EDUCATION
2018. (Ph.D.) Doctorate in Civilizations of Asia and Africa – Philological and Literary track, Sapienza University of Rome, I.S.O. – Institute of Oriental Studies. Evaluation: Excellent.
2014. Master’s Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures of the East and West, University of Palermo – School of Humanities and Cultural Heritage (110/110 cum laude)
2012. Bachelor’s Degree in Modern Languages and Cultures
University of Palermo – School of Humanities and Cultural Heritage (110/110)
FURTHER TRAINING AND ADVANCED COURSES
2016. Jan – Apr. Visiting student – Courses in Arabic prosody and comparative languages and literatures, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt, Faculty of Languages and Literatures.
2016. Jun – Sept. Research activity in Jordan. Khalid Shoman Foundation and University of Amman, Jordan.
2015. Advanced courses in Arabic language/linguistics and Arabic rhetoric. Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes, Tunis, Tunisia.
2014. Advanced courses in Arabic language/linguistics and dialectology. Institute of Arabistic Studies “Qalam wa Lawḥ”, Rabat (Morocco).
2014. Mar – Apr. Course in Persian Language and Literature. University of Palermo – School of Humanities and Cultural Heritage.
2013. Feb – May. Course in Turkish Language. University of Palermo – School of Humanities and Cultural Heritage.
2009 – 2012. Courses in Arabic language/linguistics and Arabic literature A1 /A2/ B1/ B2/ 3A/ 3B / Very advanced / Translation techniques / Arabic literature / Cultures and societies of the Arab-Muslim world. Libyan Academy in Italy.
COLLABORATION AND PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH GROUPS
Aug 2025 – ongoing. Project Collaborator – KALiMaT: Keywords for the Study of the Arabic Literary and Manuscript Tradition – Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin. Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in collaboration with the Open Encyclopedia System (OES). Prof. Beatrice Gründler (Principal Investigator), Dr. Johannes Stephan (Editor-in-Chief of KALiMaT Encyclopaedia).
March 2024 – ongoing. Project Collaborator – PRIN 2022 Environmental Anomalies & Political Legitimacy in Global Eurasia, 12th–14th century – Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna.
Feb 2020 – Dec 2022. Project Developer and Board Member – Trans/Formations of Arabic Literary Theory – Columbia University, US. In collaboration with the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS); Sheikh Zayed Book Award (UAE); Brill Publishers.
Sept 2019 – Dec 2023. Project Collaborator – Leverhulme Project A Sorcerer's Handbook. Siraj al-Din al-Sakkaki – University of Exeter, UK.
May 2018 – Dec 2023. Associate Researcher – ERC Project GlobaLIT: Caucasus Literatures Compared – University of Birmingham, UK.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN ITALY AND ABROAD
May 2022 – Nov 2022. Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow – Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB). Funded by Max Weber Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany). Project “Ibn Abī ʿAwn’s Kitāb al-Tashbīhāt [The Book of Similes] and its Place in Abbasid Culture.”
Dec 2020 – Dec 2022. Research Fellow (assegnista di ricerca, with renewal) – Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. Project: "Lingue islamiche sulla via della seta. Convergenze lessicali, semantiche e simbolico-culturali" – Scientific sector LOR/12.
Nov 2019 – Apr. 2020. Research Associate – Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Project “Computational Study of Culture: Cultural Analytics for Modern Arab and Islamic Studies.” Funded by the National Research Fund (QNRF), Qatar Foundation (grant n. NPRP10-0115-170163).
