Centre of Media, Arts & Creative Technologies
Stefania’s research explores the role of sound and digital culture in fostering participation, wellbeing and inclusion in heritage spaces. She applies participatory design, co-creation, and creative methods to reimagine cultural experiences and prototype new ways of connecting with heritage.
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Stefania joined ARU’s StoryLab in 2025 as Research Fellow in Heritage and Creative Technologies, following her postdoctoral fellowship at the Science Museum Group as part of the Towards a National Collection (TaNC) scheme.
With a PhD in Museum Studies (University of Leicester, 2022) and over a decade of experience across academia and the cultural sector, Stefania’s research has informed the development of inclusive heritage practices, including community-led museum narratives, participatory digital archives and performative soundwalks that encourage embodied engagement with cultural sites.
An example of her work is #SonicFriday, the online participatory project designed in 2020 at the Science and Media Museum in Bradford, which earned international recognition (GLAMi Awards 2021; Best in Heritage) for its ability to foster emotional and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stefania has led large interdisciplinary projects such as the UNESCO-funded Museums of the Dolomites (2019-2022), which involved 35 museums and cultural organisations in the creation of a digital participatory archive celebrating the intangible heritage of the Dolomites. She also led several knowledge transfer projects supporting the digital transformation of the cultural sector, including the EFS+ funded Museums and New Digital Culture (2018-2019).
Stefania’s recent work engages with aural diversity to position museums and heritage sites as pioneering laboratories for exploring hearing health. As part of this work, she designed a soundwalk at the Medicine Galleries at the Science Museum (London) using deep listening and creative methods to study how people experience, process, and respond to sound in complex auditory environments, with findings presented at the Aural Diversity Conference.
Stefania is also Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Digital Culture, University of Leicester, Science Museum Group Research Associate, President and co-founder of the DOLOM.IT Museum and member of the Aural Diversity Network.
Before joining ARU, Stefania co-designed modules, lectures and workshops at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate levels at the Universities of Leicester, University of Nottingham, UCL, Westminster University, Monash University and Ca’ Foscari University. Her teaching encompasses sound heritage, sound design, digital storytelling and participatory heritage practices.
At ARU, she will be contributing to the interdisciplinary Ruskin Module, Can stories change the world?, led by Nick Caddick.
Creative works
Visualizing Oral History (2024). Open Code repository, Congruence Engine project.
Museodolom.it (2022). the digital participatory museum of the Dolomites.
My Museum Playlist (2021). Interactive installation, Science and Media Museum Bradford.
The Secrets of Lagole (2019). Performative soundwalk, La Piccionaia Theatre.
MQUADRO (2016). Multimedia platform, ‘Mario Rimoldi’ Modern Art Museum.
Book chapters
Zardini Lacedelli S. (forthcoming, 2026). The Digital Audio Space as the Museum. In Cortez A., De Visscher E., Schulze H., Rognoni G. R. (eds) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound in Museums (forthcoming, 2026). New York, Bloomsbury Academic.
Zardini Lacedelli S., Butterworth A., De Sabbata S. (forthcoming, 2026). A New Age for Sonic History: empowering audio heritage to illuminate the human dimension of the industrial past. In Boon T. (eds.) Emergent Histories: New Work in the Digital History of Industry and Collections for the Congruence project, UCL Press.
Zardini Lacedelli S., Parry R. (forthcoming, 2026). The Museum Without Walls. In Hand M., Sandywell B., Szabo V. (eds) Digitisations, Transformations & Futures, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture (Vol. 3).
Zardini Lacedelli S., Pompanin, G. (2024). Le nuove opportunità delle narrazioni digitali partecipative: il progetto Musei delle Dolomiti e Officina di Storie. [New opportunities of digital participatory narratives. The Museums of the Dolomites project and Laboratory of Stories] In Lezioni patavine 2: città e territori UNESCO, patrimonio mondiale e musei: atti della giornata di studio (Padova, 18 maggio 2022 - Roma : "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, [2024]" - p135-148.
Zanetti C., Zardini Lacedelli S., Pascolini M. 2019. Innovazione sociale e partecipazione nella produzione culturale. DOLOM.IT: un caso studio nel campo museale [Social innovation and participation in cultural production. DOLOM.IT: a case study in the museum field]. In Lattarulo P., Palermo F., Provenzano V., Streifeneder T. (ed.), 2019, The regions of Europe among local identities, new communities and territorial disparities, FrancoAngeli, Milano (pp.271-294). Available at: https://series.francoangeli.it/index.php/oa/catalog/book/425.
