Team
SSIIM Unesco Chair, University Iuav of Venice (Italy)
Laura Fregolent
Laura Fregolent is full professor of Urban Planning and Director of Research Coordination at the University IUAV of Venice.
Her research interests mainly relate to the field of urban studies. Over the years she has specifically dealt with topics such as processes of urban transformation, urban sprawl and related social dynamics, conflicts connected to projects and spatial transformations, urban changes particularly related to housing dynamics.
With reference to these themes, she has gained analytical experience and extensively studied the ways through which more effective intervention policies might be designed, assuming a general framework of sustainable development. She is co-editor of the journal Archivio di studi urbani e regionali published by FrancoAngeli.
Giovanna Marconi
Architect (2001), PhD in Urban Planning and Public Policies (2012), Giovanna Marconi is Coordinator of the SSIIM Unesco Chair on the ‘Social and Spatial Inclusion of International Migrants’ based at the University Iuav of Venice. Her main research topics include: South-to-South international migration, transit migration, urban inclusion of international migrants and the governance of migration in small-medium sized cities. She coordinated and collaborated on a number of international (action)research projects related to these issues and is author of several scientific articles and book chapters on the urban dimension of international migration.
Michela Semprebon
Michela Semprebon holds a PhD in Urban Sociology from the University of Milan-Bicocca and completed her thesis on a comparative analysis of urban conflicts and immigrants’ political participation. In this department, she collaborated on urban safety projects, with the FarsiCura team; conducted seminars within the module “Intercultural Relations”; worked as Post-doc Research Fellow on social housing projects, as part of the international network COST IS1102 S.O.S. COHESION, and on the national project “Small municipalities and social cohesion: urban policies and practices for the socio-spatial inclusion of migrants”. In 2016 she collaborated on the national project “Intergenerational relations and obligations between the first & second generations of migrants” at the University of Bologna. She is teaching “Media and migration” in the Content Analysis lab within the Undergraduate degree “Comunicazione Pubblica e d’Impresa” of the University of Bologna and teaches the module “Introduction to Sociology) within the Undergrande degree “Scienze della Comunicazione” of the University of Bergamo. She was Visiting Researcher at the Haute Ecole des Sciences Sociales (Paris) and at the Centre for Migration, Policy & Society (Oxford). She has lectured in various universities, participated to numerous conferences and acted as referee for national/international journals. Her research interests include: system of reception and transit of forced migrants, human trafficking, policies of migrant inclusion. She is currently the Coordinator and Principal Investigator of the research activities of the project INSigHT (Building Capacity to deal with human trafficking and transit routes in Nigeria, Italy, Sweden) funded by EC DG Home, with the support of ICMPD, within the Mobility Partnership Framework.
Abe Oluwafemi Moses
Isabelle Johansson
Isabelle Johansson is a graduate student in social anthropology at Lund University (ABD). She is currently working on her PhD thesis “In My Secret Life – Longing, Love and Loneliness in Paid Sex”. Isabelle also lectures in criminology, social anthropology and sociology at Lund University and Kristianstad University. In 2018, Isabelle worked as a research consultant on trafficking in persons and policies at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, developing a global database on national responses to human trafficking. Between 2014 and 2017, Isabelle was involved in the interdisciplinary research project “Demand-side Measures Against Trafficking (DemandAT)”. The aim of the project was to understand the role of demand in human trafficking and assess the impact of demand-side measures. For DemandAT, Isabelle conducted a comparative analysis of different types of prostitution policies together with Petra Östergren. More specifically, they looked at how different policies address the demand for sexual services and what could be said about their impact on human trafficking. As part of the research, Isabelle conducted interviews with a range of actors working with these issues in Germany, New Zealand and Sweden, as well as with men who have paid for sex, which her PhD dissertation draws on. In 2013-2014, Isabelle was a research intern at the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna. Isabelle is a founding member of the research network “Sex Mot Ersättning (FOSME)”, a Swedish research network on sex against remuneration. Between 2013-2017, she was a member of the research network Comparing European Prostitution Policies: Understanding Scales and Cultures of Governance (PROSPOL).
Serena Scarabello
Serena Scarabello, anthropologist (2009, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), holds a PhD in Social Science (2016, University of Padova) and her main fields of interest include: African diasporas in Europe, policies of inclusion and empowerment of migrant population, racialization processes and intercultural communication. She is specialized in qualitative research methodology (narrative interview, ethnographic observation, multi-sited ethnography and focus group), she has conducted ethnographic fieldworks in Romania, in Senegal and in Italy – with associations of African-Italian youth and first generation African migrants – and she has been visiting researcher at University of Amsterdam, Department of Anthropology. For several years she served as didactic coordinator of Master of Intercultural Studies of University of Padova – Cultural and Social Mediation section – and as trainer in courses for cultural mediators and social workers. More recently, she applied her anthropological skills and knowledge in the field of forced migration, human trafficking and co-development, serving as legal and social operator in several SPRAR/SIPROIMI projects in Veneto region and as consultant for IOM Italy-Migration and Development Unit.
