ABOUT US

President

Giorgio Fabio Colombo

University of Venice "Cà Foscari"

Giorgio Fabio Colombo is Professor of Comparative Law, Ca' Foscari University Venice, where he oversees the programs in Japanese Law. He is currently the Secretary-General of the Italian Association of Japanese Studies (AISTUGIA), and the Director of Ca’ Foscari International College. Giorgio was previously Professor of Law at Nagoya University Graduate School of Law. He taught and conducted research in France (Paris I Sorbonne), Italy (University of Pavia), Japan (Ritsumeikan), and Sweden (Uppsala). Admitted to the Bar of Milan (Italy), Giorgio is an expert of international arbitration and served as advisor and technical expert for capacity building programs in arbitration in Lao PDR, Pakistan, Thailand. 

Vice-president

Stefania Bandini 

University of Milano-Bicocca

Stefania Bandini is Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where she leads the Artificial Intelligence Lab. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence, agent-based modeling and simulation of complex systems as collective intelligence. She has led numerous national and international research projects as Principal Investigator and collaborated extensively with The University of Tokyo’s RCAST and the School of Engineering (Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics), also serving as a JSPS Fellow. She is delegate for Internationalization for Japan and for ISEAS (Italian School of East Asian Studies, Kyoto).

Secretary

Paola Cavaliere

University of Milan

Paola Cavaliere is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Milan, where she conducts and coordinates research and teaching in the interdisciplinary fields of gender, religion, and disaster studies in Japan. She holds a double PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of Sheffield and in Law from Tohoku University. She is the author of Promising Practices: Women Volunteers in Contemporary Japanese Religious Civil Society (Brill, 2015) and co-editor of the Handbook of Disaster Studies in Japan (Routledge, 2026). She has been the recipient of a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012–2013) and two consecutive JSPS Kakenhi research grants (2015–2024).

Board member

Roberto Li Voti

University of Rome "La Sapienza"

Roberto Li Voti is Full Professor of Physics at Sapienza University of Rome, where he currently serves as Head of Department of Basic and Applied Science for Engineering. He is Director of the Master in Optics and Quantum Information, and Director of the biennual Courses of Photoacoustic and Photothermal Techniques at Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice (ISQE at EMFCSC). He is in the board of the International Photoacoustic and Photothermal Association (IPPA) and served as specially appointed Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has active collaborations with Hokkaido University, where he received his first JSPS fellowship, and with the Institute of Science Tokyo.

Board member

Stefania Michelucci

University of Genoa

Stefania Michelucci is Full Professor of English Studies and World Literature at the University of Genoa, Italy. She has written extensively on xixth and xxth century authors from an interdisciplinary perspective, with particular attention to the relationship between literature and the visual arts. She has been Visiting Scholar and has lectured in many universities across the world, including UC Berkeley and UC Davis (USA), Kyoto Tachibana, Keio and Konan University (Japan), NUAA (China), UFRJ (Brazil) and the University of Zululand (South Africa). She was granted a JSPS Fellowship in 2014 and a JSPS Bridge Fellowship in 2024. For her complete CV and list of publications, see www.unige.it/Stefania Michelucci or www.stefaniamichelucci.com. She is currently editing a volume on Contemporary Anglo-American Poetry(Thom Gunn: A Prismatic Portrait) for Edinburgh University Press, with interviews, memoirs and unpublished material from the archives.