Michela Fusaschi

Michela FUSASCHI - Date of birth: 26/08/1969 Nationality: Italian
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6849-6159

Full professor, University of Roma Tre, Department of Political Science, Roma, Italy - michela.fusaschi@uniroma3.it
Associate researcher Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Politique LAP, CNRS/EHESS Paris, France: michela.fusaschi@ehess.fr

2022 Full professor in Cultural Anthropology. Univ. Roma Tre, Dep. of Political Science, Rome, Italy.
2015-now Professor of Gender and feminist anthropology at the Phd School in Political Science, PhD School in Political Science, Univ. Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
2015-now Professor of Gender Anthropology in Gender advisor course (Res. ONU n. 1325 2000), Italian Ministry of Defense, Rome.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2016–2017 Director of the MA degree in ‘Public Anthropology’, University Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.
2014- 2022 Associate Professor in ‘Political Anthropology’, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.
2005–2014 Researcher in ‘Cultural Anthropology’, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.
2001–2005 Assistant professor MA degree in ‘Policies of meeting and cultural mediation’, Univ. of Roma Tre.

Research Achievements and Peer Recognition
Internationally recognised authority on gender, body politics, and genital modifications.
Author of 106 publications: 8 books (5 monographs), 49 peer-reviewed journal articles, 49 book chapters (in Italian, English, French, Spanish). Impact: Pioneered the shift from the notion of “mutilation” to “modification” in FGM/C studies since book 2003; over 10,000 views on recent invited article (IJIR, 2022).
My work has been translated into policies (audit in the Italian Parliament), training for NGOs (seminar) and academic programmes in Europe and Africa (project and scholarships).

Key Publications

2003 I segni sul corpo. Per un’antropologia delle modificazioni dei genitali femminili (The marks on the body. Towards an anthropology of female genital modification). Turin: Bollati Boringhieri (ISBN 978-8833914831).
→ Amelia Rosselli International Prize – Monography recognised as the first anthropological work to introduce the neutral concept of “modification” in FGM/C studies.
2011 Quando il corpo è delle altre. Retoriche della pietà e umanitarismo-spettacolo (When the body belongs to others. Rhetoric of pity and humanitarianism-spectacle). Turin: Bollati Boringhieri (ISBN
9788833922201).
→ Monography , National Pozzale Prize finalist; Costantino Nigra Prize shortlisted.
2012 Fusaschi, M. «Designer vagina»: immaginari dell’indecenza o ritorno all’età dell’innocenza (Designer vagina: images of indecency or a return to the age of innocence?) Genesis, X(1), 63–84. DOI 10.1400/180149
→ Seminal article linking cosmetic surgery imaginaries with feminist anthropology.
2015 Fusaschi, M. Humanitarian Bodies. Gender and Genital Modifications in Italian immigration policy. Cahiers d’Études Africaines, 55(1), 217, pp. 11–28.
→ Comparative analysis of FGM/C and cosmetic genital surgery in migration policy.
2018 Fusaschi, M. & Cavatorta, G. (eds.). FGM/C: From Medicine to Critical Anthropology. Meti Edizioni, Turin, Italy (ISBN 9788864840321).
→ Outcome of the EU-funded MAP/FGM project, training over 2,000 students in four countries.
2019 Fusaschi, M. Rwandan gukuna trouble: Femocracy, feminisms and critical anthropology. Anuac, 9(2) doi: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-4102
→ Extensive ethnography on labial elongation and feminist debates in Rwanda.
2020 Fusaschi, M. Quel genre de convictions dans les Conventions? Esquisses d’auto-ethnographies des droits humains des femmes comme économies morales dans le cas des Modifications Génitales Féminines, in Archivio antropologico mediterraneo, XXIII, n. 22 /1
→ Critical ethnography on how humanitarian reason impacts social actors
2023 Fusaschi, M. Gendered genital modifications in critical anthropology: from discourses on FGM/C to new technologies in the sex/gender system. Int J Impot Res 35, 6–15 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00542-y
→ Invited article with over 10,000 views, consolidating two decades of FGM/C research.
2025Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity (2025). Genital Modifications in Prepubescent Minors: When May Clinicians Ethically Proceed?. The American journal of bioethics : AJOB, 25(7), 53–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.2353823
→ Target article as member of the Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity.
2025 Machado, A.A., Fusaschi, M. The Gender Anthropology and Psychology of Intersex Bodies: A Cuban Study. Current Sexual Health Reports, 17(1) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-025-00410-y
→ A psychology/anthropology collaborative article on the sexual lives of intersex people post-surgery.
Forthcoming book chapter
2025 (invited) Fusaschi, M. Challenging the Passe-Partout Words of the FGM/C Feminist Discourse as “Harmful Traditional Practices”. In FGM/C in Africa and the Diaspora: Debates, Issues, and Challenges. Boydell & Brewer, UK.
Fellowships and Awards