Serena Caroselli
Serena Caroselli, anthropologist (Ethno-anthropological studies at the Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis in medical anthropology in 2012), Phd in Social Science Intercultural Relations and Processes (University of Genova, DISFOR, 2020), with a thesis titled: “A good place to stay. Women seeking asylum and international protection along the Brenner route: the city of Bolzano, the new border of rights.” From 2017 to 2019 she collaborated with Antenne Migranti in monitoring the violation of migrant’s rights on the Italian-Austrian border. Since 2012 she has been working with migrant people with particular attention to the health dimension and to the legal aspects of recognition of international protection and asylum. In 2015 she obtained the Master’s Degree in “Immigration Migratory Phenomena and Social Transformations” of the Ca ‘Foscari University of Venice, with a thesis on women seeking asylum in Italy. From 2017 to 2018 she was the referent of the Research Network Health (RN01) of the post-earthquake research collective Emidio di Treviri, dealing with the health of earthquake victims, the effects of displacement related to emergency policies in the central region of Italy (Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo). She is currently an ASGI (Associazione Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione) member, in may 2019 she completed the “Scuola di Alta Formazione Per Operatori Legali Specializzati in Protezione Internazionale”, ASGI.
Her main fields of interest includes: feminist anthropology, postcolonial studies, medical anthropology, refugees studies. She is specialized in qualitative research methodology through an intersectional perspective and an ethnographic methodology considering the dimension of space and time in the construction of migrant’s subjectivities. She has conducted ethnographic fieldworks in Chile, Nigeria, Italy.
Gianfranco Bonesso
Gianfranco has a long carrier in public social services, during which he also graduated at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography, Ethno-linguistics with a thesis titled “Anthropology of migrations. Methods and tools for applied anthropology in the migration field: case studies in the Venetian territory”.
From 1997 to 2019 he worked in the field of immigration for the Municipality of Venice where, since 2007, he was director of the “Immigration Service for the Promotion of Citizenship and Asylum Rights” that he contributed to establish. Along the years he has coordinated numerous projects on immigration, social inclusion and mediation, funded either by regional and national authorities and by the EU. As an expert on migration policies, he has been invited as speaker at several national and international conferences, and as teacher for professional trainings targeting operators, volunteers and public officers.
As an anthropologist he has carried out research in Sri Lanka, Philippines, the Balkans, Singapore as well as on migrant populations in Italy and Europe. His ethnographic research has focused on the theme of social and cultural change of migrants. From 2003 to 2012 he was contract professor in Ethnography at the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice. After retirement from social services in 2019, he collaborates as independent researcher with the Universities of Venice (Ca’ Foscari and Iuav, in particular with the SSIIM UNESCO Chair).
NWA – Nigerian Women Association, Verona/Lagos (Italy/Nigeria)
Oluwakemi Victoria Ajibola
Founder and President of Nigerian Women Association Verona, Victoria has long experience as social worker, cultural-linguistic mediator and activist. She is member of the Institute of Social Work of Nigeria (ISOWN), Lagos (Nigeria).
Michele Bertani
Michele is PhD in Sociology and Social Research (2009, University of Verona). His main fields of interest are welfare-state, social policies, migration studies and he carries out research at the TESIS Department of the University of Verona. He is Professor of Sociology of Organizational Processes and of Sociology of Health and Family at the School of Medicine and Surgery of the same university. Among his recent publications: “European welfare states and social capital. Compared perspective of crowding out hypothesis “in Sociology and social policies (2017); “Sociodemographic Profiles of Migrants Patients accessing the Local Health Services in the Municipality of Verona – Italy”, QuiEdit (2016).
Coop. Equality, Padua and Coop. Azalea, Verona (Italy)
Gaia Borgato
Social Psychology studies with the University of Padova (2005) and master degree in “Migration phenomena and social transformations” with University Ca’ Foscari in Venice (2007).
Gaia is the Coordinator of the Contact Area for Equality Cooperativa Sociale: she coordinates the outreach activity for people forced into prostitution and people involved in labor exploitation at an operational and project level. She’s also been coordinator (2012-2015) for the Shelter House for minors for Equality Cooperativa Sociale (she coordinated the operational activities of the professional operators of the shelter house). She’s been working as a social and volunteer operator on the outreach activities for people forced into prostitution since 2006 with Associazione Mimosa.
