Newsletter
Editor-in-Chief of MCAA publications and co-lead of the Research Ability Initiative, Gian Maria Greco looks forward to working in his new role as a Board Member.
Gian Maria Greco, in his own words
Currently, I am a senior research fellow at the University of Macerata (Italy), where I recently moved after spending some years around Europe. I hold a PhD in Philosophy and a PhD in Translation Studies and my research focuses on theoretical and practical issues in access and accessibility studies, especially in relation to human rights, the media and translation.
I also have extensive experience as an accessibility consultant and accessibility coordinator for public institutions and private organisations regarding policies, live events, museums, and cultural heritage.
Gian Maria is a newcomer to the Board, but not at all new to the MCAA community. For years now, he has been providing key contributions to the development of our association, for example, as the editor-in-chief of the MCAA Newsletter and IRRADIUM magazine and the co-lead of the Research Ability Initiative. He is ready to bring his experience and passion to his new role as a Board member.
Facing the challenges ahead
While honoured to start a new experience as a Board member, Gian Maria is also conscious of the responsibility of this position. ‘The MCAA is at a critical juncture and will soon have to deal with what probably is the greatest challenge it has faced so far. Its management and financial procedures will change radically over the next two years’.
He is looking forward to working with the other Board members and says that he is ‘confident in their skills and commitment’. He adds that, ‘Under the leadership of the new Chair Fernanda Bajanca, I am sure that the Board will rise to the challenge and lead the MCAA community into a new chapter of our history’.
The value of diversity
Gian Maria has a strong interest in the issue of diversity, which comes from his research expertise as well as life experience, and he sees it as a specific character of our organisation. ‘Diversity is not only a core value of the MCAA community, but also one of our most distinctive traits,’ says Gian Maria, ‘Our members come from the most different backgrounds. We have a profusion of languages, cultures, and social contexts, but also of disciplines and approaches. This gives the MCAA a fantastic opportunity to look at society and research. This is why, during his tenure as a board member, he wishes ‘to further make diversity one of our strengths. The MCAA voice is unique because it is a multitude of voices. I wish to work with the Board and our community to increase this wealth even more and make it visible on the research agenda’.
The importance of communication
Gian Maria has been working intensively on the MCAA communication outlets, and he is ready to take his commitment one step further. ‘Last year, I led the expansion of the MCAA into book publishing and we are now a proper publisher. So far, we have published only the Book of Abstracts of the 2021 poster sessions, and we are currently finalising two more books: the 2022 Book of Abstracts and the Proceedings of the 2021 Annual Conference. Besides these, our publishing side has been on hold. Ruben Riosa, the Chair of the Communication Working Group, and Valentina Ferro, former MCAA Vice-Chair, and I are working hard to develop this new venture’, he says. Gian Maria believes that this could be a strategic path for the growth of the association: ‘the MCAA is widely acknowledged as an important actor in many areas, such as science diplomacy and science policy. As a book publisher we could provide our members with the opportunity to strengthen our positioning with focused, well-tailored books, as well as the opportunity to publish on other subjects’.
Ruben Riosa
MCAA Editorial Board