Alea

Alea Independent Journal of Anthropological Practices. Alea è una rivista indipendente di antropologia culturale.

On Thursday 12 February, we will officially launch the first issue of Alea’s new editorial cycle together with Frab’s Ma...
02/02/2026

On Thursday 12 February, we will officially launch the first issue of Alea’s new editorial cycle together with Frab’s Magazines.

It will be a chance to meet, chat, and exchange thoughts on The Long Goodbye and on the project’s new editorial direction. We look forward to seeing you at 6:30 PM!

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Giovedì 12 febbraio, lanceremo ufficialmente il primo numero del nuovo ciclo editoriale di Alea, ospitati da Frab’s Magazines.

Sarà un’occasione per incontrarvi e scambiare qualche chiacchiera su Il Lungo Addio e la nuova direzione editoriale del progetto. Vi aspettiamo alle 18.30!

In the mountain community of Val di Scalve, a tragic past questions the uncertain present of Italy’s inner territories.F...
27/01/2026

In the mountain community of Val di Scalve, a tragic past questions the uncertain present of Italy’s inner territories.

For the new issue of Alea, The Long Goodbye, we returned to the field to retrace the dramatic story of the Gleno dam, which collapsed in 1923 after a series of structural negligence, killing more than 300 people. Starting from the historical memory of that event, we explored today’s social and cultural challenges—held together by strong communal ties yet strained by economic and demographic uncertainty.

This reportage is extracted from Alea Issue No. 1 – The Long Goodbye (2025).
Get your copy in our shop.

Read the full version on the Digest — https://www.aleamag.com/digest/glen-journey-into-the-sunken-valley

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Nella comunità montana della Val di Scalve, un passato tragico interroga il presente incerto delle aree interne.

Per il nuovo numero di Alea “Il lungo addio”, abbiamo ripercorso sul campo la drammatica vicenda della diga del Gleno, crollata nel 1923 in seguito a una serie di negligenze costruttive che causarono più di 300 vittime. A partire dalla memoria storica dell’evento, abbiamo provato a interrogare le sfide sociali e culturali del presente, caratterizzato da solidi legami comunitari ma anche da profonde incertezze economiche e demografiche.

Il reportage è un estratto di Alea Vol.1 – Il lungo addio (2025).
Acquista la tua copia ora nel nostro shop.

Leggi la versione integrale del reportage sul Digest – https://www.aleamag.com/digest-posts-it/glen-viaggio-nella-valle-sommersa

«After the initial disorientation that, to be honest, had weakened our first attempts to explore the Lands Between, we t...
16/01/2026

«After the initial disorientation that, to be honest, had weakened our first attempts to explore the Lands Between, we tried to reorganize the entire editorial project, guided by an intuition that was, in a sense, paradoxical: the escape velocity from the dimensional upheaval of the Long Goodbye was immobility. Written on the whiteboard, the equation of the Long Goodbye gave us not a solution but a breach of understanding. We needed the courage to stay put, to take a grounded, immovable position, to hold a gaze carved into the precariousness of time».

The editorial of Alea Issue No.1 – The Long Goodbye is online on our website – check the link in bio. Read it now and purchase your copy of the magazine.

Francesco Danesi della Sala holds a PhD in Cultural and Social Anthropology. His research focuses primarily on environmental issues and the climate crisis. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the seismic crater of central Italy and in the Po River Delta. He serves as editor-in-chief of Alea – Independent Journal of Anthropological Practices. In 2025, he published Nature ribelli. Viaggio nella metamorfosi climatica alle foci del Po (Wetlands).

The Long Goodbye is available in our shop: alemag.com

Silvia Pizzirani, for the new issue of Alea, has compiled a bulletin of failed utopias. A true instruction manual in rev...
23/12/2025

Silvia Pizzirani, for the new issue of Alea, has compiled a bulletin of failed utopias. A true instruction manual in reverse—a guide on how not to build the future.

Tomorrow marks the end of the pre-order for Issue No. 1 – The Long Goodbye, with free shipping in Italy. Treat yourself to a different kind of utopia and support our independent editorial project.

Pre-order now - aleamag.com

On the morning of December 28, 2022, the colonnades of the neoclassical Sauto Theater were crowded with young people in ...
19/12/2025

On the morning of December 28, 2022, the colonnades of the neoclassical Sauto Theater were crowded with young people in white coats. Among them were María Paula, Ibis, and Cynthia. Together, they had studied medicine at the University of Matanzas, a city of 140,000 people located 100 kilometres east of Havana.

Two years have passed since that morning at the theatre. Now 25, with medical degrees in hand, María Paula, Ibis, and Cynthia have learned that growing up means accepting that some promises will never be kept, and that some decisions are irreversible. Their stories are emblematic of what young and older doctors across the Caribbean nation are experiencing: Cuba’s public healthcaresystem—long celebrated as a globalmodel—is undergoing a crisis that appears irreversible.

