Valerio Simoni joined the Institute in 2014, and is currently Faculty Lead for the Applied Research Projects' part of the Interdisciplinary Master (MINT), 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 the Principal Investigator for 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). BETLIV focused on how ideals of a “good life” are articulated, (re)assessed, and related to specific places and contexts as a result of experiences of crisis and migration. A multi-sited endeavor (Spain, Ecuador, Cuba), it explored the imaginaries and experiences of return of Ecuadorian and Cuban migrants, contributing to three main scholarly areas of enquiry. 1) The study of morality, ethics, and what counts as a “good life”, 2) the study of the field of economic practice, its definition, value regimes, and “crises”, and 3) the study of migratory aspirations, projects, and trajectories. Building on BETLIV’s findings, Valerio Simoni current research project, “Moving Politics”, explores the nexus between mobilites 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. Since 2019, he has held the role of Academic Supervisor, promoted in 2023 to 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.
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)
Monograph
2016. Tourism and Informal Encounters in Cuba. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books. (Nelson Graburn Book Prize, AAA-ATIG)
Journal Special Issues
2018. Ethnographier les affects: Captures, résistances, attachements. Special Issue of Tsantsa 23 (Carine Plancke and Valerio Simoni)
2015. Masculinities in Times of Uncertainty and Change. Special Issue of Etnografica 19(2) (Valerio Simoni and Adriana Piscitelli)
2014. Friendship, Morality, and Experience. Special Issue of Suomen Antropologi 39(1) (Valerio Simoni and Jason Throop)
2014. Tourism and Transformation: Negotiating Metaphors, Experiencing Change. Special Issue of Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 12(2-3) (Sofia Sampaio, Valerio Simoni, and Cyril Isnart)
Peer-Reviewed Articles
2021. Remittances and Morality: Family Obligations, Development, and the Ethical Demands of Migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47(11): 2516-2536. (Valerio Simoni and Jérémie Voirol)
2019. Tourism, Migration, and Back in Cuba. American Anthropologist 21(3): 755-760. Accepted Manuscript.
2019. Appartenances et identifications à l’épreuve. Migrants en visite de retour à Cuba. ethnographiques.org 37.
Book Chapters
2022. Migrant, Tourist, Cuban: Identification and Belonging in Return Visits to Cuba Migrant, Tourist, Cuban: Identification and Belonging in Return Visits to Cuba. In Intersections of Tourism, Migration, and Exile. Kathleen Adams and Natalia Bloch (eds.), pp 45-59. London: Routledge.
2019. {The Borderzone} Living in and Reaching beyond the Touristic Borderzone: A View from Cuba. In The Ethnography of Tourism: Edward Bruner and Beyond. Naomi M. Leite, Quetzil E. Castañeda and Kathleen M. Adams (eds.), pp. 107-123. Lanham: Lexington Books.
2018. True Love and Cunning Love: Negotiating Intimacy, Deception and Belonging in Touristic Cuba. In Intimate Mobilities: Sexual Economies, Marriage and Migration in a Disparate World. Christian Groes and Nadine Fernandez (eds.), pp. 189-212. Oxford and New York: Berghahn.
2017. Hosts and Guests. In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism. Linda L. Lowry (ed.), pp. 618-621. London: Sage.
2015. Shaping Money and Relationships in Touristic Cuba, In Tourism Encounters: Ontological Politics of Tourism Development. René van der Duim, Carina Ren, and Gunnar Thór Jóhannesson (eds.), pp. 21-38. Farnham: Ashgate.
2012. Dancing Tourists: Tourism, Party and Seduction in Cuba. In Emotion in Motion: Tourism, Affect and Transformation. David Picard and Mike Robinson (eds.), pp. 267-281. Farnham: Ashgate.
2012. Tourism Materialities. Enacting Cigars in Touristic Cuba. In Actor-Network Theory and Tourism: Ordering, Materiality and Multiplicity. René van der Duim, Carina Ren, and Gunnar Thór Jóhannesson (eds.), pp. 59-79. London: Routledge.
2011. L’interculturalité comme justification: Sexe “couleur locale” dans la Cuba touristique. In Anthropologies de l’interculturalité. Anne Lavanchy, Fred Dervin, and Anahy Gajardo (eds.), pp. 197-225. L’Harmattan: Paris.
2009. Tra “amicizia” e “interesse”: La negoziazione di relazioni nell’ambito di incontri informali tra turisti e Cubani. In Scenari Turistici. Chiara Cipollari (ed.), pp. 75-89. Roma: CISU, Centro d’Informazione e Stampa Universitaria.
2008. “Riding” Diversity: Cubans’/Jineteros’ Uses of “Nationality-Talks” in the Realm of their Informal Encounters with Tourists. In Tourism Development: Growth, Myths and Inequalities. Peter Burns and Marina Novelli (eds.), pp. 68-84. Wallingford, Cambridge Ma: CAB International.