Isabella Soi is Lecturer TD in Storia e Istituzioni dell’Africa at the Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari.

Working Experience

11.2018 - …: Lecturer in African History (RTDb), Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari. Course on (CLM in Relazioni Internazionali): Contemproary Africa (A. A. 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021).

12.2015 – 10.2018: Lecturer in African History (RTDa), Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari. Courses on (CLM in Relazioni Internazionali): Storia e Istituzioni dell’Africa Subsahariana e African Inter-Regional Relations: History and Perspectives (A.A. 2017-2018); Storia e Istituzioni dell’Africa Subsahariana e African Inter-Regional Relations: History and Perspectives (A.A. 2016-2017).

09.2019 – …: Co-Investigator in the project “Border Festivals, Partitioned Communities and Practical Governance in West Africa”, project granted by British Academy, programma The Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling the UK’s International Challenges – P.I. Prof. Paul Nugent

09.2016 - …: Affiliated Researcher, ERC Advanced Grant “African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition" (AFRIGOS)” – P.I. Prof. Paul Nugent

04.2018: Local organiser and CSAS (Centro di Studi Africani in Sardegna) scientific coordinator for the ABORNE annual workshop “Materiality and Immateriality in the Reproduction of African Borders”, Cagliari 16-17 April 2018

05.2017 – 07.2017: Course on teaching methodologies “Le relazioni tra obiettivi formativi, metodi e strumenti didattici e metodi e strumenti di valutazione”. Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Progetto DISCENTIA (18 hours).

08.2015 – 12.2015: Post-doc fellow, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, project “Lo stato in Africa subsahariana. Uno studio comparato”

01.2015 – 03.2015: Tutor, Course: Understanding Africa, Open Studies – University of Edinburgh

11.2013 – 11.2014: Post-doc fellow, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, project “Lo spazio del potere nell'Africa coloniale”

02.2014 – 04.2014: Guest Lecturer, Course: Asia and Africa 2b: Nationalisms, Liberation Movements and the Legacies of Colonialism, c.1885 – the Present Day. School of History, Classics and Archaeology – University of Edinburgh

01.2014 – 03.2014: Tutor, Course: Understanding Africa, Open Studies – University of Edinburgh

10.2013 – 11.2013: Post-doc fellow, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, project “Manifestazioni del dissenso in Africa. Uno studio comparato”

10.2012 – 04.2013: Guest Lecturer, Courses: Asia and Africa 2a: Societies, Cultures, and Empires, c. 1600 – 1900 and Asia and Africa 2b: Nationalisms, Liberation Movements and the Legacies of Colonialism, c.1885 – the Present Day. Lectures: Islam, Trade, and the State in Africa, From Legitimate Commerce to the Scramble for Africa, Jihad: Islamic Reformism and European Imperialism in the late Nineteenth Century Africa, The Sun that Set on the British Empire, Armed Liberation Struggle in Portuguese Africa and Zimbabwe, Apartheid and its Demise, African Socialism and the Global World Order, Revenge of Society: Guerrilla Insurgencies and the African State. School of History, Classics and Archaeology – University of Edinburgh

01.2013 – 03.2013: Tutor, Course: Understanding Africa, Open Studies – University of Edinburgh

09.2012 – 08.2015: Honorary Lecturer, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh

08.2009 – 08.2012: Honorary Fellow, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh

07.2004 – 07.2016: Cultore della materia, History and Institutions of Africa, Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari

01.2012 – 04.2012: Tutor, Course: Understanding Africa, Open Studies – University of Edinburgh

02.2010 – 01.2012: Post-doc fellow, granted by L.R. 7/2007 'Giovani Ricercatori', Regione Autunoma della Sardegna

01.2011 – 04.2011: Tutor, Course: Understanding Africa, Open Studies – University of Edinburgh

12.2009 – 01.2010: Tutor and Professor Assistant, History and Institutions of Africa, Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari. Seminars on: The Rwandan genocide and its international consequences, Education systems in Africa

09.2009 – 12.2009: Tutor, Course: Understanding Africa, Open Studies – University of Edinburgh

09.2008 – 07.2009: Teaching fellow, History and Institution of Mediterranean Africa, Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari

12.2008 – 01.2009: Tutor and Professor Assistant, History and Institutions of Africa, Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari. Seminars on: The DRC Crisis; Relations between the African States and the USA, China and Japan; Strategic Resources in Africa: water, wood, oil and diamonds; The Refugee Issue in Africa

