Ester Sigillò

Ester Sigillò is Senior Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Bologna. She is the Principal Investigator of the HYBRIS project, which explores the transnational trajectories of Islamic activism from the Maghreb. Her main research interests include Political Islam, democracy and authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa, transnational activism, and the role of international actors in political change across the MENA region. She received her PhD in Political Science from the Scuola Normale Superiore in 2018 and was subsequently a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute before joining the University of Bologna. Her work has appeared in leading international journals, including American Behavioral Scientist, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Mediterranean Politics, Third World Quarterly, The International Spectator, and the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. She is the author of Rethinking Civil Society in Transition: International Donors, Associations and Politics in Tunisia (Amsterdam University Press, 2023) and L'attivismo Islamico in Maghreb (Carocci, 2024).