The Team Simona Berhe

Simona Berhe

Associate Researcher

I graduated in Modern history at the University of Milan in 2008. I have also been a student at the Dar al-Loughat Institute in Tetuan (Morocco) and I hold a Diploma in Arabic language and culture issued by Is.I.A.O (Istituto per l’Africa e l’Oriente).

In 2013 I earned my PhD in History and Comparison of European Political and Legal Institutions (University of Messina), and afterwards I worked as post-doctoral fellow. In 2022 I received a grant from the Archivio Storico di Banca Intesa to develop the project “Giordano Dell’Amore and Finafrica: technical training and economic interests in Africa (1965-1979)”, focusing on the issue of international cooperation and the role played by Italian savings banks in Africa during the Cold War. Currently, I am assistant professor at the Department of Political and Social Science at the University of Florence.

In the last ten years, I’ve published on different topics: Italian colonial administration in Libya (Notabili libici e funzionari italiani: l’amministrazione coloniale in Tripolitania, 2015); colonial citizenship (Citizens and Subjects of the Italian Colonies: Legal Constructions and Social Practices, 2022); the issue of the press in Western Libya (Ink battles: the Press and Political Struggle in Western Libya, 2023); African students in Italy during the Cold War (Studenti internazionali nell’Italia repubblicana. Storia di un’avanguardia, 2023); international aid (“I missionari del credito”: Giordano Dell’Amore, Cariplo e la nascita del Finafrica, 2024).