Sonia Castro Mallamaci

After graduating from the University of Pavia with a degree in Literature and Philosophy with a historical focus, she completed a PhD in "Institutions, ideas, political movements in contemporary Europe" at the same university. Besides her research activity, carried out within the framework of post-doc scholarships and research grants and dedicated to the study of migratory, cultural, economic and political flows between Italy and Switzerland, she gained teaching experience in the field of history and history didactics in the secondary school sector and at university level, at the University of Pavia, within the Dipartimento Formazione e Apprendimento (DFA) of SUPSI (SUPSI teaching qualification) and at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). Since 2017 she has been in charge of the Teaching Diploma for Swiss secondary schools (scuole di maturità) and since 2020 she has been associate professor in History Didactics at the DFA.

During her PhD, she carried out research activities at the University of Pavia, thanks to individual research grants from the Canton of Ticino, the SNSF (National Fund for Scientific Research) and the University of Pavia. She also collaborated as a researcher on research projects of major national interest (PRIN) at the Universities of Pavia, Bologna and Siena and as a research associate at the Institute of Alpine History at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). In collaboration with the city of Lugano, the Spitzer Foundation, the USI and the RSI, she was the promoter, coordinator and researcher for the DFA (with Pietro Montorfani) of the “Le vite dei giusti” project (see www.levitedeigiusti.ch).

Areas of research

- History of anti-fascism in Switzerland

- History of student and cultural flows between Switzerland and Italy in the contemporary age

- History of Italian emigration to Switzerland