Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal profile
I am a researcher working at the intersection of sociology and political sciences. In my publications, I explore dynamics of collective memory, remembrance, alternative identities and narrative shaping. What I investigate is how diversity is conceptualised and understood in different contexts, across multiple cognitive environments, and how its management is linked with notions of power and space. I am an ethnographer specialized in Grounded Theory and capability approach, which I adopt to look at how diversity and development intersect with political dynamics. My expertise revolves around Chinese society and politics and the issues of diversity and ‘otherness’, focusing on Islamic communities and especially Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. I mainly explore policies and actions put in place by national and local governments to dilute identities of integrate religious and cultural minorities. China’s attitude to diversity and ‘otherness’ is reflected in its foreign policy and projection to other contexts through the Belt and Road Initiative and other schemes. I look at how domestic targets and narratives are translated into foreign policy actions and discourses, with an effort to conceptualize the dimensions and criteria in projecting a country’s image abroad. I welcome students who would like to engage in Ph.D. research in any of the following areas: Chinese society with a focus on identity and marginality; Chinas cultural diplomacy and Belt and Road Initiative; Chinas periphery; policy processes in socio-economic development; Islam in China.
Research interests
Development dynamics and capability approach
Memories and communities
National minorities and public policies
China’s soft power and cultural diplomacy
History and society of Islamic communities in China
Sociology of renarration
Experience
Head of Department, 1st September 2021 - 31 August 2024
Interim Head of Department, 1st July 2021 - 31st August 2021
Senior Research Fellow at the Research Center on Contemporary China (cscc.it), Italy (since Mar. 2015)
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at XIPU Institution, XJTLU (since 2019)
PhD Principal Supervisor - ResearchProject: The influence of Covid-19 Pandemic on the Chinese Healthcare System and citizens’ behaviour: an Historical Institutionalist approach, PhD candidate: Alessia Orazzo, September 2023 enrollment, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
PhD Principal Supervisor - ResearchProject: European digital public diplomacy in China. A Foucauldian approach, PhD candidate: Xiangdong Chen, September 2022-ongoing, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
PhD Principal Supervisor - ResearchProject: African students as a source of China’s increased soft power: expectations vs realities, PhD candidate: Jianping Ge, March 2021-ongoing, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
Principal supervisor for MA and BA dissertations in the field on China/Asia and International Relations
Member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Italian Academics in China, Nov. 2020 - ongoing
Principal supervisor for the Master (MSc) dissertation, Capstone Consultancy Project Report, The Impact of Pakistani Stakeholders on China Pakistan Economic Corridor A stakeholders’ analysis based on the salience model, student: Zubair Shah Hussein, Degree of Master in Project Management, International Business School Suzhou XJTLU, January 2020, grade: 76 with merit
Voluntary Teacher for the group English Teachers for Hubei
Associate Professor, Department of International Studies, XJTLU, from August 2018
Associate Professor and Policy Analyst, XIPU Institution, XJTLU, January-August 2018
Scientific Coordinator, Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia, China Center, Turin Polytechnic University, 2017-2019
Member of the Board of Directors and Senior Researcher, Centro Studi sulla Cina Contemporanea (Research Centre on Contemporary China), 2016 to present
Visiting Research Fellow, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik - SWP (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), 1st June-30th November 2017
Joint Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of East Asian Studies - IN-EAST and Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation (CGR21), University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), October 2016 – March 2017
Adjunct Professor, International Relations of East Asia, American University of Rome, 2013 – 2016
Teaching assistant, International Relations with specialization on China, University LUISS Guido Carli, March 2014 – September 2014
Co-founder and contributor, Cinaforum.net, 2014 - ongoing
Scientific Coordinator, monthly publications and reports on Chinese economy and China-Italy economic relations for the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, 2015-2017
Member of the Scientific Committee, International Summer School Understanding Global China - Economy, Innovation, Opportunities, Summer 2017
