CURRICULA SOCIE SIS

17 Apr 2015

Curriculum Vitae
Francesca Biancani
2015
Adjunct Professor

2. Academic Qualifications
 
Degree
Year
Institution
PhD in Government
2012
London School of Economics

Ma in Near and Middle         Eastern Studies, Merit

2005

School of Oriental and African Studies, London University
Diploma di Laurea vecchio ordinamento, 110/110 cum laude and mention for publication
2003
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM- Bologna University

3. Positions Held
2010 to present
Adjunct Professor in History and Institutions of the Modern Middle East, Bologna University

2nd semester 2008

2006
Tutor in Political and Geographical Economy of the Middle East ( 1 module, 20 hours), Bologna University
Visiting Fellow, Middle Eastern Studies Centre, American University in Cairo   

2004-2007
Teaching Assistant in History and Institutions of the Modern Middle East, Bologna University

4. Scholarships and Awards
2010 LSE Government Research Studentship 2010-11
2009 LSE Government Research Studentship 2009-10
2008  LSE Government Research Studentship 2008-09
2009  Gibb Memorial Trust Scholarship 2008
2007 LSE Government Research Studentship 2007-08
2007 LSE Postgraduate Travel Fund
2007 University of London  Central Research Grant
2006  LSE Government Research Scholarship 2006-07
2004 Abroad Studies Postgraduate Scholarship, Bologna University
2002 Cultural cooperation scholarship offered by the Syrian Ministry of Education through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs- Arabic Language Scheme (6 months)
2002 Cultural cooperation offered by the Tunisian Ministry of Education through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs- Arabic Language Scheme (6 months, declined)

5. TEACHING, COURSE-DEVELOPMENT, SUPERVISIONS

In my capacity as adjunct professor I have been teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses at Bologna University since 2008. My teaching load has been of 732 hours from the academic year 2008-09 to 2013-14 with a gap in 2009-10. My duties included the development and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate syllabuses on Middle Eastern history, politics and international relations. My teaching philosophy emphasizes contents’ breadth while applying a vast range of theoretical approaches.
I also supervised about 50 BA thesis and 28 MA dissertations since 2008. Presently (2015) I am mentoring 5 BA thesis and 5 MA dissertations.

5.1 Courses of which I have been the sole responsible (planning, organisation of the syllabuses, lecturing, assessment):
Undergraduate course (60 hours, 12 credits) in “History and Institutions of Middle Eastern Countries ”, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University (2010-11; 2011-12; 2012-13; 2013-14; 2014-15)  
Undergraduate course (54, hours, 10 credits) in “History and Institutions of the Middle East”, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University-Forlì campus (2011-12; 2012-13; 2013-14; 2014-15)
Postgraduate course (60 hours, 12 credits) in “Political Development of the Middle East”, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University (2010- 11; 2011-12; 2012-13)
Postgraduate course (40 hours, 10 credits) in “International Relations of the Middle East” (2013-14; 2014-15)
30-hour module on “Conflicts in the Middle East”, 2nd level MA Programme in International and Diplomatic Studies, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University (2011-12)
30-hour module on “The Arab Springs and the Palestinian-Israeli Autumn”, 2nd level MA Programme in International and Diplomatic Studies, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University (2012-13)

5.2 Lecturing (courses organized by others)
2nd semester academic year 2008-09- 20-hour module on the political geography of the Middle East, course of “Political and Economic Geography”, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University- Forlì Campus

5.3 Invited Lectures and Collaboration to Doctoral Programmes  (selection)

25/06/2014- PHaSI (International Research Center on Philantropy and Social Innovation) working seminar, Department of History, University of Bologna, “Reformism in Practice: the Work of British Social Purity Movements in Egypt, 1919-39”

7/04/2013- Invited seminars at John Cabot University, Rome, within the course of Middle Eastern Politics (“ʿAbd el-Fattah el-Sisi from the barracks to the ballot box: does history repeat itself in Egypt?”) and within the course of “Italian history and the Mediterranean” (“Migrating South: the Italian community in Egypt, 1860-1960”)

3/12/2013- MEWG (Middle East Working Group), Department of History and Civilizations, European Institute, Florence, presentation on ““Beyond the Lepa Vida Myth: Migration, Domestic Labour, and Gendered Representations in the Case of Slovenian Aleksandrinke in Egypt”.

05/09/2013 – Doctoral Summer School in History and Cultures, Department of History, Cultures and Civilizations, Bologna University. Discussant  of selected doctoral projects.
 
06/06/2012- Ph.D. programme in Political Science, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Bologna University. Ph.D. seminar “Beyond the State Approach: emerging theoretical paradigms in Middle Eastern Politics”.