ACADEMIC CAREER AND TEACHING ACTIVITY
2023 – Tenure-track Researcher (Ricercatrice RtdA)
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna
Courses taught:
– Arabic Literature 1 (9 CFU)
– Arabic Literature 2 and 3 (9 CFU)
– Arabic Literature LM (3 CFU module)
Co-Director and member of the Scientific Committee Erasmus BIP (Blended Intensive Programme) Poetry as a Sociocultural Activity in the Global Asian and MENA Contexts (academic year 2025/2026)
2020 – 2022 Adjunct Professor of Arabic Philology and Literature
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna
Courses taught:
– Arabic Literature LM (21/22) (9 CFU)
– Arabic Philology 1 (20/21; 21/22; 22/23); (9 CFU)
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Columbia University, External Collaborator Award, 2021
Arab-German Young Academy (AGYA), Short-term Grant for Early-Career Scholars, 2019
University of Manchester, Short-term Research Grant for Early-Career Scholars, 2019
United Nations – Human Rights Committee (HRCttee), Travel Grant. Speaker at formal and informal meetings at the 119th Session of Human Rights Committee, Palais Wilson, UN, Geneva, 2018.
Winner of the International Mobility Scholarship for PhD Students – Innovative Projects. Sapienza Università di Roma in collaboration with Université de La Manouba (Tunisia). Research project: “Osservazioni linguistiche sull’osmosi fra il dialetto tunisino del sud ed il dialetto libico nelle forme retoriche e poetiche popolari da Medenine a az-Zawiya,” 2017.
Sapienza Università di Roma, Award for the Advancement of Doctoral Research: 2015 and 2016
Sapienza Università di Roma / Université de Rabat, Visiting Fellow Grant, 2014.
Sapienza Università di Roma, PhD Scholarship in Civilizations of Asia and Africa – Philological and Literary track, 2014 – 2017.
MEMBERSHIP IN EDITORIAL BOARDS OF JOURNALS OR ENCYCLOPEDIAS
(2025 ‒) Member of the scientific and editorial board of the series Collana di Letterature del Mondo Islamico. Istituto Per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino – Rome.
(2025 ‒) Contributor – KALiMaT Encyclopedic Lexicon, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin. Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Open Encyclopedia System (OES).
(2025 ‒) Member of the Scientific Committee of the journal Poésies Toutes! Revue d’études et de recherches sur les poésies arabe, amazighe et kurde, Aix-Marseille Université.
(2025 ‒ ) Contributor – Encyclopaedia of Scepticism and Jewish Tradition (Arabic Strand), Brill. Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies – Universität Hamburg (UHH).
ORGANIZATION OF CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
13/11/2025 – 16/12/2025. Co-organizer — Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Seminar cycle of spoken Arabic (North Africa and Morocco). With Ines Peta and Sana Darghmouni — 16 sessions.
29/09/2025 – 05/11/2025. Co-organizer — Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Departmental seminar cycle Di-versificando: poesia, traduzione, editoria.
14/01/2025 – 15/01/2025. Chief organizer and member of the scientific committee — Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna. International conference of the PRIN project: Environmental Challenges in Premodern Eurasian and Mediterranean Narratives.
15/12/2022 – 17/12/2022. Chief organizer and member of the scientific committee — Columbia University, New York. Thresholds of Arabic Literary Criticism. International Conference on Arabic Philology and Literature.
14/12/2021 – 17/12/2021. Organizer and member of the scientific committee — Columbia University, New York. Trans/Formations of Arabic Literary Theory. International Conference.
19/03/2021. Organizer — Virtual International Conference (Columbia University – ICLS; Sheikh Zayed Book Award; Brill). Foundations and Trans/Formations in Arabic Literary Theory: Prospects and Limits.
INVITED LECTURES
15–16/01/2026 — Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin. Workshop Rhetorical Terms in the Arabic Tradition (KALiMaT project). Talk: “Tashbīh and the Craft of Thought: Rhetoric, Analogy, and Worldmaking in Classical Arabic Culture.”
24–28/03/2025 — Columbia University, New York – Invited lecture series. Organized by MESAAS and Arabic Studies Seminar. Faculty House, Knox Hall:
Islamic Languages: focus on interliterary processes — 25/03/2025
9th-Century Baghdad’s Mirabilia: Artisans and Literati — 27/03/2025 (main lecture)
Additional activities: participation in the courses Iraq, Love, and Exile and Arabic War Narrative, co-mentoring students, academic round tables.