08.2008 – 08.2009: Visiting Fellow, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh   

11.2007 – 07.2008: Visiting Fellow, Centre of African Studies, the University of Edinburgh, granted by Programma Master and Back – Regione Autonoma della Sardegna – bando 2007

12.2006 – 11.2007: Tutor and Professor Assistant, History and Institutions of Africa, Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari. Seminars on: The Rwandan Genocide; Wars in Sudan; Economic Resources in Africa: wood, oil and diamonds; War in DRC and arms trade

02.2006 – 07.2006: Tutor, Corso Superiore Universitario in International Security and Human Rights, University of Cagliari

01.2006 – 07.2006: Tutor and Professor Assistant, History and Institutions of Africa, Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari. Seminars: The issue of Indians in Uganda, Refugees in the Great Lakes Region of Africa – the case of Uganda

Other Experiences

07.2018: CSAS Scientific Co-ordinator and Local Organizing Committee Co-ordinator of 2018 AEGIS Summer School Africa: Connections and Disruptions, Cagliari 3-7 July 2018

06.2016: CSAS Scientific Co-ordinator and Local Organizing Committee Co-ordinator of 2016 AEGIS Summer School Urban Africa – Urban Africans: Emergent Spaces and Multiple Representations, Cagliari 21-25 June 2016

06.2014: CSAS Scientific Co-ordinator and Local Organizing Committee Co-ordinator of 2014 AEGIS Summer School Mobilisation and the State in Africa: Multiple Spaces for Political Action, Cagliari 24-28 June 2014

Research grants and projects

2019 – present: “Border Festivals, Partitioned Communities and Practical Governance in West Africa”, project granted by British Academy, The Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling the UK’s International Challenges.

2019 – present: “Ripensare le Minoranze: Narrazioni nazionali e territorialità tra fratture e ricomposizioni”, project granted by UniCA/FDS 2018

2019 – present: “Per una mappatura del pensiero di Antonio Gramsci nel mondo. Ricezione, traducibilità, declinazioni teoriche e praxis gramsciane”, project granted by L.R. 7/2007 Regione Autunoma della Sardegna

2018 – present: “Partnership for Research on Integrated Development in African Border Regions”, project granted by Global Academies and Edinburgh Global Research and Partnership Fund (LMIC), University of Edinburgh (UK)

2016 – present: “African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition (AFRIGOS), Associated researcher, 5-year ERC Advanced Grant.

2017 – 2019: “Soft Power of the Press, Media, and Internet over the International and Domestic policies of the States”, project granted by Fondazione di Sardegna

01.2015 – 11.2015: “Lo stato in Africa subsahariana. Uno studio comparato”, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, Università degli Studi di Cagliari.

11.2013 – 11.2014: “Lo spazio del potere nell'Africa coloniale”, project granted by Programma Master and Back – Regione Autonoma della Sardegna – bando 2013

02.2010 – 02.2012: “Islam e politica: un caso di marginalizzazione?”, project granted by L.R. 7/2007 'Giovani Ricercatori', Regione Autunoma della Sardegna

07.2009 – 01.2010: “Nuovi modelli di sviluppo: scuole agricole e gestione delle risorse idriche nella Provincia dell’Estremo Nord in Camerun”, project granted by Fondazione Banco di Sardegna – bando 2009

11.2007 – 08.2008: “Islam e politica in Uganda”, Project granted by Programma Master and Back – Regione Autonoma della Sardegna – bando 2007

07.2007 – 12.2008: Research Contract, “Scuole comunitarie al confine tra Camerun e Ciad”, project granted by Fondazione Banco di Sardegna – bando 2007

01.2005 – 01.2007: “Comunità del Vicino Oriente: sviluppo economico e diffusione dell’Islam in Africa”, project granted by University and Research Ministry – Progetto di ricerca locale (ex quota 60%), esercizio finanziario 2004

01.2004 – 01.2006: “Il bacino del Mediterraneo: un mondo di incontri e confronti con le culture d’Africa e Asia”, project granted by University and Research Ministry – PRIN (ex quota 40%), bando 2003

01.2005 – 01.2006: Research Contract, “Donne e sviluppo rurale in Senegal”, L.R. 19/96 della Regione Autonoma della Sardegna sulla cooperazione internazionale, 2004

01.2004 – 01.2005: “Diritti umani e migrazioni in Senegal”, L.R. 19/96 della Regione Autonoma della Sardegna sulla cooperazione internazionale, 2003

Conferences and Seminars

06.2020: Seminar series diritti LGBT+ in Africa, Università degli studi di Cagliari. Two presentations on: LGBT+ rights in Uganda and Kenya.

