History of Marine Art

Edina Eszenyi

Edina Eszenyi holds a PhD in Medieval and Early Modern Studies from the University of Kent Canterbury, United Kingdom (UK); a Postgraduate Research MA in Medieval Studies from Central European University; and MA diplomas in Art History and English Studies from the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Hungary. She is currently Lecturer at HEI Pegaso International Malta – Pegaso University Naples, Italy; where she conducts courses in Ecology, General Didactics, and Italian Art and Cultural Heritage. She is also working as Expert Witness at the Office of the State Attorney General (Avvocatura Generale dello Stato) in Rome, where she assists the defence of Italy before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Previously, she was Resident Art Historian at Rome Art Program, a New York-based, international HE art education programme; and she gave various courses in English Studies at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University. She is currently participating in the Council of Europe Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals training programme.

Edina’s fascination with the sea goes back to early childhood readings; a decade spent by the Italian sea; her combined professional interests in art, water ecology, and maritime law; and her PhD research project, which analysed an Early Modern manuscript from the Republic of Venice. Accordingly, she has spent longer research stays in Venice, Verona, and Rome; and been awarded further fellowships in Norway and the USA, among others. The sea and human-animal coexistence with the sea has thus become a constantly recurring topic in her career and personal life and made her a devoted supporter of marine conversation projects. She is proud adoptive mother of the oceanic manta ray “George the Giant” (Mobula birostris MV-MB-0537) within the framework of The Maldives Manta Conservation Programme.