Professor Glauco Sanga Ca' Foscari University

http://www.easaonline.org

6 September 2016

Re.: Ms. Roberta Chiroli

Dear Professor Sanga,

We, the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, are addressing you out

of concern for a young graduate student in anthropology, Roberta Chiroli, who was sentenced, in June 2016

in Torino, to two months of prison on probation (con la condizionale) for her participation in a

demonstration. We are convinced that this sentence is the result of a misunderstanding.

Ms Chiroli’s fieldwork for an MA thesis at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice focused on a social

movement opposing the construction of a high speed train between Turin and Lyon, the NO TAV movement.

The project had been approved by her supervisor, Valentina Bonifacio, and Roberta had a letter from her

supervisor explaining the scope and purpose of her fieldwork. She was not an activist of the movement.

During her fieldwork, Ms Chiroli was present at a demonstration at the seat of a private company

(Itinera) involved in the construction works. On that occasion, she was asked by police officers to present her

documents. During the demonstration, the activists (many of them minors) had entered the company’s

compound and wrote ‘NO TAV’ on a wall, and then blocked a company truck for a few minutes. Available

video footage shows that Ms Chiroli was there but kept on the side, never taking an active role. Nonetheless,

she was subsequently found guilty of ‘moral collusion’ (concorso morale) in the illegal occupation of a

private site and violence towards the truck driver (probably consisting in blocking his truck). A female PhD

student in sociology who had also been present during the demonstration, similarly had charges brought

against her, but unlike Ms Chiroli, she was acquitted.

Although the court has yet to publish its reasoning, the difference between the two cases apparently

concerned the use of a ‘participatory’ first person plural in the text of Ms Chiroli's thesis. According to her

defense lawyer, the use of the first person pronoun in the ethnographic description of the demonstration

seems to have been the evidence used by the court to condemn Ms Chiroli to two months of detention for

‘moral collusion’ in the events.

We believe the verdict to be a result of a misunderstanding of the nature of ethnographic research.

Unlike other social scientists, anthropologists strive to understand ‘the native's point of view’, describing and

analysing other people's social and cultural worlds from within, without taking a moral stance. This often

implies a strong identification with the informants during fieldwork (necessary to build trust) and writing (to

demonstrate ethnographic authority), and so the use of the first person plural is common, and this holds even

when the group under study is a marginal out-group. Thus, Roberta Chiroli's identification with the

demonstrators merely shows that she did a competent job as an ethnographer.

The European Association of Social Anthropologists expresses its solidarity with our colleague

Roberta Chiroli. We sincerely hope and believe that the court will realise that a mistake has been made owing

to a misunderstanding of the nature of ethnographic research, and – accordingly – will overturn the

conviction of Ms. Chiroli.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Hylland Eriksen

President, EASA