05.2020: Seminario un Quarto d’Ora Accademico (UniCA radio e associazione Jeca - Junior Enterprise Cagliari), Università degli Studi di Cagliari. Presentation on (joint with Barbara Onnis): Il ruolo della Cina e le ripercussioni sul continente africano.

12.2019: Invited guest seminar Confini e integrazione regionale in Africa: elementi di cooperazione multilivello, Università per Stranieri di Perugia.

11.2019: Being, Belonging, and Becoming in Africa, African Studies Association – ASA Annual Conference, Boston, MA, USA. Presentation on (joint with Paul Nugent): Borders.

09.2019: ABORNE 2019 annual meeting, Urbanism at the Margins – Centering African Border Towns and Cities Presentation on: Border and Frontier Towns in Uganda.

09.2019: AFRIGOS Annual meeting, Accra, Ghana

06.2019: Africa: Connections and Disruptions, ECAS 8, Eighth Biennial Conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies), The University of Edinburgh, June 11-14 2019. Presentation on: Temporal Layers of Political Authority and Regional Trade in East Africa.

04.2019: Association of Borderland Studies Annual Conference, 24-27 April, San Diego, CA, USA. Presentation on: One-Stop Border Posts: The East African case(s).     

09.2018: AFRIGOS Annual meeting, Kasane, Botswana.

06.2018: Convegno annuale SISI, Società Italiana di Storia Internazionale, Milano 8-9 giugno 2018. Organizzato il panel Governance, margini e statualità nella riconfigurazione della cittadinanza e degli spazi urbani in Africa. Presentation on: Periferie urbane in Uganda: dinamiche locali e integrazione regionale.

04.2018: ABORNE 2018 annual meeting, Materiality and Immateriality in the Reproduction of African Borders. Presentation on: New border infrastructures – new border approaches: the Ugandan case in question.

11.2017: Institutions: Creativity and Resilience in Africa, African Studies Association – ASA Annual Conference, Chicago, Ill, USA. Presentation on: The materiality of EAC, the challenges of regional integration.

10.2017: AFRIGOS Annual meeting, Mbale, Uganda.

06.2017: Urban Africa - Urban Africans: New encounters of the rural and the urban, ECAS 7 - Seventh Biennial Conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies), Basel University, Switzerland. Convenor of the panel Religious Minorities in Africa. Urban areas as crossroads: meeting points, safe heavens, and stages. Presentation on: Judaism in Uganda: different identities, similar challenges.

05.2017: Africa, New Powers, Old Powers, Università di Bologna In Cooperation with EADI Working Group Europe and Transitions in (Southern) Africa. Presentation on (joint with Barbara Onnis): Japanese Politics in Africa: old actors or old politics?

04.2017: UNICEF Seminar series “Un impegno visibile per I bambini invisibili”, XXIII Corso Multidisciplinare di Educazione allo sviluppo A.A. 2016-2017, seminar on 28 April 2017.

10.2016: BIEA seminar series, British Institute of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. Presentation on (joint with Paul Nugent): Peripheral Urbanism in Africa: Border Towns and Twin Towns in Africa.

05.2016: Cities, States and Borders: From the Local to the Global, 15th Border Regions in Transition (BRIT) Conference, Hamburg, Germany – Sønderborg, Denmark. Presentation on: Border towns in Eastern Uganda: regional politics and local dynamics.

07.2015: Mobilisations collectives en Afrique. Contestations, résistances et révoltes, ECAS 6 - Sixth Biennial Conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Presentation on (joint with Michele Carboni): Italian(ity) in Zanzibar. Implications and Influences of the Italian Presence.

12.2014: Borders at the Interface: Bordering Europe, Africa and the Middle East, International Workshop in Cooperation with the FP7 EUROBORDERSCAPES Consortium, Ben-Gurion University. Presentation on: Politics and Trade on the Uganda-Kenya Border: A Comparison of Twin Towns.

