Sofia Franchini (2024)

My PhD project grapples with the recent and abrupt reconfiguration of two Albanian towns following the construction of offshore Italian migrant detention centres. I research border regimes and emigration, forms of carcerality and confinement, and Italy-Albania ties as they are negotiated locally by the communities living in the proximity of the Italo-European carceral border. I read the current encounter in light of long-lasting histories of mass emigration, colonial relations, and post-socialist transformations.

I studied Philosophy at Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy (2021), and completed an MA degree in Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS, University of London (2023). My doctoral studies are funded by the Cambridge Trust International Scholarship.