Since 2022, Ines Peta has been Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Bologna. Her research lies in the field of Arab-Islamic culture and brings together Arabic literary studies, Islamic studies, intellectual history, and postcolonial approaches.
Her early research focused on classical Islamic intellectual production, with particular attention to the theological, philosophical, and mystical thought of al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) and to Islamic-Christian dialogical literature. Over time, her research interests have expanded to modern and contemporary Arabic intellectual and literary production, focusing on the contemporary reactivation of classical heritage (turāth), the circulation of ideas across the Mediterranean, and cultural mediation between Europe and the Arab-Islamic world.
EDUCATION
She graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures (Philological and Literary Curriculum) from the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in 2005. In 2010 she obtained her PhD in Philosophy, Science and Culture of Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Humanism from the University of Salerno through a joint doctoral programme with Saint Joseph University of Beirut, where she was enrolled in the doctoral programme in Lettres-Philosophie.
Throughout her academic training, she completed several study and research stays in the Arab world. In 2004 she attended the Département d'Enseignement de l'Arabe Contemporain (DEAC) in Cairo. In 2005 she studied at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Damascus with a scholarship awarded by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 2008 and 2009, within the framework of her joint doctoral programme, she carried out research at the Centre de Recherches et d'Études Arabes (CREA) and the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Arabes Chrétiennes (CEDRAC) in Beirut.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
After holding teaching appointments at the University of Palermo (2010–2011) and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan (2011–2019), she obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification (ASN) for Associate Professor in 2018 (Academic Recruitment Field 10/N1).
In 2019 she was appointed Tenure-track Assistant Professor (RTD-B) in Arabic Language and Literature at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LILEC), University of Bologna, where she has served as Associate Professor since 2022.
In 2026 she obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification (ASN) for Full Professor.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
A) University Teaching
Since 2010, Ines Peta has taught continuously at university level. Since 2019, she has taught Arabic Language and Linguistics in the BA programmes in Foreign Languages and Literatures and Languages, Markets and Cultures of Asia and Mediterranean Africa at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LILEC), University of Bologna. Since 2022, she has also taught Arabic Literature in the Master's programme in Italian Language and Culture for Foreign Students.
B) Coordination of Teaching Projects
She co-coordinated the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) Traumatic Memory and National Identity across Languages and Cultures: Japan, Lebanon and Modern-day Egypt (2024), developed in collaboration with Stockholm University and the University of Oslo, במסגרת which an international summer school was organised.
She coordinated the following interdisciplinary educational projects for students of the Fondazione Collegio delle Università Milanesi: Beyond the Stereotype: The Arab World and Europe (2017–2018); Introduction to the Arabic Language (2017–2018); The Gulf Countries: Cradle of Civilisations, Land of Conflicts (2018–2019); United Arab Emirates: History, Culture and Society (2021–2022).
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Throughout her academic career, Ines Peta has participated in and coordinated several national and international research projects, collaborating with universities, research centres, and cultural institutions in Italy and abroad.
A) Participation in Research Projects
In 2014, she conducted research on Islam in Milan as coordinator of relations with Muslim communities and Islamic centres within the project Muslim Migrant Communities in Milan: Challenges, Resources and Relationships, promoted by the International Oasis Foundation in collaboration with the ISMU Foundation and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
Between 2014 and 2015, she was a member of the permanent research group of the project Understanding Hybridity, Governing Change, promoted by the International Oasis Foundation with the support of the Cariplo Foundation. In 2017, she participated in the research project In Search of a Guide: Authority and Leadership in Contemporary Islam, also promoted by the International Oasis Foundation with the support of the Cariplo Foundation.
Between 2019 and 2022, she served on several working groups within the LILEC Department's Project of Excellence Diversity and Inclusion (DIVE-IN), including the committees on School Outreach, Lifelong Learning, Intercultural Workshops, and the Departmental Journal.
From 2019 to 2022, she was a member of CeSLiC (Centre for Linguistic and Cultural Studies, Research – Practice – Training). Since 2019, she has been a member of FIMIM (Centre for Indo-Mediterranean Philology and Medieval Studies), and since 2023 she has been a member of TAURI (Research Centre for Translation, Self-Translation and Literary Retranslation).
B) Coordination of Research Projects
From 2023 to 2025, she served as Principal Investigator of the University of Bologna research unit within the two-year PRIN 2022 project Environmental Anomalies & Political Legitimacy in Global Eurasia (12th–14th Centuries). Funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU), the project brought together the University of Naples "L'Orientale" (Principal Investigator: Donatella Guida), the University of Bologna, and the University of Calabria to investigate, from a comparative perspective, the relationship between environmental anomalies and political legitimacy across medieval Eurasia.
In 2023, she co-coordinated the Visiting Fellowship project of Professor Lucia Sorbera (University of Sydney), selected through the competitive call of the Institute of Advanced Studies (ISA), University of Bologna.
Since 2019, she has co-coordinated the international project IDA (Images and Distortions of the Other), promoted by the FIMIM Research Centre.
