Research

I study borders, mobility, and how experiences of precarious migration are shaped by histories and institutions. My interdisciplinary research has focused especially on Africa-Europe mobilities and questions of asylum, migrant reception, and racial justice in the Italian context. This work bridges critical refugee studies, transnational Italian studies, and postcolonial studies, through methods including narrative and discourse analysis, and oral history and ethnography. In analyzing shifting border dynamics and engaging a range of testimonial and documentary forms and practices, I aim to inform understandings of the relationship between mobility, sovereignty, memory, rights, and belonging in and beyond the Mediterranean.

I'm currently a postdoctoral associate with the interdisciplinary Migrations Initiative at Cornell University, based in the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. In this capacity, I also host the podcast Migrations: A World on the Move.

Monograph project

My book in progress, Emergency in Transit, investigates the discourses and experiences of “emergency” that are shaping contemporary Mediterranean migration to the EU. I turn to testimonial narratives, analyzing oral history interviews I conducted with migrants and aid workers in Italy, together with a range of visual and narrative texts that portray transit to Europe and within Italy. My published articles contribute to discussions of the role of colonial memory and racial and identity discourse in Europe, and the possibilities for migrant self-representation and witnessing in these contexts. More generally, this work responds to the colonial present made manifest through border violence and anti-immigrant racism.

Journal articles

Public Scholarship and Outreach

Translations and Reviews

Podcast Episodes