2023–2024 – Invited Researcher (chercheuse invitée), LAP–CNRS Paris, France (sabbatical)
2020–present – Associate researcher, LAP–CNRS Paris, France
2008–2014 – Visiting professor, ENS Lyon, France (four visits).
2003–2009 – Visiting professor, Inatek Kibungo, Rwanda (four visits).

Book Prizes

2012 – Finalist, Pozzale National Book Prize (LX Ed.) Quando il corpo è delle Altre.
2011 – Shortlisted, Costantino Nigra Prize, Quando il corpo è delle Altre.
2008 – Feudo di Maida International Prize, Corporalmente corretto.
2005 – Amelia Rosselli International Prize, special mention for Women’s Human Rights, I segni sul corpo
2001 – Iglesias National Prize, Hutu-Tutsi.

Presentations and Organization of International Conferences (selection)

1. 2025 – Discussant of Lila Abu-Lughod, EHESS, Paris
2. 2023- Panelist in the congress French Anthropologist Association, Feminist and queer ethnographies. Between criticism, commitment and contemporary resistance, Paris, France.
3. 2023 and 2024 (4-6 May), Invited member of scientific committee and keynote speaker of the VII Coloquio Internacional Trans-Identidades, Género y Cultura, Avana, Cuba.
4. 2019 (10 April), Invited lecturer to the International Seminar Norms, silences, powers. The anthropological approaches of gender-based violence, Centre Norbert Elias, Marseille, France.
5. 2019 (17 July), Paper presentation titled ‘Le "genre humanitaire " et la sexualité "à la rwandaise". Néo-colonialisme ou réinvention de la tradition ?’, International conference Genre & sexualités: diversités des contextes, pluralité des parcours, approches interdisciplinaires, Libreville, Gabon (selected).
6. 2018 (22 November), Invited Chair to the International Doctoral conference, Violencia de género desde un punto de vista multidisciplinar, Univ. Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
7. 2018 (19 November), Invited Chair to The International Forum one FGM: Exploring strategies and good practices, Wassu-Univ. Autonoma Barcellona Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.
8. 2018 (28 May), Paper presentation titled ‘Womens’ voices and practices of Others. For a public anthropology of the treatments and modifications of the female external genitalia’ (with G. Cavatorta) at the 2nd International Expert Meeting on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, Univ. of Geneva, Univ. Libre de Bruxelles, Univ. Lausanne, Montreal, Canada (selected).
9. 2017 (23–24 November), Organisation of the International Seminar FGM From medicine to critical anthropology, Univ. Roma Tre, Roma, Italy.
10. 2017 (1 July), Co-convenor of the panel Gender, body politics and humanitarian fields, European Conference on African Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.
11. 2017 (28 September), Invited Chair to the International Seminar Institutional Responses to FGM/C, 3rd MAP-FGM, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal.
12. 2017 (8 June), Invited Chair to the Academic Seminar MAP-FGM at the intersection of qualitative, quantitative and mixed method research;VUB-RHEA, Bruxelles, Belgium.
13. 2015, (3 November), Invited presentation titled ‘Asegúrate de no estar desnuda: corporalidad y sexualidad en la Rwanda’ at the International conference Cossos i agència a l’arena social/Bodies and Agency in the Social Arena, Instit. Milà i Fontanals, Dep. d’Arq. i Antropologia, Barcelona, Spain.
14. 2013 (13 December) Invited lecturer to the International conference Genre, transmigration et travail., Min. du Travail, Progetto diritti Onlus, Dakar, Senegal.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Teaching Activities

2021–present –Development Anthropology (BA), Anthropology of Globalisation (MA), Feminist Ethnography (PhD), University of Roma Tre, Department of Political Science, Rome.
2021–present – Lecture (Chargée de cours), EHESS Paris, France (PhD in Social Anthropology and PhD in Gender Studies).
2008–2021 – Professor of Cultural Anthropology (BA) and Political Anthropology (MA), University of Roma Tre, Italy.
2005–2008 – Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology (BA/MA), Faculty of Humanities, University of Roma Tre, Italy.
1997–2002 – Lecturer in Medical Anthropology (BA), Faculty of Medicine, University of Tor Vergata, Italy.