09.2014: Africa in movimento. Second Conference of African Studies Association – Italy, Università di Macerata. Presentation on: La questione dei confini ugandesi: logiche europee in territorio africano.

05.2014: Questioni di confine. Prospettive e pratiche del contemporaneo, Università degli Studi di Cagliari. Presentation on: Ugandan borders: colonialism matter.

10.2013: Revisiting the First International Congress of Africanists in a Globalised World, 50th Anniversary Celebration International Conference on African Studies University of Ghana, IAS@50. Presentation on: Uganda-Sudan Borderland Dynamics and its Influence on the State.

09.2013: Cantieri di Storia VII – Sissco, Società Italiana per lo Studio della Storia Contemporanea, Università di Salerno, Italy. Presentation on: Big Daddy vs. The butcher of Uganda: Idi Amin e il grande terrore in Uganda.

06.2013: African dynamics in a multipolar world, ECAS 5 - Fifth Biennial Conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies), Centro de Estudos Africanos - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal. Presentation on (joint with Paul Nugent): Poliscapes and political imaginaries: Ghana and Uganda since the 1970s.

09.2012: First Conference of African Studies Association – Italy, Università di Pavia. Presentation on: L’istruzione come mezzo per uscire dalla marginalizzazione. Il caso dell’Uganda.

06.2012: CAS@50: Cutting Edges and Retrospectives, University of Edinburgh. Organizer of the panel Religion and Politics in Uganda: Contesting the Public Sphere. Presentation on: Islam, Community and Politics in Uganda: A Case of Marginality.

11.2011: Seminar series: L’Africa nella globalizzazione: un’introduzione, Fondazione Luca Raggio, Cagliari, Italy. Presentation on: Sviluppo o dipendenza? Il caso dei biocarburanti in Tanzania.

06.2011: African Engagements: On Whose Terms? ECAS 4 - Fourth Biennial Conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies), The Nordic Africa Institute (NAI), Uppsala University, Sweden. Presentation on: Social and political role of a minority: the case of Islam in Uganda.

12.2010: Seminar series, Dalarna University. Presentation on: The origins of Islam in Uganda.

09.2010: Conference on African Studies in Italy Studi italiani sull’Africa a 50 anni dall’indipendenza, University ‘L’Orientale’, Naples. Presentation on: Istruzione e sviluppo nel Mayo-Danay, Camerun.

05.2010: Conference Voci del dissenso. Movimenti studenteschi e opposizione politica in Asia e in Africa, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: La partecipazione politica degli studenti in Uganda.

11.2008: Sixth Conference “Giornata dell’Africa” – Ricercando l’Africa. Giovani studiosi nel continente africano, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: Una risposta al problema dell'istruzione: le scuole comunitarie in Camerun.

11.2008: Seminar series, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. Presentation on: Neighbours not bedfellows: Rwanda-Uganda relations 1960-1990 (joint with Jude Murison).

09.2008: African Days, Dalarna University, Sweden. Presentation on: Islam and Politics in Uganda.

07.2007: African Alternatives: Initiative and Creativity beyond Current Constraints, ECAS 2 - Second Biennial Conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies), The African Studies Centre, Leiden University. Presentation on: Chinese Politics in Developing Rwanda.

11.2006: International Conference Africa Orientale Italiana: 70 anni dopo, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: Deportati italiani nella British East Africa. Il caso del Protettorato ugandese.

11.2006: Conference Nel segno ‘dell’empowerment’ femminile: donne e democrazia politica in Italia e nel mondo, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: Il ruolo politico femminile in Uganda.

09.2006: Workshop Cittadinanza. Uno sguardo sul mondo, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: Cittadinanza in Africa. Gli indiani dell’Uganda.

07.2006: Fourth Conference “Giornata dell’Africa” – Luci e ombre d’Africa, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: La regione del Darfur. L’intervento dell’Unione Africana.

11.2005: Third Conference “Giornata dell’Africa” – Realtà africane contemporanee, University of Cagliari. Presentation on: I rifugiati rwandesi in Uganda.

04.2005: Second workshop New Research in the Great Lakes, Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes, Antwerp, & Flemish Interuniversity Council, Antwerp. Presentation on: Uganda’s relationships with Rwanda and Sudan.

05.2003: First workshop New Research in the Great Lakes, The Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh & L’Institut Français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh. Presentation on: Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan and their relationships with France and the United States.

Last update: November 2020