Dr Paola Filippucci

My current research centres on the former battlefields of the Western Front, and on how war is remembered and commemorated there in the 21st century. I am particularly interested in investigating the long-term social memory of the First World War among the populations who inhabit the former Western Front areas and were temporarily displaced by the conflict; and the relationship between this and the public and private remembrance of the military victims and events of the war. Another particular concern is the role of physical remains and material culture in commemoration and in social and personal memory. 

My ethnographic research currently focuses on the battlefield of Verdun (France) in the context of an E.U. sponsored project entitled ‘Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict’ (CRIC – see below). In collaboration with Prof. Jean-Paul Amat (Université de Paris IV) and Prof. Edwige Savouret (CEGUM-EA 1105, Université de Metz) I investigate the transformation of the Verdun battlefield from a site of memory in the 20th century, to a site of ‘cultural heritage’ in the 21st century. In an earlier phase of ethnographic research I concentrated on the Argonne, a forest area to the West of Verdun where I investigated local understandings of the past and the civilian memory of war. 

My research on conflict landscapes is also in part archaeological through my membership of No Man’s Land, a group specialising on Great War archaeology. Our main project at the moment is the Plugstreet Project (see below), consisting of the excavation of a segment of the 1914-‘18 frontline in the Wallon region of Belgium. This has recently included the retrieval, identification and reburial of the remains of an Australian soldier missing in action in 1917. 

In the context of this project I have also investigated ethnographically the local civilian memory of the Great War and the experiences of those involved in the excavation, DNA identification and reburial of the soldier's body, including archaeologists, families of the missing in action and others. Overarching themes in this last piece of research are the memorial role and figure of the war dead, and the relationship between anthropology and archaeology, both of which I am currently developing.

Research Projects

• Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology
• CRIC - Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict 2008-2012

• Plugstreet Project
   

   

Publications

Edited volumes

• 2019 M.-L. Sørensen, D. Viejo-Rose and P. Filippucci (eds.) Memorials in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict: from history to heritage. Palgrave Macmillan

Book chapters

• Accepted for publication (with L. Renshaw and D. Viejo-Rose) ‘From dead places to places of the dead: the memorial power of battlefields, ruins and burials in the warscapes of Spain and the Western Front.’ In T. Biers and M.K. Clary (eds) Handbook of Museums, Heritage and Death. Routledge
• 2021 ‘Life and death in a conflict landscape: local perspectives from the Western Front’ in N. Saunders and P. Cornish (eds.) Conflict Landscapes. Routledge, pp. 163-179
• 2020 ‘”These battered hills”: landscape and memory at Verdun (France).’ In Christian Horn, Gustav Wollentz, Giampiero di Maida, Annette Haug (eds.) ‘Places of Memory: spatialised practices of remembrance from prehistory to today’. Archeopress, pp. 82-96
• 2017 Témoins Muets/Mute Witnesses: ethnography and archaeology encounter the objects of the Great War. In M. Gellereau (éd.) Témoignages et médiations des objets de guerre en musée. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion
• 2015 (with Jean-Paul Amat and Edwige Savouret) “The cemetery of France”: the Ossuary at Douaumont and the Victory Monument at Verdun (France). In M.-L. Sørensen and D. Viejo-Rose (eds.) War and Cultural Heritage: biographies of place. Cambridge University Press
• 2012 (with Joost Fontein, John Harries and Cara Krmpotich) Encountering the past: unearthing remnants of humans in archaeology and anthropology. In D. Shankland (ed.) Archaeology and Anthropology: past, present and future. Berg, pp. 197-217 
• 2010 Archaeology and the anthropology of memory: takes on the recent past. In D. Garrow and T. Yarrow (eds.) Archaeology and Anthropology: understanding similarities, exploring differences, Oxbow Books, pp. 69-83
• 2010  Archaeology and memory on the Western Front. In D. Boric (ed.) Archaeology and Memory Oxbow Books, pp. 171-182
• 2010  In a Ruined Country: place and the memory of war destruction in Argonne (France). In N. Argenti and K. Schramm (eds.) Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission, Berghahn Books, pp. 165-189
• 2009 Heritage and methodology: a view from social anthropology. In M.-L. Stig Sørensen and J. Carman (eds.) Heritage Studies: methods and approaches. Routledge, pp. 319-325 
• 2009 Postcards from the past: landscape, place and the memory of War in Argonne (France). In P. Cornish and N. Saunders (eds.) Contested Objects: Material Memories of the Great War Routledge, pp. 220-236
• 2004 Memory and marginality: remembrance of World War I in Argonne, France. In D. Kaneff, F. Pine and H. Haukanes (eds.) Politics, Religion and Remembering the Past LIT-Verlag, pp. 35-57
• 2002 Acting local: two performances in North-East Italy. In M. Crang and S. Coleman (eds.) Tourism: Between Place and Performance  Berghan Books, pp. 75-91

Journal articles

• 2020 ‘”Dead for France”: things and memory in the “destroyed villages” of Verdun (France). In ‘The Surviving Thing: Personal Objects in the Aftermath of Violence.’ Special Issue (Z. Dziuban and E. Stanczik, eds.), Journal of Material Culture 25 (4): 391-407
• 2007/2008 (with Irene Peano) Introduction. In Boundary Crossings: a Festschrift in memory of Sue Benson, Special Issue (P. Filippucci and I. Peano, eds.), Cambridge Anthropology, Vol. 27, 2, pp. 1-9.
• 2004 A French place without a cheese: Problems with heritage and identity in Northeastern France. Focaal – European Journal of Anthropology 44, pp.72-86
• 2004 (with Perry Willson) Introduction. In Gender, Sex and the Family in Italy 1945 to the present'. Special Issue (P. Willson and P. Filippucci, eds.) Journal of Modern Italy, 9 (1), pp. 5-9
• 1997 Landscape, locality and nation: the case of Bassano. Paragraph, 20 (1), pp. 42-58
• 1992 Tradition in action. The Carnevale of Bassano, 1824-1989. Journal of Mediterranean Studies 2 (1), pp. 55-68

Online publications

• 2017 ‘Landscape’. In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/22art

• 2013 ‘Témoins Muets/Mute Witnesses: ethnography and archaeology encounter the objects of the Great War’ in TEMUSE 14-45. Actes du Symposium international. 13,14 septembre 2012, found at: http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/TEMUSE14-45/fr/