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Actual position:
Postdoctoral fellowship in the Architecture Department (DiARC) at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Web page:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cassandra-Funsten
Project:
“Habit - Inhabiting the Transition for rural constructions and agro-forestry territory”, financed by the Ministry of University and Research within the 2023-2027 Departments of Excellence program.
Short Bio:
Cassandra Funsten is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Naples Federico II since September 2024. Her research supports the Environmental and Urban Transition by assessing the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on landscape design and management. She also investigates ways to mitigate the environmental impact of human activities and create more ecologically interconnected, healthy, and resilient environments. In addition, she collaborates in drafting competitive research projects.
Cassandra earned her PhD in Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Sciences from the University of Palermo, where she studied how social, political, and economic factors influence historic garden management and visitation. She is a certified Agronomist in Palermo as of May 2024. She also holds a Master's degree in Agricultural Production and Technology, specializing in Park and Garden Design, and Bachelor's degrees in Landscape Architecture and English from the University of California, Berkeley. Her expertise includes historic and botanic garden tourism and management, economic landscape valuation, ecosystem service assessment, collaborative governance of cultural and natural heritage and community engagement through participatory practices, co-creation, environmental education and art.
She has assistant and guest-taught in various university courses, including the Landscape Design Studio in the Spatial Planning Master’s degree and the Landscape Valuation Methods Seminar within the Landscape Architecture Master’s degree at the University of Palermo. She has been responsible for course design, delivering lectures in both classroom and field settings, and organizing practical exercises, simulations, and community interaction events. She strives to inspire students to recognize and design with the dynamic abiotic, biotic, and anthropic processes active within the landscape. She has also taught botany and botanical illustration at the secondary school and amateur levels within numerous University Third Mission initiatives. Additionally, she has been a reviewer for international scientific journals such as the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism and has served as the assistant editor for a special issue of the Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens.
Research:
- The recreational value of botanic garden events: A case study of the Zagara plant fair in Palermo, Italy
- A Systematic Literature Review of Historic Garden Management and Its Economic Aspects
- The appropriate legal and administrative measures: The Florence Charters and legislation governing the identification, listing and protection of historic gardens in Palermo, Sicily
- Testing the Impact of Pansharpening Using PRISMA Hyperspectral Data: A Case Study Classifying Urban Trees in Naples, Italy