People

Orietta Ombrosi

Principal Investigator, Sapienza Rome

PhD at Université Paris X-Nanterre, she is an Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy (she’s granted National Qualification for Full Professorship in Moral and Theoretical Philosophy) at the Department of Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches Philosophical Anthropology and Contemporary Moral French Philosophy. She has been a Joyce Z. Greenberg Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at Divinity School, University of Chicago and Visiting Professor at Université Paris Nanterre, among others. She  was Post-doctoral Researcher Fellow at the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (Paris) and she taught Philosophy of Judaism at the Université de la Méditerranée. She also taught at the University of Bologna as a fixed term-Researcher and as a part of Italy “Brain Gain” Program. She’s involved in numerous national and international research groups. She has published Le Bestiaire philosophique de Jacques Derrida (PUF, 2022, It. Tran. Donzelli, Rome 2025), The Twilight of reason. Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer and Levinas tested by the Catastrophe (Academic Studies Press, Boston 2012 – original version: Hermann, 2007, It. Tran., Giuntina, 2014) and L’umano ritrovato. Saggio su Emmanuel Levinas (Marietti, 2010, new version forthcoming in 2026). She directed and edited collective volumes and journals issues including: Jewish Women Thinkers in the face of the Shoah and his Aftermath, Religions Journal (MDPI, 2026), and Ebraismo al “femminile”. Percorsi diversi di intellettuali ebree del Novecento (Giuntina, 2017). She was also translator from French to Italian of different essays .

https://phd.uniroma1.it/web/ombrosi-orietta_nc1999_EN.aspx

Laura Sanò

Vice PI and Unit Coordinator, Padua

She is an Associate Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Padua. She is the author of numerous articles and monographs on contemporary philosophical thought. In addition to three volumes devoted to the tradition of “negative thought” (including Un daimon solitario. Il pensiero di Andrea Emo, La Città del Sole, 2001), she has published four works on the philosophy of Rachel Bespaloff: Un pensiero in esilio. La filosofia di Rachel Bespaloff (Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, 2007); Su Heidegger (Bollati Boringhieri, 2010); L’istante e la libertà (Einaudi, 2021); Une pensée en exil. La philosophie de Rachel Bespaloff (Éditions Conférence, Paris, 2023). The problem of violence is addressed in the volumes Leggere la Persuasione e la rettorica di Carlo Michelstaedter (Ibis, 2011); Donne e Violenza. Filosofia e guerra nel pensiero del ’900 (Mimesis, 2012); and Metamorfosi del potere. Percorsi e incroci tra Arendt e Kafka (Inschibboleth, 2017).

Rita Fulco

Unit Coordinator, Messina

She is an Associate Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Messina (Italy), where she teaches Philosophical Hermeneutics and Twentieth-Century Philosophy. From 2016 to 2021, she held a research fellowship at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy).

Her research focuses on contemporary French and Italian philosophy, from a theoretical and ethical-political perspective, also covering areas such as geophilosophy and woman’s thought, in particular on Simone Weil. Other philosophers she has worked on include Emmanuel Levinas and Sergio Quinzio. She has also edited two volumes on Manlio Sgalambro (2022, 2024). Starting from her studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore (2016) she reflected on the question of the negative and institutional thought in Roberto Esposito, on whom she has written several articles. Among her publications, the monographies: Corrispondere al limite. Simone Weil, il pensiero e la luce (Studium 2002); Il tempo della fine. L’Apocalittica messianica di Sergio Quinzio (Diabasis 2007); Essere insieme in un luogo. Etica, politica, diritto nel pensiero di Emmanuel Levinas (Mimesis 2013); Soggettività e potere. Ontologia della vulnerabilità in Simone Weil (Quodlibet 2020). Among her edited volumes: (ed. with A. Moresco), Sull’evento. Filosofia, storia, biopolitica. Almanacco di Filosofia e Politica 4 (Quodlibet 2022); (ed. with B.M. Esposito), Martirio e testimonianza. Saggi di filosofia, storia e teologia politica (Edizioni della Normale 2023); (ed. with L. Cremonesi and V. Surace), Political Ontology, Community, and Institutions. Roberto Esposito in Dialogue with Contemporary Thinkers (Suny 2025).

https://unifind.unime.it/get/person/010131#

Stefania Tarantino

Unit Coordinator, Salerno

She is an Associate Professor of History of Philosophy at the Department of Cultural Heritage Sciences at the University of Salerno. She graduated in Philosophy from the University of Naples Federico II and holds two PhDs: one from the University of Geneva, focusing on Jeanne Hersch and María Zambrano, and another from the Italian Institute of Human Sciences, dedicated to the thought of Simone Weil and María Zambrano. Her research focuses on 20th-century female philosophers, with particular attention to sexual difference in the history of Western philosophy and political thought. Her numerous publications include: Άνευ μητρός / Senza madre. L’anima perduta dell’Europa. María Zambrano e Simone Weil (La Scuola di Pitagora, 2014); Chiaroscuri della ragione. Kant e le filosofe del Novecento (Guida, 2018); Jeanne Hersch and the Religious Dimensions as the 'Meaning of Meaning' (in Jaspers in Dialogue. Views from Europe & Japan, ed. P. Severini, Nagoya Chisokudo Publications, 2025); she is also editor of the volume Il “rimosso” nell'operazione filosofica. Il pensiero di Sarah Kofman (IISFpress, 2024).

https://docenti.unisa.it/025951/home

Natascia Mattucci

Member, Macerata

Ph.D. in Legal and Political Theory, she is a Full Professor of Political Philosophy at University of Macerata. Teaching activity: Political Theory and Gender Studies, Philosophy of Human Rights, Theory of Political Language, Co-director of the course Gender, politics, institutions. 

