A student association is proposing to name a room at the Univ. of Ferrara after C. Kirk, a person who was completely unknown in Italy until his murder. Minister Matteo Salvini reposted the news with a clapping emoji. One must conclude that he shares Kirk’s hostility toward democracy and civil rights

Two days ago, Italy marked the 45th anniversary of the fascist terrorist attack at Bologna’s train station (85 dead). To avoid the commemoration, Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, former member of the neo-fascist group Meridiano Zero, staged a tribute to the Second Punic War of 216 BC.

When I was doing my doctoral research, I could spend four or five months in a row living in huts like this. Now, after just two weeks, I’m dead tired and starting to dream about pizza. But I’m not giving up on fieldwork and on the inhabitants of this small village, to whom I owe everything.

Mother and daughter watch a South American soap opera dubbed in Kiswahili in Jambiani, Zanzibar. A classic example of how mediascapes take shape, following Appadurai’s framework, prompting reflection on their potential effect on deterritorialized imaginations.

A seaweed farmer walking on the water in Zanzibar

Back in the field! It has become morally difficult to work on the controversial effects of USAID interventions among mobile pastoralists in northern Kenya. I don’t want to provide ammunition for the follies of the Trump administration. It’s a real dilemma!

Visiting my parents in Bari, southern Italy, early summer 2025