School of Social and Political Science

Background

Pietro is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and a Tutor in the School of Social and Political Sciences. He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where he was awarded a Politics and International Relations doctoral scholarship. His primary research interests are in the international politics of humanitarianism, empire and settler colonialism, and anti-colonial resistance. Some of his academic work has been published in Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Participation and Conflict, and by the American University in Cairo Press. He has written shorter pieces for the Legal Agenda and Middle East Eye, and has appeared as a commentator on Al Jazeera TV. Since 2021, he has been teaching undergraduate courses in history and politics, and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Before moving to the UK to begin his studies, he grew up between Bologna, Damascus and Occupied Jerusalem. 

Education

PhD Politics, University of Edinburgh (2020-2025)

MSc Politics of Conflicts, Rights and Justice, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, (2014-2015)

BA Politics and International Relations, Kingston University London, (2010-2013)

Funding

2020-2023 Politics and International Relations PhD Scholarship, University of Edinburgh

Teaching Experience

Tutor – Politics and International Relations 1B: The Global Dimension, University of Edinburgh (2025)

Tutor – Modern Middle Eastern History B, University of Edinburgh (2025)

Tutor – Politics of the Middle East, University of Edinburgh (2023 and 2024)

Tutor – International Relations, University of Dundee (2024)

Tutor – International Development, Aid and Humanitarianism, University of Edinburgh (2023/2024)

Tutor – International Cooperation in Europe and Beyond, University of Edinburgh (2021/2022)

Publications

2025 'Gaza foundation is a humanitarian face to mask Israel's genocide', Middle East Eye.

2024  ‘Settler-Humanitarianism: Dispossession, “Humanitarian Transfer”, and the 1948 Nakba’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 53, (1): 136-162.

2023 'Outlawing BDS and the Repression of Solidarity with Palestine', The Legal Agenda.

2023 'Israeli Judicial Reforms: Bursting the Bubble of a Colonial Court System', The Legal Agenda. 

2023 'Israel's new settler governor', Middle East Monitor.

2023 'Problematizing Law, Rights and Childhood in Israel/Palestine by Hedi Viterbo, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021', Critical Studies on Terrorism.

2022 'Refugee crisis: How one girl's death personifies Europe's guilt in Mediterranean tragedy', Middle East Eye.

2021 'Incendiary Kites and Balloons: Anti-colonial Resistance in Palestine's Great March of Return', Participation and Conflict, 14(2): 663-680.

2021 'Normalizing the Siege: The Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM)' in Michael Sorkin and Deen Sharp eds., Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press. 

2020 'Come normalizzare l’assedio: il Meccanismo per la Ricostruzione di Gaza', Historia Magistra. Rivista di storia critica, n. 34,  21-39 [Italian].

2020 UNRWA at 70: Palestinian Refugees in Context, London: AJCS and PRC. [Arabic translation: https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/publications/unrwa-70-palestinian-refu…;

2018 'Normalizing the Siege: The "Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism" and the Contradictions of Humanitarianism and Reconstruction' The Politics of Post-Conflict Reconstruction, POMEPS Studies, 30.

2018 'Voices of Return: Documenting Israel's Repression of the Great March of Return', London: Palestinian Return Centre.

2018 (with Maya Hammad) 'Syria’s Palestinian Refugees: An Account of Violence, Precarious Existence and Uncertain Futures', London: Palestinian Return Centre

Invited lectures and presentations

2024 Summer School on Palestine Refugees, The Middle East Foundation, Africa Foundation and IST Academy, Turkey.

2024 History of Modern Palestine Seminar, University of Dundee.

2022 Critical Palestinian Studies Lecture Series, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna.

2021 Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions in the MENA Region, Monthly Seminar on Social Movements and Political Action, University Institute of Lisbon.

2021 Postcolonial dimensions in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict seminar, Postcolonialism and International Relations course, Scuola Normale Superiore Florence.

2021 Webinar organised by the Office of Market Auken MEP, What is life like for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon?