Michele Lancione

Full Professor
Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST)

Profile

Research interests

Assemblage, vitalist and processual thinking
Critical urban studies
Feminism, embodiments, politics of the body
Geografie dell'abitare radicale
Global urbanism
Homelessness, housing struggles and grassroot organising
Inhabitation and politics of everyday life
Lotta per la casa
Micropolitics and the minor
Race, racialisation, structural violence
Senza dimora
Undercommons and academic privilege
Visual and narrative methods

Biography

I am a Full Professor of Political-Economic Geography at this Polytechnic, and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at the Urban Institute, Sheffield, UK. With AbdouMaliq Simone, I co-direct the Beyond Inhabitation Lab (https://beyondinhabitation.org/). I am also a founder and editor of the Radical Housing Journal and Corresponding Editor for Europe at IJURR. My qualitative work offers a critical approach to home and homelessness, focusing on an intersectional reading of housing and inhabitation and on the politics of life at the margins in the contemporary urban. In recent years I have worked ethnographically in Bucharest, Romania, dealing with two separate cases: street drug use and related biopolitics of dispossession; evictions and housing struggles (with particular reference to the case of Roma and related institutional racism). I currently direct a five-year European Research Council (ERC) project entitled 'Inhabiting Radical Housing', and a four-year Italian Ministry of Universities and Research project entitled 'Precarious Housing in Eastern Europe'. The ERC project encompasses a large group of researchers, with whom I am interested in exploring the ways, and intersections, through which structural forms of violence related to 'dwelling' are opposed from within, in everyday life, by communities on a global scale. With the second project, I intend to continue my work on precarious housing in Eastern Europe, with a new focus on aspects of the financialisation of housing in the region. In my work, I am also interested in using the privileges of the Academy to support the politics emerging from forms of resistance 'from below'. Part of this work includes experimenting with collective and creative methodologies that seek to go beyond the traditional production of academic knowledge (an example of this is the Radical Housing Journal, as well as the collaborative documentary on anti-racist resistance for housing in Bucharest, which I researched and directed: www.ainceputploaia.com). You can connect with me via email, on Twitter @michelelancione, or on my blog www.michelelancione.eu

Curriculum

Download file (659KB, in Italian)

Scientific branch

M-GGR/02 - ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
(Area 0011 - Historical, philosophical, pedagogical and psychological sciences)

Skills

ERC sectors

SH2_2 - Democratisation and social movements
SH2_11 - Human, economic and social geography
SH3_2 - Inequalities, discrimination, prejudice, aggression and violence, antisocial behaviour
SH5_9 - Social anthropology, religious studies, symbolic representation
SH3_7 - Social policies, welfare
SH3_1 - Social structure, social mobility
SH2_9 - Urban, regional and rural studies

SDG

Goal 10: Reduced inequalities
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Awards and Honors

  • Premio Segre per Tesi di Laurea in Geografia conferred by Università di Torino (2008)
  • Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Fellowship conferred by University of Technology of Sydney (2011)
  • Urban Studies Post-Doctoral Fellowship conferred by Urban Studies Foundation (2013)
  • Foreign Researchers Scholarship Award conferred by Romanian Cultural Institute (2015)
  • Antipode Activist-Scholar Award (with FCDL) conferred by Antipode Foundation (2018)
  • ERC Starting Grant 2019 conferred by European Research Council (2019)
  • Antipode International Workshop Award (with RHJ) conferred by Antipode Foundation (2019)
  • Starting Grant Polito - Compagnia di San Paolo conferred by Politecnico di Torino e Compagnia di San Paolo (2021)
  • FARE - Precarious Housing in Eastern Europe: Histories, Geographies and Urban Political Economies conferred by Ministero Universita' e Ricerca (2022)
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Fellowships

  • Fellow - Urban Institute, Regno Unito (2021-)
    Visiting Professor in Urban Studies
  • Fellow - University of Technology of Sydney, Australia (2013-)
    Honorary associate of the University of Technology of Sydney

Editorial boards

  • INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOUSING POLICY (2022-), Editorial board member
  • CITY (2020-), Scientific Committee member
  • INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH (2019-), Editor of magazine, editorial series, encyclopaedia
  • RADICAL HOUSING JOURNAL (2018-), Editorial board member
  • CITY (2011-2020), Editorial board member

Management or scientific roles in Research Institutes

  • Politecnico di TORINO - Politecnico di TORINO (2022-), Co-director of the research group "Beyond Inhabitation Lab"
  • University of Sheffield - University of Sheffield (2017-2021), Member of the Senior Leadership team of the Urban Institute

Other research or teaching roles outside Politecnico

  • Professore Ordinario, presso University of Sheffield (4/9/2017-31/3/2021)
  • Professore Associato confermato, presso Cardiff University (1/8/2016-31/8/2017)
  • Ricercatore, presso University of Cambridge (1/1/2013-31/7/2016)
  • Ricercatore, presso University of Technology Sydney (3/10/2011-31/12/2013)

Research networks

Roles as evaluator or expert

  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. 2018
    ERC - EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL - EXECUTIVE AGENCY
  • British Academy Small Grants. 2017
    BRITISH COUNCIL
  • Fulbright Exchange Program. 2019
    United States Department of Commerce - National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • ESRC Major Research Grants. 2017
    BRITISH COUNCIL
  • National Science Foundation Grants. 2019
    United States Department of Commerce - National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • ERC Starting Grant. 2022
    ERC - EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL - EXECUTIVE AGENCY
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Teaching

PhD Boards

  • URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 2021/2022 (38. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 2020/2021 (37. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO

Courses of Study Boards

Teachings

PhD

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Other activities and projects related to teaching

Teaching modules
Currently I deliver a module entitled 'Geography, theory and practice', in English, in the Master's Degree in Geography and Territorial Sciences (LM-80), and a module on 'Qualitative Research Methods' for the Doctoral training program.

