Prof. Sandro Mezzadra
Professor of Political Philosophy
Dipartimento delle Arti, Università degli Studi di Bologna
E-mail: [mailto:sandro.mezzadra@unibo.it]
Website: [https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/sandro.mezzadra/]
Academia.edu: [https://unibo.academia.edu/SandroMezzadra]
Short CV 2024
Academic profile
I am a political theorist with a background in the history of political ideas. Over the last two decades my academic work on migration, borders, postcolonial criticism, logistics, and contemporary capitalism has worked the boundaries between several disciplines, including geography and anthropology, sociology and legal studies. A peculiar understanding of political theory has emerged from such cross-disciplinary work, which continues to guide my work. I have been developing my research within a dense fabric of international collaborations, sharing projects, working, and giving talks in many places, including but not limited to the U.S. and India, China and Australia, Argentina and Taiwan as well as many European countries. I have been the coordinator of the Horizon 2020 European project PLUS (Platform Labor in Urban Spaces, 2019-2022).
Relevant academic qualifications
1993 PhD History of Political Thought and Institutions (University of Turin, Italy)
1989 Laurea in Scienze Politiche (MA, Political Science) (University of Bologna, Italy)
1985 Laurea in Filosofia (MA, Philosophy) (University of Genoa, Italy)
Relevant academic employments
Full professor of Political Philosophy, 2020 – present, Department of the Arts, University of Bologna
Associate Professor of Political Philosophy, 2018 – 2020, Department of the Arts, University of Bologna.
Associate Professor of Political Philosophy, 2012 – 2018, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna.
Associate Professor of History of Political Thought, 2007 – 2012, Department of Politics, Institutions, History, University of Bologna.
Senior Lecturer in History of Political Thought, 1999 – 2007, Department of Politics, Institutions, History, University of Bologna.
Visiting positions and awards
International Chair of Contemporary Philosophy, Université Paris 8, February-July 2024.
Visiting Professor of Political Theory, New School for Social Research, New York, Department of Politics, August 2017-July 2018.
Visiting Research Fellow, Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, August 2016 – July 2017.
Kosmos Fellow, Institut für Europäische Ethnologie & Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, October 2015 – July 2016.
Adjunct Professor, 2024 – present, Centre for Cultural Research and Development, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
Adjunct Professor, 2024 – present, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University.
Adjunct Fellow, 2011 – 2023, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University.
Research Fellow, Programme International d’Études Avancées (PIEA) de la Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris) – Columbia Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall, joint research project “Conflicts, Claims, Law and Constitution-Building” (2009).
Selected research projects and grants awards
European Grants
2022-2026: INCA (Increase corporate political responsibility and accountability). Horizon Europe. Funded by the European Union under G.A. Nº 101061653. Sandro Mezzadra is a member of the Bologna research unit.
2019-2022: PLUS (Platform Labor in Urban Spaces: Fairness, Welfare, Development). Horizon 2020 Call: H2020-SC6-Transformations. Topic: transformations-01-2018. Type of action: RIA. Sandro Mezzadra is the coordinator of the European consortium and of the Bologna research unit.
2019-2020: RELEVANT REALISM (H2020 MSCA-IF-EF-ST). Sandro Mezzadra is the coordinator of the project.
2016-2020: GLOBUS (Reconsidering European Contributions to Global Justice). Horizon 2020 Call: H2020-INT-SOCIETY-2015. Topic: INT-03-2015. Type of action: RIA. Sandro Mezzadra is a member of the Bologna research unit.
2012-2014: MIGPRO (Beyond Cinicism and Bare Life: Practices of Citizenship Against Migrants’ Inclusive Exclusion), FP7-PEOPLE. Sandro Mezzadra is the coordinator of the project.
2011-2014: OECUMENE (Citizenship after Orientalism), European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant (Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour ERC-AG-SH2). Principal investigator: Engin Isin (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK). Sandro Mezzadra is a member of the Advisory Board.
2010-2013: MIG@NET (Transnational Digital Networks, Migration and Gender), FP7. Coordinator: Panteion University, Athens. Sandro Mezzadra coordinates the Bologna research unit (funding: ca. 140.000 euros).
2008-2011: GeMIC (Gender, Migration, and Intercultural Interactions in the Mediterranean and South East Europe: an interdisciplinary perspective), FP7. Coordinator: Panteion University, Athens. Sandro Mezzadra coordinates the Bologna research unit (funding: ca. 130.000 euros).
2007-2010: ATACD (A Topological Approach to Cultural Dynamics), FP6. Coordinator: Goldsmiths College, University of London. Sandro Mezzadra coordinates the Bologna research unit (funding: ca. 10.000 euros).
International Projects
2020-2023: The Geopolitics of Automation, Discovery project funded by the Australian Research Council. Sandro Mezzadra is partner investigator.
2017-2020: Social Movements Lab, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University. Sandro Mezzadra co-directs the Lab with Michael Hardt.
2016-2019: Data Centres and the Governance of Labour and Territory, Discovery project funded by the Australian Research Council. Sandro Mezzadra is partner investigator.
2016 (April – December): Politiken und Vermittlung mobiler Arbeit (“Politics and intermediation of mobile labor”), project funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Migrants, Refugees, and Integration, Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Sandro Mezzadra coordinates the project with Manuela Bojadzijev.
2013-2016: Logistics as Global Governance: Labour, Software and Infrastructure along the New Silk Road, Discovery project funded by the Australian Research Council. Sandro Mezzadra is partner investigator.
2011-2012: Belonging Differently, Task force established by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). Sandro Mezzadra is a member.
2009-2012: Transit Labor. Creative Labour and Social Mobilities in the Asian Century, Discovery project funded by the Australian Research Council. Sandro Mezzadra is partner investigator.
