Michela Semprebon has been Associate Professor of General Sociology (SPS/07) at the University of Parma, in the Department of Law, Politics and International Studies, since 1 November 2024. She is the Rector’s Delegate for Refugee Working Group and the Departmental Contact Person for students with disabilities, learning difficulties, special educational needs. She is currently involved in the OR.I.o.NE project at the University of Parma, which focuses on young caregivers, and in the Cruscotto dell’Integrazione project in collaboration with CIAC, the Municipality of Parma, the University of Parma and the University of Bologna, through the financial support of Fondazione Cariparma.
She was Principal Investigator (PI) for the University of Parma unit in the PRIN project "VOLacross: Volunteering across Crises: a comparative and longitudinal analysis of social innovation potential” (2023–2026) and PI of the EU INSigHT project “Building Capacity to Deal with Human Trafficking and Transit Routes in Italy, Nigeria and Sweden” (2019–2021). Before joining the University of Parma, she was Research Fellow at the UNESCO Chair SSIIM at the University Iuav of Venice (2017–2021), the University of Bologna (2015–2017), and the University of Milano-Bicocca (2006–2015). She also taught at Politecnico di Milano (2015–2016), the University of Bologna (2016–2018), and the University of Bergamo (2018–2020). She was a Visiting Researcher at the Haute École des Sciences Sociales in Paris (2019) and at the Centre for Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford (2015). She has worked as Researcher on the following projects: "Erasmus+ PusH (Precarious Housing in Europe" (2020–2022); FAMI “CapaCityMetro: Reti di (form)azione attiva per l’inclusione attiva dei migranti nella città metropolitana di Venezia” (2017–2018); FARB “Intergenerational Relationships and Obligations between First- and Second-Generation Migrants” (2015–2017); PRIN “Small Municipalities and Social Cohesion: Urban Policies and Practices for the Social and Spatial Inclusion of Immigrants” (2011–2015); and COST IS1102 S.O.S. COHESION (2012–2015).
Her research interests include the following: higher education pathways for refugee students; local policies for migrant inclusion, including reception systems, housing policies, schools and volunteering; the legal protection of unaccompanied minors; human trafficking and severe exploitation; asylum determination; sociology of care and caregiving; auto-ethnographic and theatre-based research methods, particularly Forum Theatre.
She is a member of CIRS (Interdepartment Centre for Social Research) and of ParTeR (Participatory Teaching and Research), at the University of Parma. She is also member and of the innovative teaching project “De-normalising War within the University”.
