Gabriella Corona Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies National Research Council Via Pietro Castellino, 111 Napoli, Italy gabriella.corona@issm.cnr.it

Gabriella Corona graduated at “la Sapienza” University in Rome in 1986. During the subsequent years she conducted research on land in Italian history, with a special focus on technical innovations and the productivity of agricultural labor in the 19th and 20^th century. She became a member of the board of the "Istituto di storia e scienze sociali" in Rome. During this period she made contact with Spanish students of rural history. Her main publications from this period are “I mutamenti della tecnica nelle campagne del Mezzogiorno: il caso dell'aratro 1860-1910,” Rivista di storia dell'agricoltura 2, December 1987; “La terra e le tecniche. Innovazioni produttive e lavoro agricolo nei secoli XIX e XX”, in Storia dell'agricoltura italiana in età contemporanea, edited by Piero Bevilacqua, Vol I, Marsilio, Venezia, 1989; “Tierra y tecnica entre el Ochocientos y el Novecientos. El caso de una region del Mezzogiorno italiano,” Areas. Rivista de Ciencias Sociales 12, 1990; “La agricoltura en Europa y el nacimento de la crisis agraria (1880-1914),” Agricultura e sociedad 70, January-March 1994.

In 1992 she obtained her Ph.D. in economic history. Her dissertation was published with the title Demani ed individualismo agrario nel Regno di Napoli, Esi, Napoli, 1995. She subsequently investigated the theme of commons from the perspective of environmental history. Her main publications on this subject are “La lucha por el individualismo agrario en el Mezzogiorno italiano a finales del siglo XVIII,” Noticiario de historia agraria 10, July-December 1995; “Il possesso collettivo della terra nell’Italia contemporanea: linee generali d’interpretazione,” in Béns comunals als Paisos Catalans i a l’Europa Contemporània, edited by Joan J. Busqueta and Enric Vicedo, Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs, Fundaciò Pùblica de la Deputaciò de Lleida, June 1996; “La propriété collective en Italie,” in Marie-Danielle Demélas and Nadine Vivier (eds), Les propriétés collectives face aux attaques libérales (1750-1914) Europe occidentale et Amèrique latine, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2003; “Declino dei ‘commons’ ed equilibri ambientali. Il caso italiano tra Otto e Novecento,” Società e storia 104, 2004.
 After obtaining her Ph.D. she taught History of Technology in the Contemporary Age at the University of Naples and worked as a researcher in economic history at the University of Perugia. For several years she collaborated with the Journal of Economic History. She is a member of the editorial board of the journals Meridiana. Rivista di storia e scienze sociali and Archivio Scialoja-Bolla. Annali di studi sulla proprietà collettiva. Since 1998 she is “First Researcher” at the Istituto di studi sulle società del Mediterraneo del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-ISSM) in Naples.
Beginning in 1998, she directed the CNR-ISSM research group “Natural resources and historical sources”. In the following years she began a historiographic investigation of environmental themes in Italy. Her main publications in this phase are “Diritto e natura: la fine di un millennio”,  Meridiana. Rivista di storia e scienze sociali 28, 1997; Ambiente e risorse nel Mezzogiorno contemporaneo, Meridianalibri, Corigliano Calabro, 1999 (eds. with Piero Bevilacqua); “Por un sistema diferente de valores: la historia ambiental en Italia como crìtica a la ideologia del crescimento ilimitado,” in Juan Josè Carreras Ares-Carlos Forcadell Alvarez (eds), Usos publicos de la Historia, Marcial Pons Historia, Madrid, 2003; “La storia ambientale e l’ideologia della crescita illimitata,” in Contemporanea, Year VII, Number 1, January 2004.
In 2000 she began to study the relationship between towns and the environment from a historical perspective, and began a collaboration with the European group of urban environment historians. Her main publications on this subject are: “Inquinati e inquinatori nella storia d’Europa,” Meridiana. Rivista di storia e scienze sociali 40, 2001; “Activités humaines et ressources naturelles à Naples au XXème siècle : l’exemple du complexe industriel de Bagnoli, ” in Christoph Bernhardt and Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud (eds), Le démon moderne. La pollution dans les sociétés urbaines et industrielles d’Europe/ The modern Demon. Pollution in Urban and Industrial Europea Societies, Clermont-Ferrand, Presses de l’UBP, collection Histoires croisées, 2002; “La sostenibilità urbana a Napoli. Caratteri strutturali e dinamiche storiche,” Meridiana.Rivista di storia e scienze sociali 42, 2001; “Sustainable Naples: The Disappearance of Nature as a Resource,” in Resources of the City, edited by Dieter Schott, Bill Luckin, Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud, Ashgate, UK, 2005; Storia e Ambiente. Città, territori e risorse nell’Italia contemporanea, Carocci, Roma 2007 (eds. with Simone Neri Serneri); I ragazzi del piano. Napoli e le ragioni dell’ambientalismo urbano, Donzelli Mediterranea, Roma 2007.
Since 2003 she is co-director of the journal I frutti di Demetra. Bollettino di storia e ambiente. She directs two environmental history series, respectively for the publishing houses Donzelli (Donzelli Mediterranea) and XL (History and Environment). She was chairwoman at the Scientific Committee of the Fourth ESEH (European Society for Environmental History) Conference, entitled Environmental Connections: Europe and Wider World, (June 2007). Since 2008 she is coeditor, with Mauro Agnoletti, of Global Environment. A Journal of  History and Natural and Social Science, which they founded in 2007.