Caterina Agus

"Caterina Angela Agus is a cultural anthropologist deeply engaged in the intersections between ritual performance, gender, and rural transformation. She holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology from the University of Turin, where she studied under the guidance of historian and anthropologist Enrico Comba, focusing her thesis on the ritual bear hunt in Alpine carnivals. She later pursued a second Master’s in Museum Anthropology and Art from the University of Milan-Bicocca and is currently enrolled in a third programme in Social Project Management at the University of International Studies of Rome.

Her academic and professional work is grounded in a transdisciplinary approach, bridging folklore, visual cultures, and environmental anthropology. She explores the performative and symbolic roles of masks in popular European carnivals, and the dynamics of multispecies relationships in the Anthropocene. She also engages with themes of cultural resistance and local resilience, particularly in marginal areas such as the Susa Valley, where she resides and conducts much of her fieldwork.

Caterina is passionate about public anthropology and knowledge dissemination. She has delivered lectures and contributed to research initiatives at universities across Europe, including Turin, Milan, Timisoara, Helsinki, Rovaniemi, Corti, Reading, Troyes, and Zurich. Her work has been published in multiple languages (Italian, English, and French), particularly in the fields of religious studies, folklore, and cultural anthropology.

Between 2021 and 2025, she served as Vice President of Piedmont’s Equal Opportunities Commission, where she launched an interdisciplinary initiative investigating the cultural construction of gender roles. She was also a member of the Monitoring Committee of the Piedmont Operational Programme of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), where she contributed to advancing gender equality policies through participatory governance.

In the HiCoMa project, Caterina brings a strong field-based perspective, shaped by years of qualitative research and community engagement. Her vision of participatory processes in rural and mountain communities centers on collaborative ethnography, storytelling, and the co-construction of local development models. She underlines the importance of archival research and territorial history in shaping transformative actions and sees the margins not as sites of deficiency, but as places of potential.

She also highlights how ecological challenges, climate change, and the return of large predators are reshaping human-nature relations, urging for new governance strategies that integrate traditional knowledge and contemporary ecological thinking.

Caterina is a member of several networks and associations, including ANPIA (Italian National Professional Association of Anthropology), CREIS (European Center for Sustainable Development), FIDAPA (International Federation of Business and Professional Women), and LCI (Lions Clubs International). Her contribution to HiCoMa reflects her ongoing commitment to building inclusive, sustainable, and culturally rooted futures for highland communities."