CAMOZZI ILENYA

I have been Full Professor of Cultural Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Milano-Bicocca since October 2024. I currently teach New Slaveries and Gender-Based Exploitation at postgraduate level and Cultures, Diversity and Conflicts at undergraduate level.

From 2017 to 2024, I was Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Milano-Bicocca. From 2008 to 2017, I was Assistant Professor of Sociology of Culture in the same department, where I taught Intercultural Relations, Cultural Processes and Communication, Youth Cultures, and Space and Time in Global Societies. From 2005 to 2009, I was Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bergamo.

I received my PhD in Applied Sociology and Research Methods from the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2005, under the supervision of Carmen Leccardi. In the same year, my dissertation was awarded Second Prize in the national doctoral thesis competition on the “Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Prejudice”, promoted by the Italian Ministry for Equal Opportunities, UNAR (the Italian National Office against Racial Discrimination), and CRUI (the Conference of Italian University Rectors). The award also funded the publication of my first book, Lo spazio del riconoscimento. Forme di associazionismo migratorio a Milano (The Space of Recognition: Forms of Migrant Associationism in Milan), published by Il Mulino in 2008.

From 2005 to 2008, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where I conducted a study entitled Le “seconde generazioni” di giovani di origine straniera a Milano. Fra tradizione e modernità (Second-Generation Youth in Milan: Between Tradition and Modernity). Between 2007 and 2009, I participated in the research project Strukturwandel der Anerkennung im 21. Jahrhundert at the Institute for Social Research, Goethe University Frankfurt, under the scientific coordination of Axel Honneth. In 2008–2009, I spent 15 months at the same institute as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, conducting the study Recognition in Multicultural Societies: Italian Associations in Germany under Axel Honneth’s supervision.

From 2009 to 2019, I participated in several national research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, as well as international projects funded by the European Union. These included La violenza nelle relazioni di prossimità: generazioni, generi e politiche di intervento (Violence in Proximity: Generations, Gender and Intervention Policies, 2010–2012); SAHWA – Researching Arab Mediterranean Youth: Towards a New Social Contract, funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (2014–2017); and Giovani italiani in movimento (Italian Youth on the Move, 2017–2018).

In 2019 and 2020, I spent a total of six months at the Institute of Social Sciences of Humboldt University of Berlin, with the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. During this period, I conducted the study Becoming Adult in Berlin: The Transition to Adulthood of Young Italians in Germany, between Mobility and New Belongings.

Between 2018 and 2023, I participated in three major research projects:

1. Mapping Youth Futures: Forms of Anticipation and Youth Agency (2019–2022), funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research;

2. ALLINTERACT – Widening and Diversifying Citizen Engagement in Science (2020–2023), funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme;

3. ITA.LI – Italian Lives: A Study of Life Courses in Italy through Qualitative Longitudinal Analysis (2018–2022), carried out within the framework of the Italian Departments of Excellence initiative.

I am currently Principal Investigator of the University of Milano-Bicocca unit in the EU-funded project CLiViE – Cultural Literacies’ Value in Europe. Coordinated by the University of Helsinki, this three-year project (2024–2027) aims to develop a Theory of Change methodology and a Social Return on Investment framework to improve our understanding of the contribution of cultural literacy, promoted through arts education, to social cohesion. Further information is available on the CLiViE project website.

From 2018 to 2021, I coordinated the Everyday Life Research Network of the Italian Sociological Association, having previously served as its secretary from 2015 to 2018. I am a member of the steering committees of the doctoral programmes in Analysis of Social and Economic Processes and Applied Sociology and Research Methods, both at the University of Milano-Bicocca. I also served as Vice-Coordinator of the Scientific Board of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network 35, Sociology of Migration, from 2021 to 2023, and as Co-Coordinator from 2024 to 2026.

My research interests lie primarily in the fields of intercultural relations and multicultural societies. I am particularly interested in the concept of “everyday multiculturalism” as a lens through which to examine how cultural diversity is negotiated in everyday practices. I also study everyday forms of migrant political activism and the sense of belonging among members of the second generation.

A second major area of my research concerns youth studies and youth cultures. My work focuses on contemporary life courses and transitions to adulthood, particularly on cosmopolitanism and mobility and migration as cultural frameworks for understanding the experiences of young people. My research is primarily qualitative and draws on methods such as narrative interviews and focus groups.