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Valeria Bonatti

Profile picture for Valeria Bonatti

Contact Information

702 S. Wright St. 3062LH
Urbana, IL 61801 MC-442

Senior Lecturer

Biography

I have a PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, where I worked as an instructor of Global Studies and Sociology. My teaching and research areas include globalization, the environment, global health, migration and gender. Prior to re-joining the University of Illinois in 2018, I have taught for Bard College and for the Bard Prison Initiative. I continue to be based in Illinois and in New York State

In my personal time, I enjoy reading, long walks, and swimming, as well as visiting my family in Italy and in Malaysia.

Research Interests

Transnational studies
Citizenship and Migration
Environmental Sociology
Gender
Global Health

Research Description

My current research considers displaced persons' - migrants, refugees, asylum seekers - in making green economic growth possible, in Europe, in Southeast Asia and in the US Midwest. This work includes my in-progress book Green-Glass Ceilings: Neapolitan Women and The Politics of Waste, and journal articles in International Labor and Working Class History (2019), Migration Studies (2018), the European Journal of Women’s Studies (2018) and in Capitalism, Nature Socialism (2015).

My collaborative work on the migration-development nexus and on transnational families has been published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2014), in the co-authored book Transnational Families of Italian Emigrants (edited by Celid, 2019) and in the Migrantes Foundation’s 2017 Report on Italians in the World (Rapporto Italiani Nel Mondo).

Education

2010. MA,Middle Eastern Studies, University of Naples "L'Orientale"
2008. BA, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Naples "L'Orientale"

Awards and Honors

May 2020: LAS Impact Award for Inspiring Efforts Under Covid-19

Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign for the courses Global Health Governance, Global Development, Foundations of Social Research, Global Health Interventions and Evaluations, Introduction to Global Studies, Introduction to Sociology, Social Research Methods, Advanced Methods of Field Research.

2014 and 2016: Bastian Fellowship in Transnational Studies

May 2013. Transatlantic Summer Institute in European Studies Fellowship, University of Minnesota

August 2010. Bastian Fellowship for Incoming Graduate Students, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

May 2007. Undergraduate Student Fellowship, Regione Campania

Courses Taught

Global Health - GLBL 240
Introduction to Global Studies - GLBL 100
Global Health -Interventions and Evaluations - GLBL 440
Global Health Governance - GLBL 340
Global Development - GLBL 250
GLBL 200 - Foundations of Social Research
TA: Introduction to Sociology, Social Research Methods, Advanced Methods of Field Research, Technology and Society
Environmental Sociology (Bard College, 2018)
Introduction to Sociology (Bard College, 2018)
Public Health and the Environment (Bard College Prison Initiative, 2018)

Additional Campus Affiliations

Senior Lecturer, Global Studies Programs and Courses
Senior Lecturer, Center for Global Studies
Senior Lecturer, Women & Gender in Global Perspectives

Honors & Awards

May 2020: LAS Impact Award for Inspiring Efforts Under Covid-19

Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Students. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign for the courses Global Health Governance, Global Development, Foundations of Social Research, Global Health Interventions and Evaluations, Introduction to Global Studies, Introduction to Sociology, Social Research Methods, Advanced Methods of Field Research.

2014 and 2016: Bastian Fellowship in Transnational Studies

May 2013. Transatlantic Summer Institute in European Studies Fellowship, University of Minnesota

August 2010. Bastian Fellowship for Incoming Graduate Students, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

May 2007. Undergraduate Student Fellowship, Regione Campania

Recent Publications

Bonatti, V., & Gille, Z. (2019). Changing registers of visibility: Immigrant labor and waste work in Naples, Italy. International Labor and Working-Class History, 95, 114-129. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0147547919000085

Bonatti, V., & Muniandy, P. (2018). Defiant aspirations: Migrant women's struggles for stability and upward mobility in Naples and Kuala Lumpur. Migration Studies, 8(1), 113-130. https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mny039

Bonatti, V. (2018). Taking out the garbage: Migrant women’s unseen environmental work. European Journal of Women's Studies, 25(1), 41-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506817729857

Bonatti, V. (2015). Mobilizing around Motherhood: Successes and Challenges for Women Protesting against Toxic Waste in Campania, Italy. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 26(4), 158-175. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2015.1025233

Muniandy, P., & Bonatti, V. (2014). Are Migrants Agents or Instruments of Development? The Case of ‘Temporary’ Migration in Malaysia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40(11), 1836-1853. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2014.907738

View all publications on Illinois Experts