Alessia Melcangi is Associate Professor of History and Institution of Africa at the Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches Geopolitics, security and sustainability of the international system and Geo-history of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Regional and global trends; Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs, Atlantic Council, Washington DC, USA; Associate Research Fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), Milan and member of the scientific committee of the Fondazione Med-Or Leonardo SpA, Rome.
She is also faculty member of the Master in Migration and Development, La Sapienza University of Rome and coordinator of its Socio-Political module and faculty member of the Master in Middle Eastern Studies (MIMES), Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan. She is member of the Scientific Secretary of the Journal Storia Urbana. Rivista di studi sulle trasformazioni della città e del territorio in età moderna , FrancoAngeli.
She has been member of several working groups in Track-2 programs sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation about the contemporary Libyan political, economic and security dynamics and the issue of religious freedom and human rights in the Middle East.
She has been Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre d Études et de Documentation Économiques, Juridiques et Sociales (CEDEJ), Cairo and at the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO), Cairo.
She participated in different national and international conferences and taught at the University of West Florida, the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, the University of Florence, the University of Turin, the University of Padua, the University of Catania, the LUMSA University of Rome, the University of Calabria, the Italian Society for the International Organization – SIOI.
Her research is mainly into conflict and governance in the Middle East and North Africa; geopolitics and international relations in the Euro-Mediterranean area; identity and polarization dynamics in the contemporary Middle East; political and social issues in contemporary Egypt and Libya. Regarding these issues she has published several monographs, peer review articles in Italian and international journals and policy papers for international think tanks. She is also invited speakers at several national and international conferences and seminars.
Some relevant publications: Statehood, nationalism and minorities in the Middle East: patterns of resistance and integration (Ledizioni, Milano 2018); The Copts during Nasser s time. Between politics and religion (1952-1970) (Carocci, Roma 2017); (with Karim Mezran) Truly a Proxy War? Militias, Institutions and External Actors in Libya between Limited Statehood and Rentier State, The International Spectator, Vol. 57, Issue 4, 2022; Egypt and Turkey s Geopolitical Relations in a Troubled Middle East: What Can Be Improved and How , in Mezran K., Menotti R., Melcangi A., Badi E, Pavia A., North Africa s transatlantic relations amid change and continuity, Atlantic Council, September 2022; Chaos in the heart of the Mediterranean: the Libyan crisis from the fall of al-Qadhafi s Jam h riyya to the present war (2011-2020) , in F.M. Corrao, R. Redaelli (eds), States, Actors and Geopolitical Drivers in the Mediterranean, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2021; Strategizing Toward Irrelevance in Libya, Cairo Review of Global Affairs, n. 38, Summer 2020; (with Riccardo Redaelli) The Re-Sectarization of the Middle East: Minorities, Communities and Identity Politics within the Current Geopolitical Confrontation , in Ida Caracciolo, Umberto Montuoro (eds), Protection of Cultural and Religious Minorities Leadership for International Peace and Security, Giappichelli Editore, Torino 2019.