In the past, I have taught at the Universities of Durham, Sydney, Cambridge, Cardiff, Sheffield, as well as as a visiting Lecturer in doctoral courses of various Italian and European Universities.


PhD supervisions

I currently supervise a number of students internationally, especially at the University of Sheffield, where I am visiting Professor. I am interested in working with new, highly motivated, candidates interested in working with decolonial, feminist, and critical ethnographic approaches to the contemporary urban.

Current students:

– Ms Stephanie Lacey, primary supervisor (USP), with a project on motherhood and homelessness in Manchester
– Ms Sri Suryani, primary supervisor (USP), with a project on environmental displacement and dwelling in Jakarta
– Ms Martyna Piliszewska (1+3), primary supervisor (USP), with a project on homelessness among Eastern European migrants in the UK
– Ms Francesca Guarino (Sheffield University), with a thesis on migrants and public space in Palermo;
– Ms Saanchi Saxena (Polytechnic of Turin), researching women street vendors in Mumbai;
– Ms Alessandra Mossa (Polytechnic of Turin), research geographies of madness and mental health

Completed supervisions:
– Ms Victorie Okoye, secondary supervisor (Sheffield University), with a thesis on participatory methods, marginality and community building in Accra, Ghana;
– Ms Eirini Glynou-Lefaki, external supervisor (GSSI, Italy), with a project on everyday life and the politics of walking;

Research

Research projects

Projects funded by competitive calls

Supervised PhD students

  • Alessandra Mossa. Programme in Urban And Regional Development (cycle 37, 2021-in progress)
  • Saanchi Saxena. Programme in Urban And Regional Development (cycle 37, 2021-in progress)
    Research subject: Public space, planning, and women street vendors in Mumbai
    Urban studies
    Human, economic and political geography

Other activities and projects related to research

Competitively funded projects


1) ERC Starting Grant - Inhabiting Radical Housing
€1,500,000, Sept 2020 - Aug 2025

A description of the project for the general public can be read among the Success Stories of the Polytechnic here: https://www.researchers.polito.it/en/successstories/erceuropeanresearchcouncilprojects/researchingandinterveningonhousingprecarityattheglobalscale

PI: Michele Lancione (PI)
Host Institution: Politecnico di Torino (from 1/4/21; originally, University of Sheffield)

2) FARE (Italian Ministry of Universities) - Precarious Housing in Eastern Europe: Histories, Geographies and Urban Political Economies
€238,000, September 2022 - August 2026
PI: Professor Michele Lancione

3) Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship (Mentor) - Climate just housing: Towards more sustainable urban environments for all
€188,500, January 2023 - December 2024
PI: Dr Melissa García Lamarca

4) Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship Global (Mentor) - Environmental gentrification and emerging collectives in uncertain times
€187,200, to be confirmed
PI: To be announced

5) Urban Studies Foundation (Mentor) - Living in the smart city: Politics and the (re)structuring of power in/through smart housing in India
€180,000, March 2022 - February 2025
PI: Dr Jenifa Zahan


Past research projects (selected)

(2019) Antipode International Workshop Awards, with the Radical Housing Journal (Co-I)
(2018) Antipode Scholar-Activist award, with FCDL (PI)
(2015) Foreign Researchers Scholarship Award, Romanian Cultural Institute (PI)
(2013-2016) Urban Studies Foundation Research Fellowship (PI)
(2011-2013) UTS Chancellor’s Post-Doctoral Fellowship (PI)


Keynotes

– 2022, Keynote address at the two-day research workshop on “Evictability: Understanding the nexus of migration and urban displacements”, at the Malmö University Institute for Urban Research, June 2022

– 2021, “The false symmetry of research-activism. Towards accomplicenship and undercommon praxis”, keynote with Veda Popovici at the RGS-IBG Urban Geography research group conference, November 2021
– 2021, “Race, class and the plan, in Bucharest, Romania”, keynote at the DASTU, Polytechnic of Milan, at their “Planning for Social Justice” event, October 2021
– 2021, “Inhabiting dispossession in the post-socialist city: storylines, embodied struggles, and emplacement”, keynote speech at the international workshops “Migrant and Minority Activism: Between protest movements and everyday engagement”, organised by ZOiS Berlinand the EASA Anthropology of Social Movements Network, Berlin, September 2021
– 2021, “Curare a parte. Bio-austerità e geografia politica interstiziale”, keynote speech at the event “Dagli spazi di percezione agli spazi della politica”, organised by PhD students in Geography at the University of Padova, June 2021

– 2019, “On Lessness: Recentering the politics of home”, invited keynote at the 7th EUGEO Congress, in conjunction with the 51st Conference of Irish Geographers, Dublin, May 2019

– 2019, “Radical Housing: On the politics of dwelling as difference”, invited keynote at the 2019 UK Housing Studies Association Conference, Sheffield, April 2019

– 2018, “Minor ethnographies and the activist mode of existence”, keynote speech at Politicising Public Health: A Workshop for Early Career Ethnographers, LSHTM, London, October 2018

– 2017, “Beyond homelessness study”, keynote speech At the European Observatory on Homelessness Conference in Barcelona, September 2017

– 2015, “The Adaptation of Housing First” keynote at the international conference X Stratagemma. La prevenzione nella scuola e nella comunità: rigenerare la qualità della vita, Padova, 25 June 2015

Publications

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