06/11/2012 - PHaSI (International Research Center on Philantropy and Social Innovation) working seminar, Department of History, University of Bologna, “The making of social marginality, sex-work in colonial Cairo 1882-1952”

6. Conferences and Symposia

16-18/01/2015- Se.Sa.Mo  (Associazione di Studi Italiani sul Medio Oriente) Annual Conference, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice. “Beyond the Arab Springs; Rediscovering the MENA Region”   
Panel 15- Session 2- Constructing and Subverting Gender Norms in the Middle East: History, Politics and Narratives of Non Normative Sexualities”. Presenter of the paper “Policing ‘suspect femininities’ in Colonial Cairo, 1920-1939”.

18-22/08/2014- WOCMES (World Conference in Middle Eastern Studies), METU, Ankara.  Panel 183- Respectability and Gendered Mobility in the Early Twentieth Century Middle East. Presenter of the paper “Conflicting Narrations of Gendered Liminality: the Case of Slovenian Domestic Workers in early 20th Century Alexandria of Egypt”.

16-18/06/2014- BRISMES (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies) Annual Conference, “The Middle East in Global Perspective, Interactions Across time and Space”, University of Sussex- Presenter of the paper “Gender, Labour, and Cosmopolitanism: the Case of the Aleksandrinke in Early 20th Century Egypt”.
10-13/10/2013- MESA (Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America) Annual Meeting, New Orleans- Panel P3420- Suspect Service: Migrating Women, Labour, and Prostitution in the Interwar Mediterranean- Presenter of the paper “Beyond the Lepa Vida Myth: Migration, Domestic Labour and Gendered Representations in the Case of Egypt's aleksandrinke”.
25-27/04/2013- “Prostitution in World Cities, 1600 to the Present”, IISH- International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, presenter of the urban overview on Cairo from 1600to the present day co-authored with Hanan Hammad
16-19/01/2012- "On the Run, the Middle East and the first "modern globalization", Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, presenter of the paper "Migration and Sex Work in Cosmopolitan Egypt at the turn of the 20th Century."
19-14/07/2010- WOCMES, World Congress of Middle Eastern Studies 2010, Barcelona. Discussant of the panel “VERS UNE HISTORIOGRAPHIE POST-MODERNISTE DU MAGHREB? I- Quelques usages de l'archive coloniale pour l'histoire de l'Afrique du Nord »
20-23/11/2009-  MESA Annual Meeting, Boston, USA, Panel 2270- Experiencing British Colonialism in Egypt, presenter of the paper “Social Purity, Feminism, and Prostitution in Cairo, 1920-1939
22-25/09/2009- Cantieri di Storia V, SISSCO, Italian Society of Contemporary HistoricalStudies, Trieste, organizer of the panel “ Storia dal Basso e Subalternità negli Studi sul Medio Oriente e Nord Africa in Italia” and presenter of the paper “La gerarchia della prostituzione moderna al Cairo, all'inizio del XX secolo”.
17-20/11/2007- MESA  Annual Meeting, Montréal, Canada, NP44- Egypt as Civilization and Nation, presenter of the paper ”Let Down the Curtains Around Us: the Hierarchy of Modern Prostitution in Colonial Cairo, 1882-1952”
06-08/07/2007- BRISMES Graduate Conference, Wolfson College, Oxford, presenter of the paper ”The Hierarchy of Sex Work in Colonia Cairo at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: some Theoretical Consideration for the study of 'marginal' subjectivites”
08/02/2006- “Le sfide della politica: prospettive, sviluppi e paure”, Departmental Seminar, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, presenter of the paper “Hamas e la questione del rifiuto di Israele: aspetti dogmatici e loro limiti”.

7. PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS
From 2014 Book project in collaboration with the Library and Archives Unit, United Nations, Geneva, and UN Publications Office, New York, on the publication of selected primary sources on the traffic of women and children for the purpose of prostitution (IBS reports, beginning XX century) by the League of Nations (Kinsie’s Reports)
2013-2014 "Aleksandrinke- Migration and Gender in Metropolitan Alexandria, 1860-1960", Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU, Research Centre for of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences, and Arts, Ljubljana
2013-2014 "Prostitution in World Cities, 1600 to Present", International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
2012-2014 "On the Run, the Middle East and the First 'Modern Globalization', Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University in Jerusalem

8. PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Umm Kulthum: la voce degli Arabi. Musica e Panarabismo (Italian), Odoya: Bologna, 2010
Sex Work, Bio-politics and the Colonial Encounter in Cairo, 1882-1952, optioned and currently under review at Syracuse University Press
Chapters in Edited Books:
Francesca Biancani, “Globalization, Gender, and Labour in Cosmopolitan Egypt, 1860-1937” in M. Hladnik (ed.) From Slovenia to Egypt: Aleksandrinke’s Trans-Mediterranean Domestic Workers’ Migration and National Imaginaton, Gottingen: V & R Unipress, 2014, pp. 207-29.  
Francesca Biancani and Hanan Hammad, “Prostitution in Cairo, 1600 to Present: an Urban Overview” in E. van Neederveen Meerkerk, L. Heerma van Voss, and M. Rodriguez (Eds.), Brill: Leiden (forthcoming)
Francesca Biancani, “International Migration and Sex Work in Early Twentieth Century Cairo” in L. Kozma, A. Witznisher and C. Shayegh (Eds.) Globalization and the Making of the Modern Middle East London: I.B. Tauris, 2015, pp. 109-33.
Francesca Biancani, "The Hierarchy of Prostitution in Colonia Cairo at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century", in Amanda Phillips and R. Abu-Remaileh (Eds.), The Meeting Place of British Middle Eastern Studies, Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009, pp. 144-164
Francesca Biancani, "Hudna: la tregua come strumento di risoluzione del conflitto nel discorso islamista di Hamas" in Marcella Emiliani ( a cura di), Hamas alla prova di governo (Italian), Bologna: Il Ponte, 2007, pp.57-71
Francesca Biancani, "Hamas e la questione del rifiuto di Israele. Aspetti dogmatici e loro limiti" in Marcella Emiliani (a cura di), La vittoria di Hamas: prospettive, sviluppi, paure (Italian), Bologna: Il Ponte, 2006, pp. 49-55
Articles in Academic Journals:
Francesca Biancani, “Egitto, la transizione impossibile”(Italian) in Afriche e Orienti 1-2/2013, pp. 114-122
Francesca Biancani, "La violenza della nazione: Gurna, storia di un villaggio egiziano" (Italian), in Afriche e Orienti, 1/2007, pp. 158-174
Book Reviews:
Charles Tripp, The Power and the People, Paths of Resistance in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2013), in “Rivista di Storia Politica” (in preparation)
Nitzan Lebovic and Roy Ben Shai, The Politics of Nihilism, from Nineteenth Century to Contemporary Israel , in “Filosofia Politica” (in preparation)
Gianni Vattimo and Michael Marder (Eds.), Deconstructing Zionism: a Critique of Political Metaphysics ( Bloomsbury Academic, 2013) in “Filosofia Politica” , 3/14, pp. 568-569
Jesse Ferris, Nasser’s Gamble, How Intervention in Yemen Caused the Six-Day War and the Decline of the Egyptian Power in “Rivista di Storia Politica”, 2/2014, pp. 419-21.
Marcella Emiliani, Medio Oriente: una Storia dal 1918 al 1991 e  Medio Oriente: una Storia dal 1991 a oggi"(2 vol.) in "Aspenia", 57, 2012, pp.227-9
Maurizio Costanza, La Mezzaluna sul filo: la Riforma Ottomana di Mahmud II, in "Ricerche di Storia Politica", 2012, pp. 57-8
Catia Papa, Sotto Altri Cieli: l’Oltremare nel Movimento Femminile Italiano(1870-1915) in “Ricerche di Storia Politica”, n.1, 2011, pp.154-5  

Other Publications Relevant to the Area of Expertise

Impara l’arabo con Zanichelli, Bologna: Zanichelli, 2013 (from  English and Arabic to Italian)

9. SCHOLARLY ASSOCIATIONS
Member of
MESA (Middle East Studies Association of North America)
BRISMES (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies)
SeSamo(Società Italiana di Studi sul Medio Oriente)
SISSCO (Società Italiana di Studi di Storia Contemporanea)
SIS (Società Italiana delle Storiche)
AHA (American Historical Association)

10. Languages
Italian Native-speaker
English  Excellent
Arabic   Excellent written and spoken (MSA, Egyptian colloquial, Syrian colloquial)
             
  2007 Private classes of Modern Standard Arabic (hence MSA) and colloquial Egyptian , Cairo, (6 months)
2005 Intensive course of MSA and colloquial Egyptian at Kalimat, Mohandeseen, Cairo (advanced level)
1996-97 and 1997-98 Courses of Arabic Language and Literature, Department of Oriental Studies, University of Bologna
1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99  Course of MSA Arabic at Language Centre Amilcar Cabral, Bologna (beginners through advanced levels)
2002 Course of MSA at ASP, Faculty of Humanities, Damascus University, (advanced level, 3 months)
2002  Private classes of MSA and colloquial Syrian, Damascus (6 months)
Modern Hebrew  Elementary
1996-97 and 1997-98  Courses of  Modern Hebrew (level 1 and 2), Department of Oriental Studies, University of Bologna.

11. Media
Press and Radio (Italian, English)