopo il restauro

Questo contributo ha come finalità la presentazione di un metodo per l’elaborazione del piano di manutenzione del Palazzo della Cancelleria a Roma, atto a preservare la materia restaurata, che si caratterizzi per praticità ed efficienza. Il sistema che si propone prevede l’utilizzo della tecnologia Building Information Modeling, attraverso la quale sarà possibile ottimizzare tempo e risorse economiche, organizzando le attività in grado di controllare, correggere e rallentare il normale degrado dei materiali costituenti l’opera architettonica