Visiting professorship: Institute of Philosophy of the CSIC (2026), University of Paris 8 (2025), University of Zaragoza (2024), University of Malaga (2019), University Complutense of Madrid (2014).

Member of editorial board of the Journals: Heliopolis, Metábasis, Política y Sociedad, Heteroglossia, Post-filosofia, Revista Centra de Ciencias Sociales, Paradosso. Co-director of the Journal Heteroglossia. Member of the National PhD board in Gender Studies (University of Bari), member of the PhD board in Politics, Society, Technology, University of Macerata.

Research Topics: political exclusion of vulnerable subjects (human rights theory and gender studies); anthropological impact of the techno-digital revolution (philosophy of technology), democratisation and public sphere (political representation), political language.

https://docenti.unimc.it/natascia.mattucci

Silvia Mocellin

Member, Padua

She teaches Moral Philosophy and Ethics and Globalization in the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology at the University of Padua. Her primary research interests lie in public ethics and applied ethics, with a specific focus on economic ethics, environmental ethics, and intercultural dialogue. Her work aims to provide philosophical and normative frameworks for interpreting the ethical implications of global transformations: from the dominant economic model to the digitalization of labour, from the relationship between the individual and the community to questions of vulnerability and social responsibility. She has addressed these topics in numerous essays and monographs. Among her publications are:

L’homo oeconomicus in evoluzione. Modelli antropologici e teoria della responsabilità sociale d’impresa (2011);

L’uomo senza dimensioni. Spazio, tempo e cultura nella società globalizzata (2012);

Tra richiamo alla tradizione e presenza al suo tempo: le radici del pensiero di J. Hersch (2019);

A Liberal Defence of Vulnerability: The Good Life in Martha Nussbaum’s Thought (2023);

Labour and Agency: What Kind of Freedom in a Digitalized Economy? (2023);

“Not a Global Village”: Relationship, Pluralism, and Globalization in Raimon Panikkar (2024).

Anna Maria Passaseo

Member, Messina

She is an associate professor in General Pedagogy at the DICAM Department of the University of Messina (Italy), where she teaches General Pedagogy, Intercultural Education and Philosophy of Education. She got a master in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford (UK) and a Ph.D. in Intercultural Education from the University of Messina. She is a member of the teaching board of the Catanzaro-Messina Interuniversity Doctorate in Psychology and editor of the international journal “Rassegna di Pedagogia-Pädagogische Umschau”, as well as the series of studies “Teoria dell’educazione” published by Armando Siciliano Editore. Her main research interests are focused on social education issues and theoretical pedagogy issues. Her publications include L’ideale dell’Homo complexus. Introduzione alla filosofia dell’educazione di Edgar Morin (Siciliano, Messina 2024), Educazione e teoria pedagogica. Problemi e direzioni di ricerca (Armando, Roma 2021), Formare la persona libera. Un progetto di educazione per capacità (Anicia, Roma 2015).

https://archivio.unime.it/it/persona/anna-maria-passaseo/biografema

Valentina Surace

Research Fellow, Messina

She is a scholar of twentieth-century (Heidegger, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Derrida) and contemporary philosophy (Butler). Her publications include the volumes: L’inquietudine dell’esistenza: Le radici luterane dell’ontologia della vita di Martin Heidegger (2014); Soggetti precari. L’ontologia sociale di Judith Butler (2023); Margini. Saggi su Filosofia e Letteratura (2024). She edited numerous collective volumes, the most recent (with A. Reid), Mind the Gap. Borders, Limits and Frontiers (2025). She devoted several articles and essays to Butler, including: Corpi estatici. Judith Butler interprete dell’ausser sich hegeliano, “Lo Sguardo”, 33, 2021; La traccia del negativo. Judith Butler e le ontologie implicite, in S. Dadà and M. Polleri, Sulla fondazione. Anarchia e istituzioni (2023).

Francesco Giuseppe Trotta

Research Fellow, Sapienza Rome

He is a Postdoc researcher and teaching assistant at the Department of Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome, where he got his PhD. His research interests are particularly in twentieth-century philosophy, with a focus on German-Jewish thinkers, on the ethical-political implication of messianism, and on the relationship between philosophy, art, and literature. He has lectured in Italy and abroad and published a monograph entitled Tragedie e salvazioni (Mimesis, 2023) and articles in national and international scholarly journals about authors such as Benjamin, Simmel, Cassirer, Kafka, Nietzsche, and Cohen. He also co-edited, together with Irene Kajon, a volume of essays entitled Distruzione e costruzione di memorie. Riflessioni storiche e filosofiche (Lithos, 2023).

Jacopo Ceccon

Research Fellow, Padua

He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padova, where he obtained his PhD. His research focuses on French contemporary thought, particularly on the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory; on feminist thought; and on the work of the philosopher and writer Susan Sontag. He is the author of several essays and contributions published in leading national and international academic journals.