Federico Nastasi is a freelance researcher and journalist. He is the author of Taccuino Latinoamericano, a fortnightly newsletter on Latin America for the think-tank CeSPI, and teaches at the journalism school of the Fondazione Basso.

Julio César García is a Cuban photographer from Matanzas trained at the School of Art Instructors of Matanzas. He has worked for cultural institutions and publications in Cuba and has exhibited in Cuba and abroad, including New York and Matanzas.

To read more, pre-order your copy of Alea Issue No. 1 – The Long Goodbye:
→ aleamag.com/product/alea-no-1---the-long-goodbye

Pre-orders have been extended until 24 December, so don't miss out!

After October 7, a surge of illustrated tunnel maps in global media reshaped how Gaza’s underworld was imagined. Kaitlan...
16/12/2025

After October 7, a surge of illustrated tunnel maps in global media reshaped how Gaza’s underworld was imagined. Kaitlan Bui examines how such cartographies blur journalism and fantasy, turning subterranean space into a visual technology that naturalizes violence.

What’s interesting about these maps is that they’re not an actually functional cartography. They lack any real information or specificity—geographical, topographical, military, technical. This intense lack of information is replaced by an intense excess of something else: fabulated imagery.

Kaitlan is a Vietnamese American writer based in London. She works on postwar narratives, public memory, and global violence and is pursuing a Master’s in Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS. Her essay features original illustrations by collage artist and anthropologist Benedetta Onnis.

To read more, pre-order your copy of Alea Issue No. 1 – The Long Goodbye: www.aleamag.com/product/alea-no-1---the-long-goodbye

***

Dopo il 7 ottobre, la proliferazione di numerose mappe sui tunnel di Gaza ha trasformato l’immaginario del suo sottosuolo. Questo saggio analizza come tali cartografie, sfumando giornalismo e fantasia, hanno trasformato lo spazio sotterraneo in una tecnologia visiva che normalizza la violenza.

Ciò che colpisce di queste mappe è che non si tratta di una cartografia realmente funzionale. Manca qualsiasi informazione o specificità reale – geografica, topografica, militare, tecnica. Questa notevole mancanza di informazioni è rimpiazzata da un notevole eccesso di qualcos’altro: immagini inventate.

Kaitlan è una scrittrice vietnamita-americana residente a Londra. Il suo lavoro guarda alle narrazioni post-belliche, alla memoria pubblica e alla violenza globale. Sta completando un master in Migration and Diaspora Studies alla SOAS. Il suo saggio è accompagnato dalle illustrazioni originali dell’artista di collage e antropologa Benedetta Onnis.

Pre-ordina la tua copia di Alea Vol. 1 – Il lungo addio:
→ www.aleamag.com/product/alea-no-1---the-long-goodbye

Sabato 13 Dicembre torneremo in Val di Scalve per presentare il documentario breve realizzato nell'ambito del nostro rep...
05/12/2025

Sabato 13 Dicembre torneremo in Val di Scalve per presentare il documentario breve realizzato nell'ambito del nostro reportage etnografico “Glen: viaggio nella valle sommersa”. La proiezione e l'incontro si terranno presso il Palazzo Pretorio di Vilminore di Scalve, sede della comunità montana locale. Vi aspettiamo dalle ore 17.00.

Dalla redazione: Francesco Danesi della Sala / Chiara Generali / Diego Oberti

L’evento fa parte di un progetto sviluppato grazie al Bando Territorio e Cultura 2025, con il contributo della Provincia di Bergamo. L’iniziativa è patrocinata da: Comune di Vilminore di Scalve / Comunità montana della Val di Scalve / Comitato per il Centenario del Gleno.

It is said that the name Gleno derives from the Gaelic glen, meaning ‘narrow glacial valley’. Yet, in Val di Scalve, the...
03/12/2025

It is said that the name Gleno derives from the Gaelic glen, meaning ‘narrow glacial valley’. Yet, in Val di Scalve, the name carries a meaning far beyond topography. In Val di Scalve, Gleno is a deep wound.

Through an ethnographic reportage by Francesco Danesi della Sala and Pasquale Menditto, and an archival visual itinerary curated by Chiara Generali, we explored the history of the Gleno dam, which collapsed in 1923, submerging an entire valley and the communities who lived there. It is a fieldwork-based project that weaves cultural memory together with the social and environmental challenges of the present, where conflicting ecological and identity-driven visions collide—from the economic ambitions of large development plans to attempts at revitalising an extremely rich and heterogeneous cultural fabric.

To read more, pre-order your copy of Alea Issue No. 1 – The Long Goodbye:
→ www.aleamag.com

This project was developed within the Bando Territorio e Cultura 2025, with the support of the Province of Bergamo. Special thanks to the Comunità Montana of Val di Scalve and the Committee for the Centenary of Gleno for their collaboration and support.

