Editor-in-chief

Sandra Federici

Sandra Federici is a journalist and has a degree in Italian Philology. She has coordinated research, development education projects and international exhibitions, in particular around comic strips by African authors. In 2017 she completed a PhD at the Université de Lorraine, in co-tutorship with the University of Milan, with a thesis entitled L’entrance des auteurs africains dans le champ de la banda dessinée européenne de langue française (1978-2016). In addition to several articles in academic journals and chapters in collective publications, in 2019 she published a monograph with the same title of her thesis at L’Harmattan, “Logiques sociales” series, and is publishing a second volume entitled “Je ne voulais pas d’histoires-calebasse”. Entretiens avec les bédéistes africains (éd. Sépia 2021).

Scientific Committee

Flavia Aiello

Flavia Aiello is an associate Professor at the University “L’Orientale” in Naples, where she lectures in Swahili Language and Literature. She has published several books on oral and written Swahili literature and translated into Italian the Swahili novel Utengano by S. A. Mohamed (Italian title: Separazione, 2005), and a selection of poems by Abdilatif Abdalla (collected in the volume Ushairi na Uhuru, co-edited with R. Gaudioso, 2017).

Stefano Allievi

Stefano Allievi is a full Professor of Sociology and President of the Master’s degree course in “Cultural pluralism, Social change and Immigration” at the University of Padua. He specialises in the sociology of religion (specifically, the presence of Islam in Europe) and issues related to immigration and human mobility.

Ivan Bargna

Ivan Bargna is a full Professor of Aesthetical Anthropology and Media Anthropology at the University of Milan Bicocca, and a visiting Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Milan Bocconi University. He is the director of studies of the Master’s course in Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and director of the post-degree specialisation course in Anthropology of Art and Heritage, at the University of Milan Bicocca. Since 2001, he has been carrying out his ethnographic research in Cameroon’s Grassfields, where he studies art, visual culture, and food practices. He collaborates with artists and contemporary art curators on interdisciplinary ethnographic-based projects. He is the curator of several art exhibitions and a member of the scientific board of the Museum of Cultures of Milan (MUDEC). He is the author of a number of publications including African art, (Milan 1998; St. Léger Vauban 1998; New York and London 2000; Madrid 2000), Africa (Milan 2007; Berlin 2008; Los Angeles 2009), Biografia plurale. Virginia Ryan: Africa, Art, and Elsewhere (2018).

Jean-Godefroy Bidima

Former visiting Professor at Bayreuth University in Germany and former Director of Programs at the International College of Philosophy in Paris, Jean Godefroy Bidima’s background is in philosophy. Since 2004 he has been the Yvonne Arnoult Chairman of French and Francophone Studies at Tulane University, New Orleans. His research focuses on issues of medical ethics from an intercultural point of view, the Critical Theory developed by the Frankfurt School, and African philosophers and aesthetics. His publications include: Théorie Critique et Modernité négro-africaine: De l’Ecole de Francfort à la “Docta spes africana” (Publications de la Sorbonne 1993), La philosophie négro-africaine (Presses Universitaires de France, QSJ ? 1995), L’art négro-africain (Presses Universitaires de France, QSJ ? 1997), (with Lavou Victorien) Réalités et représentations de la violence dans les postcolonies (Presses de l’Université de Perpignan, 2015), (with Laura Hengehold) African Philosophies, Acts of Transitions (Rowmann and Littlefield International, to be published), (as editor) Philosophie africaines: Traversées des Expériences, NuméroSpécial, Rue Descartes, no. 36, Collège International de Philosophie (PUF, 2002), (con Antoine Garapo) Depuis l’Afrique, ESPRIT, no. 466, luglio-agosto 2020.

Salvatore Bono

Salvatore Bono (Tripoli, 1932) is a historian of the Mediterranean Sea. He is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Perugia where from 1973 to 2006 he was a full Professor of History and Institutions of African and Asian Countries. He is the honorary president of SIHMED (Société internationale des historiens de la Méditerranée, Nice) and has been a journalist-publicist since 1958. He has carried out research on various themes and topics including the following: the history of the idea of the Mediterranean; the historiography of the Mediterranean; the Corsair War; slavery and conversions in the Mediterranean in the modern age; the history of Libya; aspects, characters and relationships in the Mediterranean between Europe and the Arab-Islamic world.

Carlo Carbone

Carlo Carbone is a former full Professor of History and Institutions of Africa at Università della Calabria and visiting Professor at the Universities of Kinshasa, Kisangani, Brazzaville, Kigali, Bujumbura. He is an expert in the History of the Congo and the African Great Lakes having studied the colonial and postcolonial relationships between the regional ethnic groups, the Europeans and the Cold War era. In recent years, he has focused on the Italian presence in the Congo during the XX Century.

