The Fellowship ‘Constructed Spaces – Spatial Constructs’, led by Alexander Steiner and Erich Kistler, investigated how the concept of ‘thirding’ - the discursive production of space - can be applied to sources from(?) antiquity. It investigated modern spatial theory and its applicability to written and material sources of the past. The aim was to analyse the effects of spatial concepts and perceptions on cultural developments and thus open up new perspectives in the study of ancient societies. The fellows engaged in regular meetings presenting their ongoing research within the Doctorate College “Entangled Antiquities”. Furthermore, the Fellowship ended with the international conference “Third Space and Ancient World Studies”, organised by Alexander Steiner and Sina Kazemirashid, which brought together experts on spatial theory, archaeology, history, and philology to discuss third spaces from different disciplinary angles.
Giorgio Paolo Campi (2016, BA Classics – University of Bologna; 2019 MA Religious Studies/Hebrew Bible – University of Padua/Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. 2023 PhD Jewish Studies – University of Bologna) is a biblical scholar and a historian of religions focusing on Ancient Israelite Religion during pre-exilic and exilic times. He currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Warsaw. As a member of the project “The Dawn of Monotheism? Judean Religion(s) in the Persian and Early Hellenistic Period (5th-3rd cent. BCE) in Light of Iconographic, Epigraphic and Biblical Sources.”, his research focuses on topics such as the religion of Judean and West-Semitic minorities in the Babylonian diaspora as documented in biblical and cuneiform sources from 6th-5th cent. BCE Babylonia, the cultic and economic infrastructure of the Jerusalem Temple in the Persian period, and the religious landscape of Persian period Idumea.
During the fellowship he investigated the role of the god Baytˀil as a catalyst in shaping Yahwistic identities within Egyptian and Babylonian diaspora communities of the 1st mill. BCE, integrating current scholarly debates on diasporic identity formation with concepts borrowed from Third Space Theory. In particular, drawing on the ‘thirdspace’ theoretical framework developed by Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja, he examined the conceptualization of Baytˀil/the deified Temple as a socially constructed thirdspace, an in-between dynamic space beyond physical architecture, where new identities are negotiated.
Alejandro Mizzoni holds two degrees in History at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (2013, 2021), and is currently enrolled in its PhD programme in Ancient History. He is also a member of the Instituto de Historia Antigua Oriental and a teaching assistant at the History department of the Universidad de Buenos Aires.
In the past, he has received fellowships awarded by the Universidad de Buenos Aires (2013-2014) and the National Research Council of Argentina (2015-2021), and an Erasmus+ Worldwide fellowship for a research visit at FU Berlin (2022). His PhD project focuses on the consequences of warfare in the local dynamics of the independent polities of Iron Age Syria, including their responses to Neo-Assyrian presence. During his stay at Universität Innsbruck in October 2025, he explored the local notions of defence and protection, as well as the ways in which they impacted on changes in urban spatialities such as the erection of fortifications and city gates.
Tania Puente Garcia is a current PhD student of the Comparative Theory of Arts programme at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Argentina. She holds an MA in Curatorship of Visual Arts at UNTREF and a BA in Hispanic Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and was a participant of the 10th edition of the Artists’ Programme at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires (2018). She received the scholarship of the Study Abroad Programme, awarded by FONCA-CONACYT (2016-2017) and a Master’s scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Education of Argentina and the Mexican Embassy in Argentina (2016-2017).
During her stay at Universität Innsbruck, thanks to the FSP-Fellowship 2025: Constructed Spaces – Spatial Constructs, she continued with her current dissertation research, focused on contemporary Latin American artistic practices that take place in residual urban spaces, known as “relingos”. In her work, she delves into the connections and tensions that arise in these spaces and the many different ways in which artists relate and work with these spatialities.
Altogether, the Fellowship ‘Constructed Spaces – Spatial Constructs’ was a month of fruitful discussion and exchange within the Fellowship and members of the Doctorate College Entangled Antiquities.
Biographische Notiz
Alexander Steiner is a member of the Doctoral College "Entangled Antiquities" at the University of Innsbruck and hosted the Research Area's Fellowship 2025. He currently pursues his PhD with his research project: "Concepts of Absolute Space in Near Eastern and Central Asian Antiquity. A Survey of Sumerian, Akkadian, Iranian, and Tocharian Absolute Direction Terms"