28/11/2024 — Università di Padova. Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies. “Nelle banlieues dell’espressione letteraria: il mujūn nella letteratura araba classica e contemporanea.”
08/03/2022 — Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. Department of Asian and North African Studies. “Verso un’ethospoetica delle Lingue Islamiche. Rileggere Bausani e il nomadismo semantico attraverso gli idiomi della Via della Seta.”
13/04/2021 — Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. Department of Asian and North African Studies. “Maestri del capovolgimento: il bello, il brutto e il sarcastico nella poesia araba contemporanea.”
18–24/11/2019 — Columbia University, New York – Invited lecture series. Organized by MESAAS and Arabic Studies Seminar. Faculty House, Knox Hall:
Rethinking the Arabic Literary Canon: Naguib Mahfouz Through Literary-Critical Experimentalism — 19/11/2019
Masters of Upending: “Beauty,” “Ugliness,” and Sarcasm Within Contemporary Arabic Poetry — 21/11/2019
Additional activities: participation in the courses Arabic Prisons and Iraqi Literature, co-mentoring students, academic round tables.
PARTICIPATION IN SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIA AS SPEAKER
15/12/2025 — Università di Bologna. Dipartimento LILEC, Seminari di arabo parlato (Nord Africa e Marocco). “Le forme poetiche vernacolari in Nord Africa – percorsi fra parole e musica: dal gnawa, al ra'i, al ma'louf tunisino e libico.”
14/11/2025 — Università di Bologna. Dipartimento LILEC, Seminari di arabo parlato (Nord Africa e Marocco). “L'Arabo parlato in Nord Africa: varietà e caratteristiche.”
21/10/2025 — Università di Bologna. Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne, ciclo di seminari Di-versificando. “Tradurre la sperimentazione, la ribellione e il non-sense. Sfide traduttive nella poesia araba contemporanea.”
02/10/2024 — Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna. Centro di poesia contemporanea, Conferenza Poeti contro le dittature. “La fantasia come resistenza: due poesie di Musʿab Abū Tūha.”
16/11/2024 — Freie Universität Berlin. AGYA International Conference Translation and Multilingualism in the Premodern Islamic World(s). “Towards an Ethospoetics of the Islamic Languages: Multilingualism Along the Silk Road According to Alessandro Bausani’s (1921–1988).”
04/11/2023 — Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Palais des Congrès de Montréal, 57th Annual Meeting. “Farewell Beauty: Ibn al-Muʽtazz’s (d. 908) Political Manifesto in Fusūl al-Tamāthīl fī Tabāshīr al-Surūr.”
18/07/2022 — University of Exeter. Leverhulme Project Workshop II The Sorcerer’s Handbook. “A Balāgha of Motives: al-Sakkākī’s Metadiscourse, Veridition and Manipulative Writing Style in Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm.”
15/12/2022 — Columbia University, New York. International Conference Thresholds of Arabic Literary Criticism. “The Name of the Key. al-Sakkākī’s Pragmatic Craftsmanship in Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm.”
12/07/2021 — University of Exeter. Leverhulme Project Workshop I The Sorcerer’s Handbook. “Al-Sakkākī’s Literary Craftsmanship and Pragmatic Poetics.”
03/12/2021 — Middle East Studies Association (MESA). 55th Annual Meeting (Virtual). “Notes on Literary Artisans in 9th–10th-century Baghdad.”
19/03/2021 — Columbia University International Conference (Virtual) Foundations and Trans/Formations in Arabic Literary Theory: Prospects and Limits. “Harmonizing Theory and Practice. The Alleged Unity of the Arabic Literary Theory.”
19/10/2019 — Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. AGYA Summer School Mapping the Urban: Cities in Arabic Literature, Culture, and Society. “Ta’mmulāt fī sināʽat al-adab fī Baghdād khilāl al-qarn al-tāsiʽ [Note sull’artigianato letterario nella Baghdad del IX secolo].”