Marina Castagneto

Marina Castagneto is an associate Professor in Linguistics at Piemonte Orientale University.

Her main fields of interest are pragmatics, conversational analysis, morphology, lexicology, iconicity in language and African linguistics. In this latter field, she has written several works on the Swahili language. In particular, on the morphological level, she has analysed the noun classification and the linguistic strategies to intensify and to reduce, the process of reduplication and the morphology of negation. In the field of text linguistics, she has worked on communication by way of a kanga, a popular dress amongst the Swahili women. Last but not least, she has studied the terminology of the linguistic meta-language in Swahili.

Francesca Corrao

Francesca Maria Corrao is a full Professor of Arabian Language and Culture at the LUISS University in Rome, and former Professor at the “L’Orientale” University of Naples. She is a member of several associations of Arabic and Islamic studies including the UEAI (Union of European Arabic and Islam Scholars), EURAMAL (European Association of Modern Arabic Literature Scholars), and the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (Soka University, Tokyo). She is director of the Mislam Master’s Degree at the LUISS University, president of the Scientific Committee of the Orestiadi Foundation in Gibellina, and a member of the Scientific Committee of Cortile dei Gentili (Vatican City State). She has published several research papers on Mediterranean and Arabic poetry, history and culture and intercultural dialogue. These include: I Cavalieri, le dame e i deserti. Storia della Poesia Araba (Ist. per l’Oriente 2020); In guerra non mi cercate. Poesia araba delle rivolte e oltre, ed. F.M. Corrao, O. Capezio, E. Chiti, S. Sibilio (Arabic parallel text, Mondadori 2019); L’Islam non è terrorismo, ed. F.M. Corrao e L. Violante (Il Mulino 2018); Islam, religione e politica (LUISS Univ. Press 2015); Le rivoluzioni arabe. La transizione mediterranea (Mondadori 2011); Le Storie di Giufà (Sellerio 2001, Arabic ed. Al-Majlis al-A’la lil-thaqafa, Cairo 2020); Poeti Arabi di Sicilia (Mesogea 2002).

Piergiorgio Degli Esposti

Piergiorgio Degli Esposti is an associate Professor at the SDE Sociology and Business Law Department University of Bologna. He is one of the founding members of the Ces.Co.Com Advanced Study Research Center on Consumption and Communication. He graduated in Political Sciences from the University of Bologna (1997) and holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy (2004). His research interests include prosumption, consumer culture and the digital society. He is a Fellow on the international guest lectureship programme at Bielefeld University.

Vincenzo Fano

Vincenzo Fano is a full Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science in the Department of Pure and Applied Sciences at Urbino University. He is a Fellow at the Pittsburgh Center for Philosophy of Science and a member of the Académie de Philosophie des Science. Since 2020 he has been President of the Italian Society of Logic and Philosophy of Sciences.

Luigi Gaffuri

Luigi Gaffuri is a full Professor at the University of L’Aquila where he lectures in the “Geography of Africa”. He was editor, author and member of the scientific committee of the Terra d’Africa and Tutto da capo journals. His research focuses on tropical Africa and migratory phenomena. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Dossier Statistico Immigrazione. He has published volumes and essays addressing historical, social and cultural issues, such as colonialism and post-colonialism, refugee camps, migration and multiculturalism, identity, territory, and the relationship between geography and literature.

Rosario Giordano

Rosario Giordano is associate Professor of History and Institutions of Africa at the University of Calabria. He is the Director of the series “Mémoires lieux de savoirs – Archive congolaise” and coordinator of the series “La Région des Grands Lacs Africains – Passé et Présent” for L’Harmattan, Paris. His studies on colonial Congo include: Belges et Italiens du Congo/Kinshasa. Récits de vie avant et après l’Indépendance, foreword by E. Mudimbe-Boyi, L’Harmattan 2008; with C. Carbone, B. Jewsiewicki, D. Dibwe dia Mwembu, L’eredità di Lumumba. L’indipendenza del Congo nella pittura popolare, Gangemi 2011.

Stefano Manservisi

Stefano Manservisi has been working with the European Union for more than 35 years. He has taken on different administrative roles and has been a top political advisor in several policy areas. He has been Head of the Cabinet to President Prodi, Director-General for Development and Political Relations with Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Following this he was DG for Migration and Home affairs and finally EU Ambassador to Turkey. His latest position has been DG for International Cooperation and Development. At present, Manservisi lectures at Universities (Sciences-Po/Paris School for International Affairs, European University Institute) and is a distinguished Fellow in various think tanks and advises several UN Specialised Agencies. He has recently been appointed Special Advisor to Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.