Member of AISC, Italian Association of Chinese Studies; Chinese Economic Association - CEA, UK; Nordic Association for China Studies (NACS)
China expert and input panelist at the conference: “Futures of Cooperation”, Panel IV: Global Cooperation and Competing Conceptions of World Order, Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (CGR21), Duisburg, November 2017
China expert and discussant, conference The DAC and Development Co-operation Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (CGR21) – Duisburg, May 2017
Foreign expert, Commission for the evaluation of the research projects, Minor in Area and Cultural Studies – College of Humanities – Centre for Area and Cultural Studies (CACS), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, May 2013
Professor of Journalistic Chinese, Confucius Institute University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Sept. 2014 – June 2016
Co-organiser and lecturer, Interdisciplinary and inter-faculty seminar “Metropolis in Asia”, University of Naples LOrientale, May-June 2014
Lecturer, seminar on “Ethnic identity and borders: Socio-economic Changes in Peripheral China”, Degree in Project Management of Tourism Systems, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 20 Nov. 2013- 4 Dec. 2013
Contributor for the Dazhalan Project with articles on the Dazhalan district in Beijing and the Sulukule area in Istanbul, published in Urban China, no. 26, 2008 Beijing (project coordinated by the Chinese artist Ou Ning who directed the independent documentary Meishi Street)
Teaching
INS305 Country Study (BA, Y2)
INS404 China in the World (MA)
INS308 Public Policy and Cultural Diplomacy (BA, Y4)
INS301 Semester of International Experience (BA, Y4)
INS101 Contemporary International Relations (BA, Y2)
Semester of International Experience
Contemporary International Relations
Research Methods for Country Study
Public Policy and Cultural Diplomacy
Chinas foreign policy
International Relations of East Asia
Current Issues in Global Affairs
Journalistic Chinese
Chinese Language (advanced)
Awards and honours
Member of the Advisory Board of the journal Asia-Pacyfic, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2023-ongoing
Member of the Inter-university Center for Comparative Area Studies: Asia, Africa, Latin America (ASAFAL), 2018-ongoing
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, University of Liverpool, Oct. 2019
PhD, Eastern and Southern Asian Studies and Law with Specialization in Ethno-Sociology (dual degree), Oriental University of Naples and Minzu University of China, 2013
Postgraduate Specialization Program, Diplomatic and International Studies, University of Padua, 2002
BA, MA, Oriental Languages and Literatures (major in Classical Chinese) - University of Venice “Ca’ Foscari”, 2001
Person Types
- Staff
Fingerprint
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Memories of pluralism: urban space and religion in contemporary China
Pellegrini, P. & Cappelletti, A.
15/10/21 → 30/09/25
Project: Collaborative Research Project
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Deconstructing the Belt and Road Initiative. Concepts, methods and approaches in China, Italy and Greece
1/02/20 → 31/08/23
Project: Internal Research Project
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The leader and the people Shifting boundaries in Chinese populist discourse
Fanoulis, E. & Cappelletti, A., 1 Aug 2023, In: Journal of Language and Politics. 22, 4, p. 512-533 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Losing centrality and socialization of Islam in Suzhou Memories, identities and positionality around the city mosques
Cappelletti, A., 2022, (Accepted/In press) In: Contemporary Islam. 17, 1, p. 27-66 40 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Renarrating the "western territories:" Training programs for college students in China's Far West
Cappelletti, A., 1 Jul 2022, In: Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics. 16, 1, p. 23-50 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Citation (Scopus) -
Between the EU, Russia, and China: Cultural diplomacy competition in Central Asia
Valenza, D., Boers, E. & Cappelletti, A., 1 Jan 2021, The European Union, China and Central Asia: Global and Regional Cooperation in a New Era. Taylor and Francis, p. 200-220 21 p.Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Open Access4 Citations (Scopus) -
Correction to: Between Centrality and Re-scaled Identity: A New Role for the Chinese State in Shaping China’s Image Abroad: The Case of the Twitter Account of a Chinese Diplomat in Pakistan (Chinese Political Science Review, (2019), 4, 3, (349-374), 10.1007/s41111-019-00129-x)
Cappelletti, A., 2021, (Accepted/In press) In: Chinese Political Science Review.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate
Open Access
Activities
- 1 Presentation at conference/workshop/seminar
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Two Sessions 两会 Key takeaways
Alessandra Cappelletti (Speaker)
19 Mar 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation at conference/workshop/seminar