Robert Balzani (Forli, 1961) is professor of
Contemporary History at the Departement of History, Cultures, Civilizations (University of Bologna). After graduating in 1985 from the
“Cesare Alfieri” Faculty of Political Science of the University of
Firenze, he was a scholarship recipient at the European University
Institute (Istituto Universitario Europeo) from 1986 to 1989
(Department of History and Civilization) and then, from 1992, a
researcher in the area of Contemporary History at the Faculty of
Political Science of Florence. After moving to Bologna, he has
worked at the Faculty of Humanities since November 1, 1995, then at
the Faculty of Cultural Heritage Preservation, and then continued
with research activity at the Department of History.
Having studied the “school” of contemporary history of “Cesare
Alfieri” of Firenze, lead by Giovanni Spadolini and Luigi Lotti,
focusing mainly on the study of parties, the parliamentary leaders,
and the elections in Italy between 1800 and 1900, he then directed
his work in various directions (from the history of urban
infrastructures to the history of the local aministration and
services), and above all after his experience between 1986 and 1989
at the European University Institute of San Domenico uner the
direction of Peter Hertner. Between 1994 and 199, he was part of
the board of directors of the Italian Society for the Study of
Contemporary History (SISSCO), under the president Claudio Pavone.
Regarding his research interests, Balzani has focused on three
principle topics: political-cultural history, which he studied
during his years at “Cesare Alfieri”; social-economic history, or
administrative-economic, in which he was trained at the European
University Institute; and the history of collective mentalities of
cultural heritage.
He dedicated his recent studies to this latter research field, in
particular reconstructing the genesi of the protection laws of 1909
through the unpublished documentation of the Parliamentary
Archives. Balzani has also studied the prominent players in the
world of Italian fine arts from the turn of the century – in
particular Corrado Ricci and Luigi Rava -, bringing to light the
political-administrative correlations, aside from the historical
artistic ones, that characterize the Italian context in the
conservation of “monuments” and works of art in the decisive phase
of the “decollo” of the protection. Other qualifying points of his
research are, furthermore, the comparison between Italy and France
– always within the theme of conservation –, the reconstruction
of the first “protectionistic policies” in the Risorgimento
period, and the development of cultural heritage policies from 1972. He also played a role in the direction of “Memory and Research” and of the journal “Contemporanea”. He is a direction' member of the journal "Il Risorgimento". He is a Editorial board' member of the journal "The International Journal of Museum Studies". He runs the Museums of Bologna University (in charge from 2015),the Archives of Bologna University. He was the president of the Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage of the Emilia-Romagna Region (2017-2020). He was also member of the ANVUR Commission on "Third Mission and Social Impact" (2017-2109). From 2020 to 2020 he was GEV expert (ANVUR) for the evaluation of research quality (VQR) 2015-2019, Third Mussion (Cultural Heritage). In 2021-2022 he took part in the Committee for the design of the training and skills upgrading plan to support the project "Digital platforms and strategies for cultural heritage", Fondazione Scuola Beni e Attività Culturali, Rome. From 2021 to 2023 he has been part of the Scientific Board of the Institute for the History of Italian Risorgimento, Rome. Since 2024 he has directed the Historical Museum of the Liberation of Rome. Since 2024 he has been director of the Department of History Cultures Civilisations at Unibo.