06/09/2019 — University of Manchester. International Conference Constructing the Public Intellectual in the Pre-modern World. “Farewell Beauty: Political, Aesthetical and Social Aspects of Ibn al-Muʽtazz’s (861–908) Legacy as a Pre-modern Public Intellectual.”
19/06/2019 — Columbia University Global Center, Paris. International Conference Conceptions and Configurations of the Arabic Literary Canon. “Beyond a Snow Pile: Najīb Surūr’s Challenging Reading of the Egyptian Literary Canon in Rihla fī Thulāthiyyat Najīb Maḥfūz.”
21/05/2018 — American University of Beirut. International Conference Post-Eurocentric Poetics: New Approaches from Arabic, Turkish and Persian Literature. “Exploring a Pragmatic Approach to the Rhetorical and Metrical Analysis of Contemporary Arabic Poetry: Najīb Surūr’s Kalimāt fī al-ḥubb.”
25/01/2018 — Université Qadi Ayyad, Marrakech. Muntadā al-jāmiʽī al-dawlī: ḥuqūq al-insān wa ḥiwār al-thaqāfāt. “Al-Indimāj al-ijtimāʽī wa-l-thaqāfī: abhāth wa abʽād fī al-tatawwur al-ʽilmī wa-l-madanī.”
12/12/2017 — Università di Catania (Riposto, Sala del Vascello). Convegno Internazionale Mediterraneo. Mare dei Popoli. “Sguardi sulla società mediterranea: il Candido di L. Sciascia e i racconti popolari di Ǧuḥā fra innocenza e inadeguatezza.”
12/05/2017 — Université de Sousse. Conferenza internazionale Conte et Performances – al-Ḥikāya wa-funūn al-adā’. “Ar-rā’s al-maqtūʽ fī at-ṭuqūs wa-l-ḥikāyāt al-siqilliyya wa-fī al-iḥtifālāt al-shaʽbiyya fī shamāl Ifrīqiyā.”
24/03/2017 — Université de Sfax, Hammamet. Convegno Internazionale La lecture des créateurs – International Conference of Comparative Studies. “Parole di teatro, parole di mawwāl: la riscrittura della tradizione popolare egiziana nella lingua drammaturgica di Najīb Surūr.”
20/02/2017 — Istituto Italiano di Cultura a Tunisi – Université de la Manouba. III° Convegno Internazionale di Studi Mediterranei. “Al-Shurafā’ al-Siqilliyyīn – Il valore dell’eredità storico-culturale siciliana in Marocco.”
17/01/2017 — Université de Gabès. Conferenza Internazionale La Tunisia sei anni dopo la rivoluzione. “Da ‘Shayyid quṣūrek’ a ‘Khudh al-bisīsa’: la canzone dell'impegno sociopolitico nella Tunisi post-rivoluzione.”
AFFILIATIONS
MESA ‒ Middle East Studies Association
EURAMAL ‒ The European Association for Modern Arabic Literature
SeSaMo ‒ Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies
AIDA – International Association of Arabic Dialectology
Associate Member to the Arabic Studies Seminar Board - Columbia University, New York.
INSTITUTIONAL ROLES
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna. Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures:
Department Delegate for Student Orientation (18.09.25 ‒ present)
Member of the Quality Assurance Committee for the BA in Languages, Markets and Cultures of Asia and Mediterranean Africa(17.12.25 - present)
Member of the Communication Committee (14.05.24 ‒ 14.01.26)
Member of the Thesis Abroad Committee (15.10.24 – present)
Member of the Deliberative Committee (01.03.25 ‒ 18.09.25)
Chair of the Transfers and Transitions Committee LLS (27.04.24 ‒ 18.09.25)
Member of the Transfers Committee LMCAAM (27.04.24 ‒ 18.09.25)
Member of the Public Engagement Committee (07.05.25 ‒ 18.09.25)
