About Us
Learn about the mission and members of the Italian Network of Kurdish Studies
The Italian Network of Kurdish Studies is a network of scholars, researchers, and students interested in all fields related to Kurdish studies.
Our Mission
The network was created to promote rigorous academic exchange and discussion. It aims to foster connections among researchers, encourage knowledge sharing, and support collaboration among its members.
Founding Committee
- Nicola Degli Esposti — University of Padua
- Sevgi Doğan — Scuola Normale Superiore
- Davide Grasso — University of Turin
- Camilla Insom — Sapienza University of Rome
- Andrea Novellis — University of Milan
- Alessandro Tinti — University of Turin
- Federico Venturini — University of Udine
Current Members
Veronica Buffon
Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Messina and postdoctoral researcher in the InMigHealth project. PhD from the University of Exeter; ethnographic fieldwork on Kurdish women, health, conflict, and care in Diyarbakır/Amed. Her work centers on the anthropology of health, gender and kinship, violence, and forced migration.
Nicola Degli Esposti
Researcher in history and international politics. Since 2025 he has held a research grant at the University of Padua funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation on the project “Restructuring the Middle East: The West and the Politics of Loans and Conditionalities (1977–1994).” Since 2024 he has taught international history and politics at the University of Bologna. He earned his PhD at the London School of Economics in 2020 with a dissertation on the Kurdish national movement based on fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan. From 2020 to 2021 he was an International Relations Fellow at LSE, and from 2021 to 2024 a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Padua.
Sevgi Doğan
PhD in Political Philosophy from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Postdoctoral researcher focused on academic freedom in democratic and authoritarian regimes, with interests in the Kurdish question, gender studies, and Marxist and Hegelian thought. Author of Marx and Hegel: On the Dialectic of the Individual and the Social (2018), La grande malattia dell’Europa (2023), and La libertà accademica nell’era dei mostri: Rischi e sfide (2025). Member of RISC since 2021.
Shilan Fuad Hussain
Researcher and analyst focused on gender equality and women’s rights. UNESCO Fellow, editor for Routledge, and Research Fellow at the Integrity Centre. PhD in Cultural Analysis (University of Urbino) and MA in Middle Eastern Studies (University of Bologna). Her work examines cultural representation, violence against women (including FGM and forced marriages), women’s human rights, and the social impacts of patriarchy in diaspora contexts.
Davide Grasso
University of Turin
Andrea Novellis
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and non‑resident Research Fellow at the Centre for the Comparative Study of Civil Wars (University of York). PhD in Political Science (University of Milan). His work focuses on ethnic conflict, rebel political institutions, and governance in North‑East Syria and Sri Lanka, with a strong interest in Kurdish studies.
Orkide Izci
Research fellow in sociology at the Department of the Arts of the University of Bologna. She holds a PhD in Sociology focused on the notion of "home" and processes of belonging within diasporic communities. Her research lies at the intersection of culture and society, with particular attention to gender, diaspora, memory, migration, and identity construction.
Gabriele Leone
Researcher at the University of Lapland, he works on political philosophy and biopolitics with a focus on Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority. His research examines power relations between the Turkish nation-state and the Kurdish population, with particular attention to biopolitical governance, national identity, minority rights, and democratic rule. In 2024-2025 he is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Southeast European Studies and a tutor for the course "International Cooperation, Sustainability, and Peace" at the University of Calabria.
Recent article: Performing Peace, Reframing Power: Ocalan's Ceasefire Call and the Post-Conflict Imaginary in Kurdish Politics.
Alessandro Tinti
Postdoctoral researcher with an interdisciplinary background in international relations, political ecology, and environmental anthropology. His research has examined the relationship between extractivism and identity formation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He earned a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and has been a research fellow at the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As a consultant, he coordinated the research component of the UNODC project “STRIVE Juvenile” in Iraq and collaborated with the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography.
Francesco Ventura
Assistant Professor (RTD‑A) at the SAGAS Department, University of Florence; PhD from University College Dublin. Principal Investigator of a three‑year project on Kurdish diaspora diplomacy (2025–2028). His research spans political geography and critical geopolitics, with a focus on the Kurdish Freedom Movement and post‑statist geographies.
Federico Venturini
Research Associate at the University of Udine. His current research focuses on Zero Waste, river contracts, and participatory processes. He earned his PhD at the University of Leeds in 2016, where he examined relations between contemporary cities and urban social movements through participatory and militant research approaches and the lens of social ecology, drawing on fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology since 2013 and on the International Imrali Peace Delegation since 2016. He has also co-edited volumes on Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish question, and urban social ecology.
How to Join
To join the mailing list and participate in events, please send us your CV and a brief introductory message.