Institutional Responsibilities
2025 – Member of the International Scientific Council of the Institut du Genre, a Groupement d'Intérêt Scientifique (GIS), Paris, France.
2022–present – Coordinator, PhD Section Gender Studies, University Roma Tre, Italy.
2021–present – Co-Director, Condition humaine/conditions politique. Revue internationale d’anthropologie du politique, CNRS–EHESS Paris. France.
2021–present – Section editor Sociocultural Issues and Epidemiology of journal Current Sexual Health Reports, USA.
2018–2022 – Delegate for Research, Dep. Political Science, University of Roma Tre, Italy.
2012–present – Member, PhD Committee Political Science, Gender Studies Section, University Roma Tre., Italy.
2011-2016 – Editorial board of Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines revue, Ehess, Paris, France.
2011–2016 – Member, PhD Committee Social Sciences, University of Padua, Italy.
2005–2011 – Faculty member, University of Roma Tre, Faculty of Humanities, Italy.

Supervision of Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows

2022–present – Supervisor of 2 postdoctoral fellows (36 months), 2 PhD students.
2014–2025 – Supervisor of 8 PhD students (Italy), 5 postdoctoral fellows (Italy), co-supervisor 1 PhD student (Ehess, Paris, France) 3 rapporteur for 3 PhD theses (Ehess, Lyon 2, France).
2005–present – Supervised 50 MA theses and 100 BA theses.

Selected successful cases:
As rapporteur: Violaine Baraduc, Phd in Social Anthropology, (Ehess, Paris, France, rapporteur, now CNRS researcher in Paris, Thesis published).
As rapporteur: Domitille Blanco, Phd in Social Anthropology, (Lyon2, Lyon, France, now post doc Musée de Quai Branly, Paris, France).

As supervisor or co-supervisor :

S. López de Zubiría Díaz, PhD Gender and Law (URJC Madrid, co-supervised, extraordinary doctorate prize; now Professor, Thesis published).
Francesca Casafina, PhD Gender Studies (Univ. Roma Tre, Italy, Thesis published, now postdoc Rut Foundation).
M.B. Crognale, PhD Gender Studies (Univ. Roma Tre, Italy, now social worker & researcher, Thesis published).
G. Cavatorta, PhD EHESS Paris, France/Univ. Padua, Italy (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, after Senior Postdoc RUT project, Thesis published).

PhD Committees: Milan (2024), Padua (2023), Lyon 2 (2022), EHESS Paris (2022–23), Federico II Naples (2010), Bergamo (2013), Siena (2013), Padua/EHESS (2014), Paris VIII (2015).

Research Grants
EU-funded Projects
2015–2017 – PI of University of Roma Tre Team , MAP-FGM – Multisectorial Academic Program to prevent and combat FGM/C.
2017 – Researcher, AguaSociAL – Water Related Sciences Social Innovation, Marie Curie IRSES, FP7 People Programme (2 months).

National Projects

• 2022–2024 – PI, RUT Fondazione Project, University of Roma Tre, Italy.
• 2022-now – member of PRIN Unit A, Project of national interest on mass violence, Sapienza, University of Rome.
• 2009–2011 – Coordinator young researchers, Unit B Roma Tre University of Roma Tre, Italy.

Other contributions to the research community

2005–present – Member, Observatory on Racism, Univ. Roma Tre: supervision of MA/PhD students, training on body/gender ethnography, extra-academic teaching on discrimination.
2022- present. Member of Brussel collaboration body integrity
Reviewer of a 2025 Project ERC Consolidator Grant.

Referee scientific journals (select): Medical anthropology, Culture Health and Sexuality (Springer)s, Human Organization, the journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology (since 2018); GLAD! Revue sur le langage, le genre, les sexualités (Paris, since 2018) Antropologia (Ledizioni since 2016); Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa, (Il Mulino, since 2015); Anuac (since 2015); Sociology (since 2015) Archivio Antropologico del Mediterraneo (since 2015); Sociologia (since 2014); Storia delle donne (since 2015); About Gender (University of Genoa since 2012); Genre, sexualité et Société (La Sorbonne University, Paris since 2011), Mondo Contemporaneo (Roma Tre University since 2011); Genesis (Italian Society of Women Historians since 2010); European Journal of Women's Studies (Utrecht University, since 2004); Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines (EHESS Paris since 2001).