Simona Vezzoli

Simona Vezzoli is Research Officer at the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) Centre for Governance of Migration and Diversity (GMD), based at the Institute of History, Leiden University. As a Research Officer at the LDE Centre GMD, Simona is working in an interdisciplinary team to promote collaborative migration and diversity research at three Dutch universities: University of Leiden, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam. One of her main goals is to promote interdisciplinary research that builds upon existing expertise in the three Dutch universities and to expand collaboration with migration and diversity researchers in international academic institutions.   

Simona was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, where she conducted research as part of the Migration as Development (MADE) project. Her research focused on exploring the social transformation that took place in Italy since the 19^th century and its role in shaping historical Italian emigration and immigration patterns. Simona also led the research in the frontier town of Caracaraí, Roraima, northern Brazil, where she explored the town’s migration history as well as today’s migration aspirations among young people who are largely descendants of internal migrants.