Third-Year PhD Student
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Migration, Political Ecology, Environmental Humanities, Decolonial Studies
Maria Laura is a third-year PhD student working on issues related to migration, political ecology, and environmental humanities. Informed by fields of study such as history and philosophy, she previously has acquired a BA and MA in History and Philosophy from the University of Cagliari (Italy). She mostly focuses on decolonial and migration studies. Her current research interests are in Environmental Humanities, Political Ecology and Migration, both at a national and transnational level, with ongoing fieldworks in Ecuador, Italy and Ghana. She is currently working on issues of plantation dynamics and effects, Fascist ecologies, and relationships between bodies and digital spaces.
She has presented parts of her ongoing research projects to NeMLA and AAIS annual conferences in the US and Italy. She has taught Italian language to refugees and undergrads, History and Philosophy to high school students and Ecology workshops with children in Italy and in Ghana. She held the CEDILS certification- Italian language teaching LS/L2. By Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italy) .
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & CONFERENCES
Articles
- Forthcoming: “A Voyage Through Hell. From the Famous Charon to the Infamous “Scafista”” in The World Upside Down: From Dante’s Hell to Present Times, AdI 2026 (Vol. 44)
- Forthcoming: “Fascist Ecologies in Post-Colonial Times: the Story of Rancho Littorio in Ecuador” in the 2027 MLA volume Italy’s (Post)Colonial Ecologies: Elements, Power, and Resistance
- 2023 review “Dante Così Lontano, Così Vicino”, in Italian Quarterly: LIX, 237/238, 2023
- 2017 review "The Owners of the Land. Culture and the Spectre of Mining in the Andes", in AMÉRICA CRÍTICA. VOL. 1, N° 2.
Collaborations
- Scientific advisor for Ìsulas de s’Ìsula- Stories of Vessels and Fishers, a film by Lorenzo Sibiriu (2025) https://www.isulasfilm.com/