Selection of recent publications in English
I am the author of several books, book chapters and journal articles (quoted by 12312 on google scholar). For a full list see https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/sandro.mezzadra/pubblicazioni ). Please find below a selection of my recent publications in English.
Books
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, The Rest and the West. Capital and Power in a Multipolar World, London – New York: Verso, forthcoming.
S. Mezzadra – M. Hardt, Bolivia Beyond the Impasse, Brooklyn, NY: Common Notions, 2023.
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, The Politics of Operations. Excavating Contemporary Capitalism, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press. 2019.
S. Mezzadra, In the Marxian Workshops. Producing Subjects, London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018.
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, Border as Method, or the Multiplication of Labor, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2013.
V. Borghi – S. Mezzadra, In The Multiple Shadows of Modernity. Strategies of Critique of Contemporary Capitalism, Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011.
Journal articles and book chapters
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, “Critical Border Studies.” In C.W. Barrow (ed), Encyclopedia of Critical Political Sceince, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2024: 157-161.
Sandro Mezzadra – Brett Neilson, Operations of Platforms. A Global Process in a Multipolar World, in S. Mezzadra, N. Cuppini, M. Frapporti, and M. Pirone (eds), Capitalism in the Platform Age. Emerging Assemblages of Labor and Welfare in Urban Spaces, Cham: Springer, 2024: 15-31.
S. Mezzadra, “Exploring the Landscapes of Extraction: Colonial Continuities, Postcolonial Assemblages of Power, and Anti-colonial Struggles,” in N. Sakai, J. Solomon, and P. Button (eds). Knowledge Production and Epistemic Decolonization at the End of Pax Americana, London – New York: Routledge, 2024: 112-134.
S. Mezzadra, “Into the World Market. Karl Marx and the Theoretical Foundation of Internationalism,” in P. Capuzzo and A. Garland Mahler (eds), The Comintern and the Global South. Global Designs/Local Encounters, London – New York: Routledge, 2023: 47-67.
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, “The Capitalist Virus.” Politics, published online 11.7.2022
S. Mezzadra, “Movements of Migration Within and Beyond Citizenship.” Citizenship Studies, 26 (2022), 4-5: 577-583.
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, “Borders,” in B. Skeggs, S.R. Farris, A. Toscano and S. Bromberg (eds), The Sage Handbook of Marxism, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 2021, vol. 3: 1593-1610.
S. Mezzadra, “Intersectionality, Identity, and the Riddle of Class.” Papeles del CEIC, 2021/2: 1-10.
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, “The Geopolitics of Labor,” in L. Weber and and C. Tazreiter (eds), Handbook of Migration and Social Justice, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2021: 14-25.
S. Mezzadra, “Testing Borders: Covid-19 and the Management of (Im)mobility,” in W. Baier, E. Canepa, and H. Golemis (eds), Capitalism’s Death Threat. Transform! Yearbook 2021, London: Merlin Press, 2021: 246-255.
S. Mezzadra, “Challenging Borders. The Legacy of Postcolonial Critique in the Present Conjuncture.” Soft Power, 7 (2020), 2: 21-44.
S. Mezzadra – N. De Genova, “Migration and the Question of New Political Possibilities. A Dialogue.” Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences, 1 (2020): 337-374.
S. Mezzadra – R. Samaddar, “Colonialism,” in M. Musto (ed.), The Marx Revival. Key Concepts and New Interpretations. Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020: 247-265.
S. Mezzadra, “Abolitionist Vista of the Human. Border Struggles, Migration, and Freedom of Movement.” Citizenship Studies, 24 (2020), 4: 424-440.
S. Mezzadra, “Class Struggle, Labor Power, and the Politics of the Body. Marxian Threads in the Work of Michel Foucault.” Zinbun (Institute for Research in Humanities Kyoto University), 50 (2020): 57-69.
S. Mezzadra, “Sealing Borders? Rethinking Border Studies in Hard Times.” Viadrina Center B/orders in Motion, Working Papers Series N. 3, Frankfurt (Oder), 2019. https://www.borders-in-motion.de/working-paper-series
S. Mezzadra, “Forces and Forms. Governmentality and Bios in the Time of Global Capital.” Positions, 27 (2019), 1: 145-158.
S. Mezzadra, “In the Wake of the Greek Spring and the Summer of Migration.” South Atlantic Quarterly, 117 (2018), 4: 925-933.
S. Mezzadra, “A World to Gain: On the Borders of ‘Theory’.” In D. Gentili, E. Stimilli, and G. Garelli (eds), Italian Critical Thought. Genealogies and Categories. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018: 73-80.
S. Mezzadra et al., “Logistical Borderscapes: Politics and Mediation of Mobile Labor in Germany After the ‘Summer of Migration’.” South Atlantic Quarterly, 117 (2018), 2: 291-312.
S. Mezzadra, “Marx in Algiers.” Radical Philosophy, 2.01 (February 2018): 79-86.
S. Mezzadra – V. Gago “A Critique of the Extractive Operations of Capital: Toward an Expanded Concept of Extractivism.” Rethinking Marxism, 29 (2017), 4: 574-591.
S. Mezzadra – M. Hardt, “October! To Commemorate the Future.” South Atlantic Quarterly, 116 (2017), 4: 649-668.
S. Mezzadra – V. Gago, “In the Wake of the Plebeian Revolt. Social Movements, ‘Progressive’ Governments, and the Politics of Autonomy in Latin America.” Anthropological Theory, 17 (2017), 4: 474-496.
S. Mezzadra – B. Neilson, “On the Multiple Frontiers of Extraction. Excavating Contemporary Capitalism”, Cultural Studies, 31 (2017), 2-3: 185-204.