Pre-orders for Alea – Issue No. 1 ‘The Long Goodbye’ are now open. This issue inaugurates a new cycle for the magazine, ...
28/11/2025

Pre-orders for Alea – Issue No. 1 ‘The Long Goodbye’ are now open. This issue inaugurates a new cycle for the magazine, now published annually in a fully bilingual Italian–English edition. The Long Goodbye is a journey into the twilight Interregnum in which we seem to be trapped—caught between the ruins of a past that continues to haunt the present and the glimpses of alternative futures emerging within our collective imaginaries.

▸ Pre-order link in bio – free shipping within Italy throughout the month of December!
▸ Publication date: 19 December.
▸ Orders will be shipped after the Christmas holidays to avoid logistical delays.

Contributions by: Lorenzo Alunni, Elisa Nocentini, Kaitlan Bui, Benedetta Onnis, Federico Nastasi, Julio César García, Jatin Dua, Cush Rodríguez Moz, Luisa T. Schneider, Anastasiia Omelianiuk, Mir Fatimah Kanth, Iacopo Nassigh, Francesca Morra, Claudia Squarzon, Silvio Mottolese, Vera Lazzaretti, Uyen Dang, David Rypel.

Our sincere thanks go to the mountain community of the Scalve Valley and to Stefano Albrici for their invaluable collaboration. A special thanks to Matteo Nanni for his support with the translation work.

With the support of the Province of Bergamo, through the Culture and Territory Grant, for the production of an ethnographic reportage in the Scalve Valley.

Cover artwork by artist and photographer Federica Natali – the original photograph was printed using the cyanotype technique and then digitally scanned.

Pre-order your copy: https://www.aleamag.com/product/alea-no-1---the-long-goodbye

Design: Studio Bagliore / Diego Oberti

On the threshold of a new beginning. A step into twilight. This playlist, curated by Andrea Salute, is a sonic journey i...
14/11/2025

On the threshold of a new beginning. A step into twilight. This playlist, curated by Andrea Salute, is a sonic journey into the new chapter of Alea – the first issue ‘The Long Goodbye’ is scheduled for release in December 2025.

☞ Check the link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2c9uAmdbtcuOg1NOrIxoA5

***

Sulla soglia di un nuovo inizio. Questa playlist, curata da Andrea Salute, è un viaggio sonoro nel nuovo capitolo di Alea – il primo volume “Il lungo addio” è previsto per dicembre 2025.

☞ Per ascoltare: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2c9uAmdbtcuOg1NOrIxoA5

Attention, attention! It’s time to clear out the warehouse. The new issue of Alea, “The Long Goodbye”, is on its way. Bi...
01/10/2025

Attention, attention! It’s time to clear out the warehouse. The new issue of Alea, “The Long Goodbye”, is on its way. Big discounts, big deals, big treasures for all of you always on the hunt for rare anthropological artifacts!

Starting today and until October 15, everything in the shop is 50% off. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s your move.

Shop now: www.aleamag.com

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Attenzione, attenzione! È arrivato il momento di svuotare il magazzino. Il nuovo numero di Alea, "The Long Goodbye" sta per arrivare. Grandi sconti, grandi offerte, grandi affari per voi che siete sempre in cerca di rarissimi manufatti antropologici!

A partire da oggi, fino al 15 ottobre, tutto lo shop è scontato del 50%. Signore e signori, fate la vostra mossa.

Link allo shop: www.aleamag.com

Per il nuovo numero di Alea “Il lungo addio” accogliamo nella sezione Fieldwords brevi testi tratti da esperienze etnogr...
23/09/2025

Per il nuovo numero di Alea “Il lungo addio” accogliamo nella sezione Fieldwords brevi testi tratti da esperienze etnografiche di ricerca sul campo. Vogliamo vivere i luoghi della ricerca con i vostri occhi, entrare in contatto con i vostri pensieri e le vostre emozioni. Raccontateci le vostre attività di ricerca attraverso le pagine del diario di campo: aneddoti personali, difficoltà, imprevisti e bizzarrie di ogni tipo.

I contributi potranno avere una lunghezza massima di 400 parole e dovranno essere accompagnati da un massimo di 3 fotografie originali, insieme a una breve nota biografica.

Deadline: 10 ottobre

Invia il tuo contributo a:
→ [email protected]

Per maggiori informazioni:
→ [email protected]

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For the new issue of Alea, “The Long Goodbye”, we welcome short texts in the Fieldwords section, drawn from ethnographic fieldwork experiences. We want to see research sites through your eyes, to get in touch with your thoughts and emotions. Share your field diary with us: personal anecdotes, challenges, unexpected turns, and oddities of all kinds.

Submissions should be no longer than 400 words and accompanied by up to 3 original photographs, along with a short biographical note.

Deadline: 10 October

Send your texts to:
→ [email protected]

For more information:
→ [email protected]

📸: Macchu Picchu, Nicoletta Matera, 1979.

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