Federica Cicci

Federica Cicci is Adjunct Professor at the University of Bologna, where she teaches History of China and of East and Southeast Asia. She is also Adjunct Professor at Roma Tre University, where she teaches History of East and Southeast Asia, and at the University of Perugia, where she teaches Chinese Language.

She obtained her Bachelor’s degree (2016) and Master’s degree (2018) in Asian and Mediterranean African Studies from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, graduating with full marks and honors (110/110 cum laude). Awarded several scholarships, she carried out study periods in China as an exchange student at Capital Normal University 首都师范大学 and Renmin University 人民大学 in Beijing, as well as at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University 西安交通利物浦大学 in Suzhou, further strengthening her linguistic and cultural training.

In March 2024 she was awarded a Ph.D. in History of East and Southeast Asia [ASIA-01/H] within the international joint degree program between Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Heidelberg University. Her dissertation, Caring Women: Transnational Activism and Humanitarian Relief Efforts during Wartime China (1937–1945), explored the intersection of gender, war, and humanitarianism, showing how women’s relief work contributed to redefining representations of femininity and expanding women’s participation in the public sphere.

In July 2025, she also took part in an Erasmus academic exchange program in Chengdu at Sichuan University 四川大学, within a project promoted by the University of Perugia.

Since 2024 she has been regularly teaching as the instructor of several courses in Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at Roma Tre University, the University of Perugia, and the University of Bologna. She was also Adjunct Professor of Modern and Contemporary Chinese History at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice for the academic year 2024–25.

She regularly participates as a speaker in national and international conferences. Her research focuses on the history of modern and contemporary China, with particular attention to gender history and women’s history, analyzed from transnational and transcultural perspectives.

Editorial and editorial board memberships:

• DEP. Deportate, Esuli e Profughe. ISSN: 1824-4483

She has received numerous awards for her research and academic work. In 2025 she won the Research Support Grant awarded by SISSCO (Italian Society for the Study of Contemporary History), and her doctoral project was awarded the monetary prize “Storie di Umanità”, in memory of Maria Rosaria Borzì, promoted by the Italian Red Cross.

She also received a fully funded three-year Ph.D. scholarship financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and an Erasmus+ grant, supported by European funds, for a year of study at Heidelberg University, Germany. In 2018 she won third place at the Chinese Speech Contest organized by East China Normal University in Shanghai in collaboration with the Department of East Asian Studies at Ca’ Foscari, which awarded her a semester scholarship at ECNU. In 2015 she was also awarded a Confucius Institute–Hanban scholarship as part of the “Overseas” program promoted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, which allowed her to spend one academic year at Capital Normal University in Beijing.

• July 2025 – Eighth Annual Conference of the European Academy of Religion (EuARe) (Vienna, Austria): “In the Hands of Others: Female Medical-Missionary Practices and Relief Activities during Wartime China (1937–1945)”

• August 2024 – 25th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) (Tallinn University, Estonia): “In the Hands of Others: Female Medical-Missionary Practices and Relief Activities during Wartime China (1937–1945)”

• June 2024 – International Workshop, University of Birmingham “Navigating the Politics of Gender and Sexuality in PRC, from Historical Insights to Contemporary Perspective”: Inter arma caritas: Women’s humanitarian activities in the Red Cross during wartime China (1937–1945)

• June 2024 – Chinese Feminism Reading Group, University of Freiburg: Caring Women: Transnational Activism and Humanitarian Relief Efforts in Wartime China (1937–1945)

• September 2023 – 19th AISC (Italian Association of Chinese Studies) Conference (La Sapienza University, Rome): “Politics, Ideology, and Scientific Development: The Role of Science, Medicine, and Technology in the Construction of the Modern Chinese State.”

• March 2023 – AISC Young Scholars Coordinating Group Workshop “Challenges and Critical Issues in China Studies: Methodologies, Sources and Theoretical Approaches”: Archival Notes: the mobilization of Catholic missionary women in China during the Second World War

• February 2023 – International History of East Asia Seminar, Hilary Term 2023, University of Oxford: “In the name of the Chinese Red Cross: Women’s activism, gender roles and humanitarian relief efforts during wartime (1937–1945)”

• August 2022 – 24th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic): “In the name of the Chinese Red Cross: Women’s activism, gender roles and humanitarian relief efforts during wartime (1937–1945)”

• November 2021 – Online 15th Annual Conference on Asian Studies: “Continuity and Change” (Palacký University Olomouc): “Moving toward a modern humanitarianism: Chinese women’s activism in the Red Cross during wartime (1937–1945)”

• November 2021 – 18th AISC (Italian Association of Chinese Studies) Conference (University of Turin): “Rethinking the CCP’s relationship with society 100 years later: approaches, visions and policies from the foundation to Mao’s death (1921–1976)”

• November 2021 – 2nd International Ph.D. Student Symposium (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice): “In the name of the Chinese Red Cross: ‘feminine’ virtues in humanitarian discourses during wartime (1937–1945)”

• September 2021 – Online International Conference (University of Edinburgh) “East Asia on the Move: Shifting Dynamics”: “Moving toward a modern humanitarianism: Chinese women’s activism in the Red Cross during wartime (1937–1945)”

• March 2021 – Online International Conference (College for Central European Studies, 4EU+ Universities): “Dilemmas of Modernity 200 Years of Central Europe Cultures and Societies”: “The Birth of Modern Humanitarianism: The Long Path of the International Committee of the Red Cross”

• February 2020 – Ph.D. workshop “Asian and North African Studies in a Globalized and Interconnected World” (Sapienza University, Rome): “Women at war: beyond the national boundaries for a sustainable international peace”

• October 21, 2022 – International Conference (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice): “Women’s transnational activism in the Twentieth Century: framing the Chinese case in a global perspective.”

• July 24, 2025 – 四川大学 Sichuan University, Chengdu, PRC: 二十世纪中欧国际合作与文化交流中的女性参与 (Women’s Participation in Sino-European International Cooperation and Cultural Exchange in the 20th Century)

• July 2, 2025 – H-FARM College, Roncade (TV), Italy: “China Between Past and Present: A Journey Through the History of a Millenary Civilization”

• June 28–29, 2023 – International Workshop Service – Duty – Care: Theorizing Civic Engagement from Asia to Europe and beyond, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation Eccellenza project “Quiet Aid: Service and Salvation in the Balkans-to-Bengal Complex”)

• June 13–17, 2022 – VIU (Venice International University) International Ph.D. Academy: The State of the Art of Area Studies

• September 30, 2021 – International Graduate Summer School in Gender History (University of Naples Federico II): Chinese Women at War Struggling for Freedom: the case of Zhou Meiyu and the nursing educational programs

• August 25–28, 2021 – SIS (Italian Society of Women Historians) Summer School: Environment. Histories, Conflicts, Movements from a Gender Perspective

• AISC – Italian Association for Chinese Studies

• EACS – European Association of Chinese Studies

• SIS – Italian Society of Women Historians

• SISSCO – Italian Society for the Study of Contemporary History

• SISI – Italian Society of International History