I wear several hats, as most of us do in academia. 50% of my time I am a PhD candidate in political and economic geography, 40% of my time I am a D4 lecturer in international development studies and 10% of my time I act as chair of the AISSR PhD representatives.

My PhD brings together and deepens several topics I touched upon in my four years working for think tanks (i.e. EMEA, CEPS) before coming back to academia: the geopolitics of European integration and the geoeconomics of global production networks, with a focus on the EU’s enlargement to the Western Balkans and specifically Albania.

In the past, I had the chance to participate in several EU-funded research projects (e.g. EMNES), an experience that I would be interested to repeat. Hit me up if you are building a consortium working on a relevant research topic!   

In my teaching, I draw from three years of experience working as a junior consultant in international development (DevStat) and a master thesis written on the topic. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the international development industry, but eventually I grew quite critical of it. My motivation as a lecturer is to ensure students interested in pursuing a career in this field will do so being sufficiently knowledgeable, reflexive and responsible.

I speak fluent Italian, French, English, Spanish and Dutch. I also speak some Russian, which I learned to prepare for a five-month overland journey across Eurasia, travelling eastward aboard the Trans-Siberian and westward along the Silk Road. For more info about peoples and places met on the way, check out my storytelling project on Instagram.