Sandra Annunziata (1979-2019)

In Memoriam Sandra Annunziata

On Friday, 4th of January, suddenly dr. Sandra Annunziata passed away. A regular contributor to the AESOP's initiatives, she was a tireless and committed researcher, bringing the whole of her originality and curiosity into her studies.

Sandra graduated in Architecture at the IUAV of Venice. In 2008, she defended her Ph.D. thesis at the University of Roma Tre. The dissertation dealt with the processes of gentrification and neighbourhood change in contemporary cities in Rome and Brooklyn (NY). Later, she investigated the forms of urbanity in a few newly built urban developments in Rome. After her PhD, she carried out studies and fieldwork at Columbia, New York (2007), Cornell, Ithaca (2011), as well as at Weimar (2008-9), l’Institute de Research Social of the University of Genève (2012) and Leicester Universities.

Soon awarded the Ferraro and the Clarence Stein awards for research, she was also visitor critics at the Cornell University, Rome Program where she taught European Cities. Trespasser of disciplinary boundaries, ignoring sterile academic labels, she lived a fertile, proactive life in Italy and abroad without falling into the current rituals of distrust, indifference and aestheticisation.

Critically cautious, never scared to get her hands dirty in yet another research project, she stubbornly engaged several professional and political networks around her research findings. On January 8th, today, Sandra would have been 40. She leaves a beloved daughter Elena, her partner Francesco, and a vast and astonished group of friends.


Marco Cremashi