Introduzione

Introduction of the editor to a volume, which is the fourth in a series that aims to promote and disseminate the research findings of young scholars enrolled in or recently graduated from the Doctoral Programme in Asian and African Civilisations at Sapienza University of Rome, belonging to the 36th, 37th and 38th cycles. Covering a vast geographical area stretching from the Middle East, South and Central Asia to East Asia, and spanning a chronological arc from the various classical periods to the present day, this miscellany includes eighteen contributions which – based on specialist linguistic and disciplinary expertise, and often on direct field research – offer studies of an archaeological, literary, linguistic, political, religious or cultural nature, with a growing focus on certain cross-cutting themes: gender issues; the conditions of minorities; new media; and, in general, a sensitivity to the complex dynamics between traditional structures and innovative demands, between critical or heterodox cultural manifestations and systems of power.