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Welcome!
I am a Professor in Politics in the Inter-university Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning at the University/Polytechnic of Turin, in Italy.
My research has addressed questions around the ethnic politics of socio-environmental conflicts, the domestic politics of human rights of vulnerable groups (including indigenous peoples, domestic workers and working children), and, more recently, the contentious politics of wildfires. I have also worked on the post-2015 development agenda and the challenges of fostering engagement from the Global South with the Sustainable Development Goals.
NEW! I have recently started a new project on the Politics of Wildfires funded by the European Research Council. Post-docs and PhD opportunities coming up soon. Stay tuned!
Recent Projects
On Burning Ground: Wildfire Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa
Over the past decades, wildfires have been growing in size and frequency worldwide. Humans are mostly responsible of this increase through their impact on climate and land ...
FIREPOL – The Politics of Wildfires
The Politics of Wildfires: A Comparative Study of Norms, Power and Conflict in the Global South [ERC Starting Grant (2023-2028)] Extreme wildfires have been on the rise ...
Recognition Politics in the Andes
This is a long-term project that started with my PhD and went through multiple steps and phases. The general goal has been to study the impact of ...
Selected Publications
FONTANA L.B., Recognition Politics. Indigenous Rights and Ethnic Conflict in the Andes (2023) Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
FONTANA L.B., A, Miramonti, C. Johnston (forthcoming 2023) ‘Women in Wildfire Crises: Exploring Lived Experiences of Conflict through Forum Theatre’. Studies in Social Justice.
Cole, A., FONTANA, L.B., Hirzel, M., Johnston, C. and Miramonti, A. (forthcoming 2023) ‘On burning ground: theatre of the oppressed and ecological crisis in Bolivia’. Cultural Geographies.
FONTANA L.B. (2020) ‘The Contentious Politics of Labour Rights as Human Rights: Lessons from the Implementation of Domestic Workers Rights in the Philippines’, Human Rights Quarterly 42: 859–877.