With a focus on the most empirical outcomes of European integration, Dr Giacomo Orsini has conducted much fieldwork research along the European external border in Melilla, Malta, Lampedusa and Fuerteventura, and is now working as Senior Research Officer of the Department of Sociology of the University of Essex for the ESRC funded project ‘Bordering on Britishness: an Oral History Study of 20th century Gibraltar’. Since 2015 he also works as Maître de Conference of the Institut d'Etudes Européennes of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he teaches the postgraduate course 'International Migrations in Europe'. In 2017 he became Associate Researcher of the Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His major research areas are concerned with borders – being them real or symbolic, migration and asylum, contemporary governance systems and governmentality, maritime sociology and the sociology of everyday life. During his academic career, he has collaborated with several European as well as non-European universities, and became member of various international research networks. In 2011 he was awarded the prestigious GUF-100 Prize as the Student of the Year of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen. Later that year, he also received the University of Essex's studentship to conduct his doctoral research there. 

Publications:

• Orsini, G. (2016) ‘Securitization as a source of insecurity: a ground-level look at the functioning of Europe’s external border in Lampedusa’. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 16(1): 135-147.
• Orsini, G. (2016) ‘The Illusion of Complete Closure vs. the Empirics of Bordering’. GLOBAL 20(1): 12-14.
• Roos, C. Orsini, G. (2015) ‘How to Reconcile the EU border paradox? The Concurrence of Refugee Reception and Deterrence’. IES Policy Brief 4.
• Orsini, G. (2015) ‘Good policies need to be grounded in reality’. Up For Discussion – Zócalo Public Square.
• Orsini, G. (2015) ‘Lampedusa: From a Fishing Island in the Middle of the Sea to a Tourist Destination in the Middle of Europe’s External Border’. Italian Studies 70(4): 521-536.
• Orsini, G. Fiott, D. (2015) 'Review - Malta in the European Union'. European Politics and Society 16(3): 457-458.
• Orsini, G. (2015) ‘Focusing on Lampedusa risks distorting the debate over undocumented migration into the EU’. London School of Economics Blog on European Politics and Policies EUROPP.
• Orsini, G. (2014) ‘Testing societal security at the border: the case of Lampedusa’. SOURCE Article.
• Orsini, G. (2014) ‘The Common Fishery Policy vs fishermen’s good practices. Bottom-up strategies for a sustainable fishery: the case of the Fishermen Association of Gran Tarajal’. Working Paper 44th UACES Annual Conference Exchanging Ideas on Europe.
• Orsini, G. Sferlazzo, G. Vecchi, I. (2014) ‘Lampedusa: A Cruel and Corrupt System’. Discover Society 8.
• Orsini, G. (2014), ‘Un’isola in mezzo al confine: oltre il razzismo istituzionale e ritorno. Storie di pesca e migrazioni a Lampedusa’. In M. Grasso (ed.) Razzismi, Discriminazioni e Confinamenti. Roma: Ediesse, pp. 347-358.
• Orsini, G. Schiavon, S. (2013) ‘Becoming Border. Dynamics and Effects of the Building of the European External Border in a Recently Accessed EU Member State: the Malta Case Study’. Working paper EastBordNet Conference Relocating Borders: A Comparative Approach.
• Orsini, G. (2011) ‘On the border of knowledge(s). Discussing Eurocentrism, Postcoloniality and Postcolonialism at the Department of Sociology of Pune University, India’. Euroculture Journal of the University of Pune 1.
• Orsini G. Schiavon, S. (2009) ‘Melilla, città europea nel continente africano. Cronache dalla frontiera spagnola in Marocco (Melilla, European city in the African continent. Chronicles from the Spanish border in Morocco)’. Studi Culturali 3: 479-497.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

