Valentina Schiattarella

I am a linguist specializing in the description and documentation of minority languages, with a particular focus on the Berber/Amazigh family.

Originally from Naples, Italy, I completed both my BA and MA at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" before moving to France in 2011. There, I spent four years working on my PhD project on Siwi Berber at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris) and LLACAN (CNRS), under the supervision of Prof. Amina Mettouchi. A few months into my doctoral research, I made my first trip to the Amazigh-speaking oasis of Siwa, Egypt, a place I have returned to frequently ever since.

I defended my dissertation in 2015, and in 2016 began a four-year postdoctoral position at the University of Naples "L'Orientale". In 2019, I was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship, which took me to the University of Colorado Boulder for several months. From 2021 to 2023, I worked at the University of Hamburg's Department of Afrikanistik und Äthiopistik as an Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Researcher. In 2024, I began a new postdoctoral research position at the University of Naples "L'Orientale".

More recently, I held a fellowship at the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), Université de Tunis (2025–2026). In autumn 2026, I will join the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin as a MECAM/EUME visiting scholar.

Further details about my professional experience and research interests can be found on this website.

If you have any questions or you are interested in a copy of my papers, feel free to contact me at my permanent email address:  vale.schiattarella [at] gmail.com