Silvia Etrari
Silvia Etrari has attended the degree course in social work (L-39) at the University of Verona. Subsequently shehas enrolled in the master’s degree course “Work, social citizenship, interculturality” at the Ca ‘Foscari University of Venice. During her studies she has acquired knowledge on emerging multicultural societies, on international migration phenomena and on the field of innovation in the design of services and social intervention. Afterwards she hes passed the state exam for social workers, register A and enrolled in the register of social workers of the region Veneto. She has worked in the field of migration in a groupin of cooperatives in Verona and since 2018 she has been working as a referent for the contact unit of the progetto N.A.Ve (anti-trafficking network for Veneto) for the cooperative Azalea. She takes care of first contact activities including day and night outings on the street and health assistance, she also coordinates the contact unit team of Verona.
Pathfinders Justice Initiative, Benin City/New York
R. Evon Benson-Idahosa
R. Evon Benson-Idahosa, the founder and Executive Director of PJI, is a Nigerian native, a leading expert and thought leader on the subject of modern day slavery in sub-Saharan Africa and a trained English Barrister and American lawyer. When her passion and compassion called her to address sex trafficking (modern-day sex slavery) and gender-based violence, she left her work as a partner in a New York defense law firm to became a full-time activist. Her commitment is to develop a generation of women who are confident in who they are, what they bring to the table and what they can achieve. She is a firm believer that if you empower women and engage men as allies for gender justice, you can change any society.
Suzi Chun-Turley
Suzi Chun-Turley serves as the Head of Strategy and Development for Pathfinders Justice Initiative and is responsible for their strategic growth initiatives. Her pursuit of social impact has straddled both private and social sectors throughout her career. Most recently, she served as the Director of Strategy and Development for Restore NYC, a leading anti-trafficking organization in New York City serving foreign national survivors. She helped launch their Economic Empowerment program, founded a social enterprise for survivors, and developed their Impact Work which has become a leading model to quantify and measure results in the anti-trafficking sector. Her other social sector experience includes consulting for the UN Office of Internal Oversight, starting up a new charitable arm at Next Jump, and developing a framework and model to quantify social impact as a Farber Fellow at REDF. Her private sector experience includes providing interim management and senior leverage at Bridgewater Associates, management consulting at McKinsey, and investment banking support in JP Morgan’s public finance group. Her work in both sectors has been featured in The McKinsey Quarterly, New York Times, Wired, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She currently serves as a board member and strategic advisor for CEEDS (nation’s first cooperative for survivors), CouldYou Cup? (leading provider of menstrual cups for the poor), and Isaiah House (local homeless shelter in NJ). Suzi received a BS from Columbia School of Engineering and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Associazione 2050 (Italy)
Sandra Rainero
Sandra is a passionate professional, with over 25 years of experience in social, education and migration issues. Most of all, she values people and relations to build a sustainable and inclusive future and for this reason she is one of the founders of Associazione 2050.
Graduated with a MS (honors) from the historical William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication (University of Kansas), she also holds a MA in Ethnic and migration Studies from the University of Kansas where she has studied for many years Italian migration to the USA. Since 2001 she has been involved in cooperation projects in the field of migration, including migration and development, in addition to scores of transnational projects focusing on inclusion, equality, social innovation and education. She is an experienced transformational trainer, has produced full-length social documentaries on migration history and current issues. She has been contracted professor of Media Economics at the University of Padua and she has worked with UNDP in the Joint Migration and Development Initiative and with ILO- Turin as trainer on the issue of return migration for vulnerable migrants.
Giovanni Manisi
Giovanni Manisi holds a degree in Modern Literature with a thesis on hypertext at the Ca ’Foscari University of Venice and a Master’s Degree in Public Communication, Business and Advertising at the University of Trieste. He is currently Communication Manager of a VET School and digital marketing consultant for various companies, organizations and associations. Previously he has worked as Researcher at Coventry University (UK). In 2016 he founded a CoderDojo to bring children and young people closer to programming and since 2015 is part of the Association 2050. Since 2004 he has been communication manager of many European projects, particularly in the field of innovation, education and business creation.
Linda Pischedda
Linda Pischedda graduated in Human Rights studies at the University of Padova and was subsequently involved in several projects in the fields of migration and international cooperation. She works in this field because she is passionate about it: curious to know, understand and discover new people, realities and emotions, she loves travel and when she can, she tries to convey all this through photography.She has collaborated with Veneto Lavoro on project related with migrants/minorities stereotypes and social inclusion of young foreigners in schools, has worked like legal operator for asylum seekers and she collaborates as legal guardian for unaccompanied foreign minors.
Meanwhile, she collaborated with Fondazione di Venezia and Fondazione Ca’Foscari on international cooperation and local development projects in some countries in Africa and South America.
Since 2015 she collaborates with the team of Associazione 2050.