Profile
Valerio Simoni

Valerio Simoni

Visiting Professor, Anthropology and Sociology
Senior Research Fellow, Global Migration Centre
Research Associate, Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
email
Spoken languages
English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan

PROFILE
 

Valerio Simoni joined the Institute in 2014, and is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), Visiting Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Senior Research Fellow at the Global Migration Centre, and Research Associate at the Albert Hirschman Centre for Democracy.

His doctoral and postdoctoral investigations focused on the economic, social, and cultural flows generated by international tourism and migration, with theoretical interests spanning three main areas of concern: the economy and its margins, the transformations of intimacy, and the politics of mobility. His first monograph, Tourism and Informal Encounters in Cuba (2016) won the Nelson Graburn Book Prize (American Anthropological Association-ATIG). A social anthropologist by training (MA University of Neuchâtel, PhD Leeds Metropolitan University), he has held research and teaching positions in the UK, Portugal, and Switzerland. Between 2014 and 2018, he co-convened the Anthropology and Mobility Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).

Valerio Simoni was Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Starting Grant project “Returning to a Better Place: The (Re)assessment of the ‘Good Life’ in Times of Crisis” (BETLIV, 2018–2023), a multi-sited study in Spain, Ecuador, and Cuba examining how experiences of migration and crisis reshape assessments of what makes for a “good life”. Building on BETLIV, he is currently Principal Investigator of the ERC Proof of Concept project “Conciliating a ‘Bearable Life’. Participatory Action Research on Entangled Cross-Border Mobilities” (BEARLIV, 2025–2026), which develops participatory action research with migrants, returnees and asylum seekers in Ecuador.

Alongside BEARLIV, his ongoing research also explores the nexus between mobilities and migration, digital media, and global political imaginaries and movements.

With teaching experience in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary programmes, Valerio Simoni has delivered courses in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English at BA, MA, and PhD level as well as for continuous education and lifelong-learning programmes. His courses address topics in research design and ethnographic writing; intimacy, gender and sexuality; ethics and morality; the politics of culture, identity, and heritage; critical approaches to mobility and migration; tourism and hospitality. 

From 2019 to 2025, he served first as Academic Supervisor and, from 2023, as Faculty Lead in the Applied Research Projects programme, partnering with International Organizations and NGOs (e.g. IOM, ILO, OHCHR, ITC, WFP, UNJIU, UNWTO, Save the Children, UNI Global Union), and mentoring students in policy-relevant, UN SDG-informed research. He continues to work at the interface of research and policy, engaging with international organisations, foundations, public agencies and other policy actors on migration, democracy and multilateralism through policy-oriented research, expert dialogues, invited presentations and other forms of outreach.

 

COURSES TAUGHT

 

  • Ethnographic Writing
  • Critical Perspectives on Migration: Mobilities, Borders, and Transnational Connections
  • Anthropology and Tourism: Encounters through Difference and Inequality
  • Of Good and Evil: an Anthropology of Ethics and Local Moralities / Du bien et du mal: Anthropologie de l'éthique et des moralités locales
  • The Politics of Culture, Identity, and Heritage
  • Mobilities, Migration and Boundaries (MINT Applied Research Projects)

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
 

Monograph

Journal Special Issues

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Book Chapters