Dismas A. Masolo

Dismas A. Masolo is a native of Kenya who teaches philosophy at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. He was educated in Kenya, and in Rome, Italy, where he earned his doctoral degree in Philosophy from the Università Gregoriana (Gregorian University) in 1980. His academic interests include the History of Philosophy, African Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, and Comparative Philosophy broadly construed in a global context. His publications reflect these interests.

Pierluigi Musarò

Pierluigi Musarò is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Economy Law, University of Bologna; Honorary Professor at Melbourne University; Research Fellow at New York University (USA), London School of Economics and Political Science (UK) and Monash University (Melbourne), and a college member of the PhD degree in Sociology and Social Research at the University of Bologna. He is also president of the YODA association, and founder and director of IT.A.CÁ migranti e viaggiatori: Festival for Responsible Tourism. Finally, he is the founder and a member of the National Network Against Hate Speech and Phenomena (https://www.retecontrolodio.org).

Francesca Romana Paci

Francesca Romana Paci is a Professor Emeritus of English Literature and Postcolonial Literatures at “Amedeo Avogadro” University of East Piedmont, in Northern Italy. Her interests are in modern and contemporary narratives in European languages in Europe and in former European Colonies worldwide. She has written extensively on several novelists, including James Joyce.  She is also a literary translator and particularly enjoys translating poetry.

Paola Parmiggiani

Paola Parmiggiani is a full Professor at the University of Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum” where she lectures in the Sociology of Culture and Social Communication. She is also Director of the Master’s degree in Sociology and Social Work. Her main fields of study and research are media and migration, social and humanitarian communication, sustainable consumption practices, performing arts and active citizenship.

Giovanna Parodi da Passano

Giovanna Parodi da Passano is a Professor at the University of Genoa, where she lectures in African Anthropology as part of the PhD degree in Historical Sciences.

Trained as an Africanist, over the last few years her primary teaching and research interests have been in social and cultural practices involving the body and the creative use of ornaments, garments and textiles in sub-Saharan African countries. On these topics she has published several works and has participated in international conferences. Her current research focuses on contemporary artists in Africa and the diaspora, who use textiles as a powerful tool both to explore their identity in a globalising world and to address a range of social-political issues.

Silvia Riva

Silvia Riva is a Professor of Contemporary French Literature and Francophone Cultures at the University of Milan. She deals with, among other things, the literary production of various African countries and with World Literature. Her publications include, Rulli di tam-tam dalla torre di Babele. Storia della letteratura del Congo-Kinshasa, LED, Milan 2000, translated into French with the title Nouvelle histoire de la littérature du Congo-Kinshasa, L’Harmattan, Paris 2006. Recently she edited the monographic issue entitled “Global Congo” (in Manuscrits Francophones n.15, 2020, ITEM / CNRS / ENS, France: journals.openedition.org/coma/5572).

Giovanna Russo

Giovanna Russo, who has a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy, is currently an adjunct Professor at the University of Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum”, where she lectures on the Sociology of Sport and Communication and Sociology of Cultural and Communication processes. Since 2010 she has been a member of SportComLab – Study and Research Center for Sport Communication, and she is on the editorial board of the series “Sport, Body and Society” (Franco Angeli Edizioni, Milan). Her publications include: Il Mondiale delle meraviglie. Calcio, media e società da Italia ’90 ad oggi (with N. Porro, S. Martelli), 2016; Questioni di ben-essere. Pratiche emergenti di cultura, sport, consumi, 2013; La società della wellness. Corpi sportivi al traguardo della salute, 2011.

Irma Taddia

Irma Taddia is  a full Professor of Modern African History, formerly at the University of Bologna. She worked extensively in Africa, mainly in the Horn, under cooperation agreements sponsored by the University of Bologna (DIRI), conducting research and giving lectures to Master’s and PhD students at the Universities of Addis Abeba, Mekelle, Asmara, Khartoum. Her most relevant areas of research include: Italian colonialism in the Horn of Africa; the role of Ethiopian-Eritrea intellectuals under colonialism; power and leadership in modern Ethiopia; customary medicine; African constitutions and customary law and land tenure systems between colonialism and contemporary history.

Jean-Léonard Touadi

Jean-Léonard Touadi is an Italian scholar, writer, politician and journalist, originally from the Congo Democratic Republic. He graduated in Philosophy from the Pontificia Università Gregoriana of Rome, and in Journalism and Political Science from the LUISS University (Rome). After teaching philosophy and religion in several high schools in Rome, he taught in different universities. He currently teaches in the “Global Humanities” course at Università di Roma La Sapienza. He has been an author for RAI (Italian national television) since 1997 and also a host for radio and TV shows including: Permesso di soggiorno (RAI Uno), Un mondo a colori (RAI Educational – RAI Due) and C’era una volta (RAI Tre). He currently collaborates with Nigrizia and Radio Radicale and is a consultant for the FAO.

