Denis Francesconi, MA PhD
Denis Francesconi, MA PhD
Porzellangasse 4
1090 Wien
Room: 322
Consultation hour: by appointment via mail.
Research Areas
- Educational theory
- General Education
- Educational research
Research Focus
- Embodied education: embodied self; enactivism; extended mind.
- Quality of life: Beyond GDP; Quality of Life movement; sustainable wellbeing; embodied wellbeing.
- Systemic pedagogy: systems thinking; socio-ecological systems; collective identities and movements (e.g. FridaysForFuture); social learning; Anthropocene and planetary identity.
- Pedagogy of information: infosphere; knowledge and learning society; knowledge distribution and democratization; knowledge and power; datafication of education; education big data; data literacy.
Activities
- Co-PI of the FWF-project EQoL – Teaching the Good Life (12/2023–11/2026).
- Partner in the project STePS-Sensitise perception, recognize multiplicity: Children’s path to sustainability through narrative and participatory research hosted at the University of Bolzano-Bozen (IT).
- Teaching, research collaboration, and student supervision in the above mentioned areas.
Scientific profile
I received my Master’s degree in Educational Sciences from the University of Verona (IT) and my Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Education from the University of Trento (IT) (supervisor: Prof. Massimiliano Tarozzi). During my doctoral studies, I spent six months as a visiting scholar at the University of Central Florida, Department of Philosophy, under the supervision of Prof. Shaun Gallagher, and one year and four months at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, under the supervision of Prof. Kurt Fischer.
I have worked as a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Verona, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Aarhus University, where I was a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow (2018–2020).
Since 2023, I have served as an Expert Evaluator for the EU Horizon Europe MSCA programme.
Main research fundings
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF): EQoL – Teaching the Good Life (12/2023–11/2026) – 397.920,35 €.
- Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (IF), Horizon 2020, European Commission: School for Quality of Life. Policy, practice and theory for a quality of life approach in European school systems (SQoL) (07/2018-06/2020) – 200.012 €.
- Caritro-Bank of Trento-Rovereto: Embodied Wellbeing in Teacher Education. A pedagogical model (10/2014-12/2015) – 54.500 €.
- Mind & Life Institute, Amherst (MA), USA: Contemplative Practices in Teachers Education (2015) – 8.000 $. Principal investigator.
Functions
Substitute member for the D-SPL 59 Education Directorate of Doctoral Studies (Studienkonferenz der D SPL 59 - Doktoratsstudium Bildungswissenschaft).
Activities in scientific advisory board
- Founding member of SocSES – Society For Social-Ecological Systems
- Convener of the “Education in the Anthropocene Network”, WERA-World Education Research Area International Research Networks (IRNs) - WERA
- Founding member of the research group EMBodied EDucation (EMBED)