The "Mobility" program, set up by FBK to enhance the professional growth of researchers through international mobility experiences, allowed him to spend two months in Vienna to build stronger relationships with the scientific community by exploring new opportunities for collaboration.
From this brief interview, we’ll see how it went.
Dr. Costa, how would you define, with two adjectives, the study and work period you spent abroad?
Energizing and productive.
On which topics related to your research have you found elements for in-depth study?
If I have to choose the most important ones, I would mention three of them: religious pluralism; the great historical narratives; the new global political scenarios.
How do the research activities conducted by the researchers of the Center that hosted you compare to the studies that you are conducting?
Being it a rather varied community of researchers, the intersections have been many. With the philosophers, of course, but also with historians and social scientists. In general, the Institute that hosted me is a model for me, especially with regard to the freedom and thematic breath of the approach to the issues that are important to me.
Which research tools and interactions were you able to experience?
In the Institute there is an extensive program of seminars involving all the fellows and it is very useful to create or strengthen intellectual links that end up affecting the whole day. I don’t mean the hours of work only, but also more casual ones, like the common meal or impromptu conversations in the most varied occasions.
More generally, to which extent has your research been enhanced?
In general, I would say that I wrote a lot, often on topics relatively new to me and I took the opportunity to test new ideas that I gradually refined in a competent, passionate and, at times, even a little competitive (which is not bad) environment.).
Are there future collaborations with the Austrian work group in the pipeline?
I hope so. This was only the first step (actually, for me, the second) of an intellectual collaboration that I'm sure will prove to be fruitful. I’ve already written a little note for the journal of the Institute that hosted me ("Transit"), I contacted people for future activities of my Center (D. Martin, R. Barghava; C. Taylor). In short, I have laid the groundwork for a future that in part I struggle to imagine now, but I'm sure that will bring positive surprises.
Please tell tell us a story and/or a person that characterized your stay.
The person is definitely Charles Taylor, who supported my candidacy as a fellow, presided over the seminar (note: see link) that I held at IWM and also brought me the manuscript of a course on Dostoevsky held at Berkeley in the early seventies. Perhaps for most people this will not mean much, but for me it was a huge gift. The anecdote that was dearest to me, however, goes back to my arrival. When I first stepped into the Institute for the first time, the person who received me gave me the keys to the office and told me that, as far as they were concerned, I could also be in the building 24 hours a day, if it was useful for my research. I thought it was a declaration of confidence so great that I immediately felt at home.