Amilonga at Scalo September 9th 2021

Donatella Davanzo is an Italian American cultural anthropologist and documentary photographer with an American Studies Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico (2018), and double MAs from Italy in Cultural Anthropology (2004) and Communication (2002). During her doctorate, she also attended and completed the Historic Preservation and Regionalism graduate certificate program (UNM School of Architecture and Planning). Her research focus is the interaction of communities and their own landscape using the method of visual ethnography to explore the organizations of space as social constructs. In the Southwest area Davanzo recorded Native American communities, historical sites, and the acequias of New Mexico. In urban contexts, she documented the historic sections of Route 66 in Albuquerque as the main theme for her doctoral dissertation. Working as the official photojournalist for the Italian Public Administration in Trieste (Italy), she developed projects centering on the social works, such as the clown-doctors and cultural mediators. In Venice, Davanzo visually captured traditional crafts in that region and stories of tango dancers published in her first book Tango in Venice. Expression of a rite (2011). Besides artistic exhibitions in the US, Italy, and abroad, her visual documents have appeared in anthropological monographs, articles, and international seminars.