• 6 December 2016: Seminar ‘The EU external border: a macro and micro view. Europe’s border and migration policies in Brussels and the Strait of Sicily’ at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Ispra (Italy)
• 3 December 2016: Seminar ‘Europe’s permanent migrant crisis and Europe as a promised land: contemporary Eurocentrism in action(?)’ at the Promised Land symposium organized by Culture+Conflict and Goethe-Institut London, Central Saint Martins, London (United Kingdom)
• 14 July 2016: Presentation of the working paper ‘Fixed Lines, Permanent Transitions. International borders, cross-border communities and the transforming experience of otherness’ at the International Conference Rural-Urban Migration and Inclusionary Urbanisation in China funded by the British Council (BC) and National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and hosted by the College of Economics of the Jinan University in Guangzhou (China)
• 21 June 2016: Presentation ‘Freedom of speech – Practices from the field(s)’ at Film Night of the Intensive Programme Week of the Erasmus Mundus MA in Euroculture organized by the University Udine and the University of Olomouc (Czech Republic)
• 12 June 2016: Presentation ‘The EU border regime and the myth of invasion, the illusion of control and Europe as the promised land’ at the Architecture on Stage: Papers event organized at the BARBICAN Centre in London (United Kingdom)
• 2 June 2016: Presentation of the working paper ‘Fixed Lines, Permanent Transitions. International borders, cross-border communities and the transforming experience of otherness’ at the Ethnic Relations, Minorities and Belonging in Europe and China workshop organized by the UNESCO Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies, at the University of Leuven (Belgium)
• 28 November 2015: Presentation ‘From a Fishing Island in the Middle of the Mediterranean to a Tourist Destination at the Core of Europe’s External Border’ part of the Lampedusa: Caught Between Shipwreck and Tourism workshop, School of Oriental Studies, London (United Kingdom)
• 10 June 2015: Presentation ‘Focusing on Lampedusa risks distorting the debate over undocumented migration into the EU’ for the panel ‘Lampedusa: the barbican of fortress Europe’ part of the Postgraduate Fair of the Queen Mary University, London (United Kingdom)
• 18 November 2014: Presentation ‘Marking and Providing Feedback Workshop’ as part of the UACES Student Forum Seminars: Teaching European Studies, Europe House, London, (United Kingdom)
• 22 November 2013: Presentation ‘Applying for Grants & Funding’ as part of the UACES Student Forum Seminars, Swedenborg House, London (United Kingdom)
• 1-3 September 2014: Presentation “The Common Fishery Policy vs fishermen’s good practices. Bottom-up strategies for a sustainable fishery: the case of the Fishermen Association of Gran Tarajal” at the 44th UACES Annual Conference, University of Cork, Cork (Ireland)
• 27-29 September 2013: Presentation “European fisheries at the edge. The cases of the two small-scale artisanal fishing communities of the islands of Lampedusa and Fuerteventura” at the Sociology at Sea. Culture, Economy and Society in a Maritime Perspective at the Department of Sociology University of Zadar, Zadar (Croatia)
• 31 August 2013: Presentation of the research paper “European fisheries at the edge: the cases of the two fishing communities of Lampedusa and Fuerteventura” at the 11th European Sociological Association - ESA - Annual Conference, University of Turin, Turin (Italy)
• 18 February 2013: Seminar “Lampedusa: notes for a study of small-fisheries along the European external border” at the IAMC - Institute for Costal Marine Environment  - of the CNR - Italian National Research Council - of Mazara del Vallo, Mazara del Vallo (Italy)
• 11-13 January 2013: Presentation of the paper “Becoming border. Dynamics and effects of the building of the European external border in a recently accessed EU member state: the Malta case study”, at the EastBordNet conference Relocating Borders: a Comparative Approach, Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin (Germany)
• 9 April 2011: Presentation of the paper ‘On the local effects of Europeanization. The consequences of Lithuania’s and Poland’s accession to the EU in the Russian enclave/exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast’, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate Student Conference on the European Union, Pittsburgh University, Pittsburgh (United States)

Film Making:

October 2013 – June 2013: Co-director of the documentary 'Once the Sea was Covered with Water. European Fisheries at the Edge'

Screenings:

• 13-19 March 2017: 9th edition of the International Film Festival Fishermen of the world (Lorient, France)
• 7 January 2017: Sandalia Sustainability Film Festival - itinerant competition (Brescia, Italy)
• 26-28 August 2016: 6th edition of Appetitosamente Festival Regionale del Buon Cibo (Siddi, Italy)
• 18-20 August 2016: Premio Villanova Monteleone 2016 - Sardinia Film Festival - (out of competition for) Best Italian Documentary (Villanova Monteleone, Italy)
• 17 June 2016: Screening at Porto M, Italian premiere (Lampedusa, Italy)
• 12 June 2016: Papers. Festival of the art, culture and architecture of refugee crisis at Barbican Centre - 2016 London Festival of Architecture (London, Uk)

Organization of Events:

• 24-25 February 2017: Bordering on Britishness. A 20th Century Oral History of Gibraltar’s International Conference ‘Borders and Identities. Languages and Ethnicities in Gibraltar and the Mediterranean World in the 20th Century’. Academic Co-director and Co-organizer.
• 29 May 2015: Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel’s Policy Forum ‘Controlling the Edges of Europe. EU External Border Surveillance: Intersections between the Private and the Public’. Academic Director and Co-organizer.
• November 2013 – February 2014: University of Essex, Department of Sociology, Annual Graduate Conference. Co-organizer and speaker.
• September 2013: University of Zadar, founding conference of the International Scientific Network ‘Social Sciences and the Sea’. Co-organizer and speaker.

International Migration, Sociology of Migration, European Border Management, Border Studies, Governance and Governmentality, Postcolonial Theories