Phd in CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA AND AFRICA

email: mara.matta@uniroma1.it
phone:
building: Complesso Marco Polo
room: 325

Mara Matta is Associate Professor of South Asian Studies (L-OR/19) at the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (ISO), Sapienza University of Rome, where she also serves as President of the BA Programme in Global Humanities. In June 2026, she obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification (ASN) for Full Professorship.
After graduating in Oriental Languages and Civilisations from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” with a dissertation in Tibetan language and literature, she pursued advanced studies in Tibetan, Hindi, and Chinese and conducted extensive research across China, Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. In 2005, she completed her PhD in South and East Asian Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” with a dissertation on contemporary Tibetan theatre and cinema in Tibet and the diaspora. In 2006, she earned an MA in Theatre and Development from the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK), focusing on political and social theatre in post-conflict Nepal.
Her research adopts an interdisciplinary approach that brings together literary and cultural studies, cinema and media studies, visual anthropology, migration studies, gender studies, and public humanities. Her work explores South Asian visual and performative cultures, migration and diaspora narratives, subaltern and indigenous communities, multilingual memories, and the role of the arts in shaping identities, social justice, and cultural transformation.
She has conducted long-term research and fieldwork throughout South and East Asia and has held visiting appointments, keynote lectures, and invited lectures at institutions including the University of Madras, Jawaharlal Nehru University, INALCO, the Geneva Graduate Institute, the University of Vienna, EPFL Lausanne, the University of Oslo, Jagiellonian University, Hanoi University, and other academic and cultural institutions in Europe and Asia.
At Sapienza, she teaches Global Humanities: Critical Theories and Transnational Cultures, Global and Minor Cinemas, Queering and Querying Narratives, and Hindi Language and Literary Translation. She supervises doctoral and postdoctoral research projects and currently serves as supervisor of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship on satire, humour, and subaltern performance cultures in contemporary India.
She is Sapienza’s referent for the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and the Téthys Mediterranean University Network, a member of the Sapienza Scholars at Risk Committee, and collaborates with Academy in Exile (TU Dortmund) and university corridor programmes supporting students and scholars from conflict-affected regions.
Her academic activities are complemented by collaborations with archives, cultural institutions, film festivals, NGOs, and international organisations working on migration, diasporas, and academic freedom. She is a member of several international scholarly networks, including AAS, ICAS, EASAS, and NETPAC, serves on the editorial boards of international journals, and regularly organises conferences, panels, and public humanities initiatives. Her current research focuses on migration, diasporas, visual and performative cultures, multilingual memories, and the role of the arts in negotiating identities, inequalities, and social change across South Asia and its global connections.