C) Organisation and Coordination of Conferences
She served on the organising committee of the international conference La production littéraire des Melkites avant l'ère ottomane (750–1516 AD), organised by CEDRAC in collaboration with the Faculty of Religious Studies of Saint Joseph University of Beirut (2008).
She was a member of the organising committee and coordinator of translation activities for the following international conferences held within the Festival of Arabic Language and Culture at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart: Arabic as a Vehicle of Culture, an Instrument of Dialogue (2016); The Arabs and Europe: Interweaving Languages and Cultures (2017); Shahrazad Beyond the Palace: Women in the Public Sphere and Their Contribution to Arabic Language and Culture (2019).
She served on both the scientific and organising committees of the International Study Day Literatures, Teaching, Plurality, organised by the University of Bologna within the framework of the LILEC Project of Excellence Diversity and Inclusion (2022).
She was a member of the Scientific Committee of the international conference The Self and the Other: Migration Literature as a Dialogue between Cultures, organised by the University of Blida 2 (Algeria) in collaboration with the IDA International Project and the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LILEC), University of Bologna (2023).
In 2025, she chaired the international conference Environmental Challenges in Premodern Eurasian and Mediterranean Narratives, organised at the University of Bologna within the framework of the PRIN 2022 project.
D) Editorial Boards
Since 2021, she has been a member of the Editorial Board of the book series Traduzioni, studi e ricerche sulla Nahḍah, directed by Isabella Camera d'Afflitto and published by the Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino (Rome).
Since 2022, she has served on the Editorial Board of DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion.
Since 2025, she has been a member of the Editorial Board of the TAURI Translation Series.
INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE AND ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Since December 2025, she has served as Coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree Programme in Languages, Markets and Cultures of Asia and Mediterranean Africa and as Chair of the Programme's Quality Assurance (QA) Committee, of which she has been a member since 2020.
Since 2021, she has been a member of the Language Teaching Committee (CIL – Commissione Insegnamenti Linguistici).
From May 2024 to December 2025, she served as Departmental Delegate for Internationalisation and as the University of Bologna representative on the Scientific Board of the H2CU Inter-University Centre for International Education.
From 2021 to 2025, she was a member of the Library Scientific Committee.
From December 2020 to October 2022, she served on the Department Board.
SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
- "The Neoliberal Urbicide of Mecca in Two Contemporary Novels" (with Giulia Aiello). Catastrophe and Beyond: Representations of Violence and Trauma in Modern Arabic Literature, European Association for Modern Arabic Literature (EURAMAL), University of St Andrews (Scotland), 22–26 June 2026.
- "Oltre le dicotomie: Aḥmad Amīn e la transimmetria del pensiero arabo moderno". Riscoprire, rielaborare, sovvertire il mondo, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LILEC), University of Bologna, within the panel Costruzioni dell'Oriente. Rappresentazioni, auto-narrazioni e stereotipi tra Asia e Africa mediterranea (panel organiser and chair), 4–5 June 2026.
- "From the Self to the Collectivity: The Role of the Autobiographical Dimension in Aourid's Project of Reshaping Moroccan Identity". Re-Writing Morocco: Poetics, Politics, Philosophy, and History in Multiple Forms, Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, 21–22 November 2024.
- "Quel Dante ? Quel Islam ? Une tentative d'analyse des choix de traduction de Kāẓim Jihād". La mondialisation de Dante II : Aires extra-européennes, Université de Lorraine, University of Bologna and Biblioteca Classense (Ravenna), 10–11 October 2024.
- "Dalla 'Biografia' (Sīra) ai 'Tormenti' (Tourments) di un asino: l'autotraduzione dall'arabo al francese del romanzo Sīrat ḥimār di Ḥasan Awrīd" (with Paola Puccini). Self-translation: Inclusion of Diversity, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LILEC), University of Bologna, 21 September 2023.
- "Razionalità e religione: dalla diatriba tra Faraḥ Anṭūn (1874–1922) e Muḥammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905) alla mediazione di Aḥmad Amīn (1886–1954)". The Contribution of the Syro-Lebanese Intellectual Faraḥ Anṭūn (1874–1922) to the Nahḍah: One Hundred Years Later, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", 18 November 2022.
- "L'apporto persiano alla cultura araba nella visione di Aḥmad Amīn". Sixth Bologna Conference on Iranian Studies (CoBIran), University of Bologna, 21 October 2022.
- "Science, Rationalité et Religion : (in)cohérence de Ghazali ?" Grande Conférence, Quand la science parlait arabe, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir (Morocco), 3 November 2021.
- "Rational and Mystical Dimensions in al-Ghazālī's Interpretation of the Qurʾān". Qurʾān in Contact: Plurality of Views from Other Traditions, Disciplines and Peripheries, International Qur'anic Studies Association (IQSA) in collaboration with the Giorgio La Pira Library, 10 July 2021.
- "L'épineuse question de la paternité ghazālienne du Radd al-jamīl : une nouvelle hypothèse". La voie de Ghazālī entre mystique et philosophie, Institut de Recherches Philosophiques de Lyon (IRPHIL) and Université Catholique de Lyon, 9–10 December 2011.
