The 2026 award had two ex aequo laureates: Linda Idjéraoui, from the SIC.Lab, Université Côte d’Azur, France; and Mara Cerquetti, from the University of Macerata.
Linda Idjéraoui
She was chosen as a winner of the ENCATC Best Research Paper Award, ex aequo with Mara Cerquetti, for her paper “Inclusive Intercultural Museology and Sustainability? From the (In)-Visibility of Competencies to International Cross-Fertilization,”
Dr. Linda Idjéraoui-Ravez is an Associate Professor in Information and Communication Sciences at Université Côte d’Azur and a member of SIC.Lab Méditerranée. She holds a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences from the University of Avignon, awarded in 2006. Her research and teaching focus on museology, arts and heritage, cultural mediation, new media, memory dynamics, immersive narratives, representations and cultural audiences and practices.
Her academic career at Université Côte d’Azur has included responsibility for international and interdisciplinary programmes, including the Franco-German trinational Master’s programmes in Media, Culture and Communication. She has also led research on cultural diversity and the representation of immigrant histories in museums. Her publications examine testimony and memory in museums, digital mediation, immersive museography and the relationship between cultural heritage and communication.
Mara Cerquetti
Dr. Mara Cerquetti is an ex aequo recipient of the 2026 ENCATC Best Research Paper Award for her paper, “Emerging Skills for Digital Cultural Mediation: Rethinking Local Heritage Narratives through the Museum Serious Game ‘I Codici del Tempo’ (Monteprandone, Italy).”
Cerquetti is Full Professor of Management at the University of Macerata, where she teaches Cultural Organisation and Management, Cultural Marketing and Tourism and Heritage Management. Her research focuses on cultural heritage management and value, museum management and marketing, visitor studies, cultural policy and management, and sustainable tourism.
She has been a member of the Scientific Committee and Editorial Board of Il capitale culturale. Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage since 2010 and joined the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy in 2026. She has also held visiting positions at Goldsmiths, University of London, and other international universities.
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mara-cerquetti-9aa00988/