Alessandro Triulzi

Alessandro Triulzi is a full Professor of History of sub-Saharan Africa and coordinator of the PhD course in African Studies, formerly at the “L’Orientale” University, Naples. He has carried out field research in Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa and taught at the Universities of Addis Abeba and Perugia. He was also the Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales of Paris and visiting Professor at Boston University. He manages several national and international research projects and coordinates the project “Confini. I saperi dell’Africa in movimento” for the Fondazione Lettera27 of Milan. He is also responsible for the Archivio delle Memorie Migranti of Rome. His research fields include the history of modern Ethiopia, oral traditions, the re-writing of State and nation in post-colonial Africa, the return of the colonial memory, the memories of migrants and memories of exile.

Itala Vivan

Itala Vivan is a full Professor of Cultural and postcolonial studies, formerly at the School of Political Science, University of Milano. She works in the field of cultural and postcolonial studies, on the relationships between literature, history and society in sub-Saharan Africa and the emergence of new, creolised literary expressions in the West and elsewhere. In recent years she has researched and published on the role of cultural museums in contemporary society.

Editorial Board

Elisabetta degli Esposti Merli

Graduated in Contemporary History from the University of Bologna, Elisabetta degli Esposti Merli has been working for over 14 years in the field of intercultural communication, event organization. She coordinated projects at national and European level in the social field, particularly about migration and vulnerabilities. At the same time, she has strong expertise in the social integration sector, in the activation of citizenship through participation, in the teaching of Italian L2.

Silvia Festi

Graduated in Political Science from the University of Bologna, she has been involved in project management, training and research in the field of migration for over 25 years. He conceived, developed, coordinated and managed projects and services with multidisciplinary working groups in the Bologna metropolitan area, dealing in particular with collaborations with public administrations. She managed projects within national and community funds, providing training and technical assistance to public officials, supporting the construction of inter-institutional networks and promoting the exchange of good practices through qualitative-quantitative analyzes and research publications.

Rossana Mamberto

Rossana Mamberto works as a journalist at the Controradio broadcaster in Florence. She collaborates with some NGOs for the production of awareness campaigns on environmental and health issues, in recent years she has carried out several missions in Haiti, where she has dealt with the training of community radio journalists.

Andrea Marchesini Reggiani

Graduated in Philosophy and Educational Sciences from the University of Bologna, after having taught a few years in secondary school, in 1995 he co-founded the Lai-momo cooperative, which operates in the immigration sector and in social and intercultural communication, of which is president. He has managed cultural cooperation projects with Africa, particularly in the communication and comics sector. In 2016 he has founded the Cartiera laboratory, which trains and employs migrants and disadvantaged people in leather goods and carries out sustainable fashion projects. In 2021 he was included in the Group of Experts for the G20 Environment by the Italian Ministry for the Environment.

Enrica Picarelli

Enrica Picarelli is an independent researcher, media consultant, and translator writing about digital fashion identi- ties in Africa. Her work has appeared in Clothing Cultures, Fashion Studies, ZoneModa Journal, on several black art & culture platforms including Something we Africans Got, and in international an- thologies. She is a member of the scientific board of the association B&W: Black & White – The Migrant Trend. Currently, she writes for Griot Magazine and blogs at https://afrosartorialism.net.

Pietro Pinto

Graduated in Economics from the University of Bologna with a thesis on migratory flows in the Mediterranean basin, he gained a long experience on migration issues by participating in more than 40 research groups on these issues. Since 2004 he has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Statistical Dossier on Immigration and from 1988 to date he has edited, alone or in collaboration, more than 70 articles and publications on migration. He was the national spokesperson for 10 years, until 2014, of the World Citizenship Education Platform of the Association of Italian NGOs. I also have a significant assistance activity to Local Authorities in the investigation and communication activity on these issues, such as the four-year campaign project “Snapshots from the borders – Small towns facing the global challenges of Agenda 2030” (project leader Municipality of Lampedusa) approved in October 2017.

Mary Angela Schroth

Mary Angela Schroth is the curator of the nonprofit exhibition space Sala 1, one of the first galleries in Rome to showcase international contemporary artists. She has premiered young artists and organized cutting-edge exhibitions such as Moscow: Third Rome, Italy’s first look at Russian artists of perestroika, in 1989; Affinities, a 1993 collective of South African artists, including the debut of William Kentridge, and one the first exhibitions in Italy of African diaspora artists, Transafricana (Bologna, 2000).

Editorial Secretary

Sara Saleri

Sara Saleri holds a PhD in Semiotics, obtained at the University of Bologna with a research on migration in contemporary European cities. Her primary areas of interests include the construction of social and cultural differences, linguistic and media representations, gender studies, identity and memory dynamics. Along with her research activities, she has been working for several years in the non-for-profit sector, with a special experience in editorial coordination and project management.