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Biography

I completed my PhD in Migration Studies in 2019. My thesis title is "RECEPTIVE CITIES? INSTITUTIONAL NARRATIVES OF MIGRANTS’ INTEGRATION AND MIGRANTS’ OWN PERCEPTIONS OF RECEPTIVENESS IN BRIGHTON AND BOLOGNA".

Located at the intersection of human geography and political sociology, it examines how two cities have constructed and established public narratives of “receptiveness” and the degree to which their respective narratives include or exclude ethnic diversity. The study is a cross-country city-level comparison between Brighton, UK, and Bologna, Italy. It draws on eight months of qualitative field research including 58 in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observations at public events held explicitly to foster diversity in the local community.

Role

I completed my PhD in Migration Studies at the ¹ú²úÄÚÉä and I'm part of the Sussex Centre for Migration Research.

I currently teach to MA students as a Doctoral Tutor at the ¹ú²úÄÚÉä and work as Post-Doctoral Research Assistant at the Queen Mary University of London. (link to QMUL's page: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/politics/staff/profiles/mazzillicaterina.html)

Alongside my PhD I have been working for two major Sussex research projects: the HEIM Project (Higher Education, Internationalisation and Mobility) - Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, for which I was an Early Career Research Fellow at the Roma Education Fund in Budapest, and the YMOBILITY project - Horizon 2020, for which I was a Research Assistant.

Community and Business

Public engagement

I write periodically for the Italian online magazine Q Code, combining my academic interest for migration and place narratives with current political matters. I have reported on Italy, Hungary and Greece.

Qualifications

2014-2019 PhD in Migration Studies, ¹ú²úÄÚÉä

2010-2012 MA in International Cooperation, Development and Human Rights, University of Bologna

2006-2009 BA in International Relations and Human Rights, University of Padova

Activities

SCMR Seminar Series presentation

• "I thought in Brighton we had gone over racism a long time ago." Unpacking mainstream narratives of racism in a 'tolerant' town.

Conference presentations

• “This city welcomes…everyone.” A study on Brighton and Bologna’s public image of receptiveness, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, 26th August 2019

• ‘Day-to-day discrimination in ‘receptive’ cities: voices from Brighton and Bologna’, in Peaks and Troughs: New research on elites, wealth, inequality and exclusion by emerging researchers. A conference for early career academics from across the social sciences, University of Sheffield, 27^th-28^th June 2018

• Investigating 'receptive cities': interpreting and comparing migration-related terminology in different socio-political contexts, in Cross-Institutional PhD Research Colloquium on Migration, University of Essex, 21st March 2018

• ‘An alternative is possible. Accoglienza diffusa as a new reception model for asylum seekers’, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, 30^th August - 1^st September 2017

•  ‘Receptive Cities? Institutional narratives of receptiveness and Black and Ethnic Minorities Integration’, in Sussex Migration Graduate Conference, ¹ú²úÄÚÉä, 26^th-27^th April 2017

• Receptive Cities? Institutional narratives of receptiveness and Black and Ethnic Minorities Integration, in Sussex Migration Graduate Conference, ¹ú²úÄÚÉä, 26th-27th April 2017

• When migrants meet the Council. strategies of ethnic minorities' and migrants' political participation in Brighton and Bologna, in AAG Meeting 2017, Boston, USA, 5th-9th april 2017

• “I’m part of the city”. Migrants’ narratives of political participation and social inclusion in Brighton and Bologna, in RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, August 30th - September 2nd. 2016

 • Not just Detention Centres. Riace’s accoglienza diffusa as a possible alternative to asylum seekers reception, in 18th Nordic Migration Conference, Oslo 11th and 12th August 2016

 • Towards Wonderland. The Experience of Border–Crossing Through the Eyes of Children, in VIII Congreso sobre Migraciones Internacionales en España, Granada, 16th-18th September 2015

Lectures

• Migrants in a 'Tolerant City': the case of Black and Ethnic Minorities in Brighton, Global Studies Chapter Chats, 20th February 2018

• Receptive Cities? The Cases of Brighton and Bologna, Sussex Centre for Language Studies Seminar Series, ¹ú²úÄÚÉä, 1st November 2017

• Receptive cities? Institutional narratives of migrants integration and everyday intercultural interactions in Brighton and Bologna, Global Studies Lecture Series, 1st March 2017