Journal articles
Sichani A.M., Rees A.J., Zardini Lacedelli S. (2025). Together: interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and participation in digital cultural heritage research. The case of the Congruence Engine project. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqaf065
Presotto C., Zardini Lacedelli S. (2024). SilentPlay. Percorsi di ricerca tra technologie audio e teatro partecipativo [SilentPlay. Research trajectories between sound technology and participatory theatre]. Connessioni Remote 7-8/2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/connessioni/26240
Popple S., Zardini Lacedelli S., Rees A., Prior S., Smith M. (2023). Collaborative conversation as a method for exploring multiple perspectives on 'community' and forms of knowledge in the Congruence Engine. Science Museum Journal, Congruence Engine Special Issue. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15180/221809
Zardini Lacedelli S., Fazzi F., Zanetti C., Pompanin G. (2023). From “exhibition” to “laboratory”: rethinking curatorial practices through a digital experimental project. The case study of #DolomitesMuseum - Laboratory of Stories. In Herança-History, Heritage and Culture Journal, Special issue ‘Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Digital Experiment in Museology and Museum Design'. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29073/heranca.v6i1.680
Zardini Lacedelli S., Stack J., Jamieson A. (2021). Curating Sound in a Platform World: Insights from the #SonicFriday project. Museums and the Web, 2021 – MW21. Available at: https://mw21.museweb.net/paper/curating-sound-in-a-platform-world-insights-from-the-sonicfriday-project/
Zardini Lacedelli S., Tamma M., Fazzi F. (2019). Digital education as a catalyst for museum transformation: the case of the Museums and New Digital Cultures course. European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy, 9(2), 2019. Available at: https://www.encatc.org/media/5148-european-journal-of-cultural-management-policy-vol.9issue2.pdf
Tamma M., Zardini Lacedelli S., Carolo S. M. (2019). Digital platforms ‘without a cause’: why the impact on museums’ organization should not be taken for granted. Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia Working Paper No. 6/2019. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3498518
Zardini Lacedelli S. (2018). The Platform-Museum: conceptual revolutions and practical implications. Museological Review, University of Leicester, 22, 2018 (pp.30-42). Available at: https://le.ac.uk/-/media/uol/docs/academic-departments/museum-studies/museological-review/museological-review-issue-22.pdf
Szabo V., Zardini Lacedelli S., Pompanin G. (2017). From Landscape to Cities: A Participatory Approach to the Creation of Digital Cultural Heritage. International Information & Library Review, 49(2), 2017. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10572317.2017.1314141
Zardini Lacedelli S., Mason M. (2025). How sound makes me feel? Towards an aural diverse practice of sound design in museums. Aural Diversity Conference, Salford, 5 September 2025.
Zardini Lacedelli S., Butterworth A., De Sabbata S. (2024). Listening to the Industrial Past. New digital interfaces to explore oral histories. Presentation for the Oral History Society Archives and Oral History Special Interest Group.
Zardini Lacedelli S., Rees A.J., Sichani, A.M. (2023). Together: Interdisciplinarity, Collaboration and Participation in a Digital Cultural Heritage Research. Presentation for the Digital Humanities Conference (DH2023), University of Graz.
Zardini Lacedelli S. (2022). Listening to the textile voices. The role of Sound Heritage in connecting collections. Presentation for the SMG Research Conference Historical Threads, Manchester.
Zardini Lacedelli S. (2022). DOLOM.IT: a platform-museum. Presentation at the Digital innovation & Culture Platform and Data webinar. Video presentation available on BAM Strategie Culturali’s YouTube channel.
Zardini Lacedelli S., Presotto C., Rossi P. (2021). Silent play: cultural heritage and new participatory practices through theatre. For SMART - Small Museums Representing Territories webinar. Video presentation available on ALDA – European Association for Local Democracy’s YouTube channel.
Zardini Lacedelli S., Stack J., Jamieson A. (2021). Curating Sound in the Platform World. Insights from the #SonicFriday project. MuseWeb conference, Digital and Sound Session.
The Best in Heritage, IMAGINES SonicFriday. Available on the Best in Heritage YouTube channel.
More than an ePoster - Supporting Research and Learning. Video interview available on Learning Toolbox.