Research Fellows

Lorenzo Castellani is Postdoc Research Fellow at LUISS Guido Carli and he is Adjunct Professor in European Institutional History and History of Political Institutions. He obtained his PhD in Political History from IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca in 2016. In 2014/2015 he was Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, in 2016 he was International Visiting Fellow at the Open University. In 2017 he won a research fellowship for the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance at the Bank of Italy. He is the Scientific Coordinator of the International Center of Democracy and Democratization. He is contributor for national newspapers. His main research topics are: history of institutions, history of public administration and history and policy.

Maria Elena Cavallaro obtained a Phd in Contemporary History in 2005 at the Faculty of Political Science Bologna University. Currently she is Adjunct Professor of History of International Relations at Luiss Guido Carli, Rome. She has been Assistant Professor at IMT Lucca, Santander Fellow at the European Studies Center, Oxford University and visiting fellow at ICS Lisbon, Uned Madrid and Mediterranean Studies Center at New York University. Her main research field is the interaction between transition toward democracy and the European integration process in Southern Europe, in particular Spain and Portugal. Among her most recent publications Rethining South European Democratization in Spain, Greece and Portugal. Lost in transition? (eds. M.E.Cavallaro, K. Kornetis), Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 2018(in press); Spagna e Italia nel processo di integrazione europea (1950-1992), Soveria Mannelli Rubbettino 2013; Los origenes de la integración de España en Europa, Madrid, Silex 2009.

Christine Vodovar is Assistant Professor in History at LUISS Guido Carli, Rome where she teaches comparative history of European political systems and history of European integration. She holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Nanterre-Paris X. She has been Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Cachan) and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Georges Washington University (Washington DC), at the Centre d’histoire de la France Contemporaine (Nanterre – Paris X) and at the Fundación Largo Caballero, Universidad de Alcalà (Madrid). She is specialized in Comparative Political History of Western Europe with a focus on French and Italian politics and History of Southern Europe socialism and trade-unionism. She is responsible of the editorial board of the journal Ventunesimo Secolo. Rivista di studi sulle transizioni.

Federico Niglia, PhD in European history, teaches international history at the LUISS University. He also lectures Government of Western Europe at St. John’s University. Since 2018, he is the coordinator of academic and educational programs at the Istituto Affari Internazionali. His main research interests are: Italian and German foreign policy; international diplomacy and negotiations. Among his recent publications: Italy in international relazions: the foreign policy conundrum (with E. Diodato, Palgrave Macmillan 2017).

Vera Capperucci is Lecturer in History at Luiss Guido Carli. She currently teaches Contemporary History and History of Political Parties (undergraduate level) and Contemporary History of Italy (graduate level). In 2004, she obtained her PhD in Contemporary History from University of Bologna. She served as Assistant Professor in Contemporary History at Luiss from 2011 to 2016. She is member of the faculty of the Luiss School of Government. Her research interests include history of political parties during XX and XXI century, with special focus on the Italian political system; the relation between Catholicism and Politics; the analysis of institutional and constitutional models in Italy after WWII. During the Spring Term 2016 she was visiting professor at the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan. Her research activities include projects sponsored by Provincia di Trento, Senato della Repubblica and Archivio storico della Presidenza della Repubblica. She is member of the scientific committee of ISPLI and member of the editorial board of «Ventunesimo Secolo».

Lucia Bonfreschi, PhD, is research fellow in Contemporary History at University Roma III and teaches History of Political Institutions at Luiss University (Rome). She has written many articles, book chapters and books on post-WWII French political and intellectual history and on post-war Italian political history. Among her recent publications: Raymond Aron e il gollismo, 1940-1969, 2014; edition (with G. Orsina and A. Varsori) of European Parties and the European Integration Process, 1945-1992, Brussels, 2015; Il Partito radicale, la magistratura e il terrorismo negli anni settanta, in C. Fumian, Il terrorismo di destra e di sinistra in Italia e in Europa, Padua 2018. She is currently working on the history of the Italian Radical Party and on Italian antimilitarism during the Seventies.

Domenico Maria Bruni is Adjunct Professor of Contemporary History at Luiss Guido Carli, Rome. He obtained his degree in History in 2001 and his PhD in Sociology of Communication in 2006 at University of Florence. He was research scholar at Istituto per la Storia del Risorgimento Italiano (2003-2006), post-doc research fellow at Luiss Guido Carli (2007-2011), visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths University of London (2010) and at King’s College London (2014) and Assistant Professor at IMT Lucca (2014-2018). His main research interests are: modern and contemporary Italian political history; contemporary British political history; social and political history of communication; history of liberalism. Among his most recent publications: «Con regolata indifferenza, con attenzione costante». Parola stampata e potere politico nel Granducato di Toscana 1814-1847, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2015; Libertà e modernizzazione. La cultura politica del liberalismo risorgimentale (ed.), Milano, Guerini, 2012.

Giorgia Priorelli is Post-doctoral research fellow of Autonomous University of Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès (UAB). She obtained her Phd in Political History from LUISS Guido Carli. Her last book is Italian Fascism and Spanish Falangism in Comparison: Constructing the Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).