My bio

I hold a PhD in social and political sciences, awarded in 1998, by the European University Institute (EUI). During the preparation of my PhD, I earned a scholarship from the EUI which allowed me to do research at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), UC Berkeley. Previously, I studied political science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix-en-Provence where I specialized on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region while learning Arabic.

Just after my PhD, I have lived and worked in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. Today, I am teaching migration governance and international cooperation at the College of Europe (Natolin Campus). I am also a research associate at the Tunis-based Research Institute on the Contemporary Maghreb (IRMC). In 2019-2020, I directed the Chair in Migration Studies at the Institute for Advanced Studies IMéRA, Aix-Marseille University, while being on secondment from the College of Europe. Prior to this, I was part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (European University Institute, Florence) where I supervised and managed interdisciplinary research projects on migration policies and developed field surveys mobilizing EU and non-EU partner institutions (in North and sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean and the Caucasus).

My publications and major interests focus on the expansion of international regulatory systems and bilateral/regional patterns of cooperation, and on the diffusion and internalization of norms and practices pertaining to the “governance” of international migration, especially with reference to MENA and African countries.

Finally, I am a member of the Open Council of Europe Academic Networks (OCEAN) Programme which unites universities, research institutions and scholars from the Council of Europe´s 46 member states around the shared goal of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. The OCEAN Programme is run by the Department for the implementation of human rights, justice and legal co-operation standards at the Council of Europe. I am also a member of the scientific committee of the Laboratory of Critical Studies on Forced Migration based at the University of Milan (Italy) and a co-coordinator of the Séminaire sur l’étude des politiques migratoires africaines (POMAF).