Professional Background
Matteo D’Avanzo is a PhD candidate in history at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, a joint program with the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris. His work explores the entangled histories of colonialism, the Holocaust, and Jewish life in Africa, with a particular focus on Ethiopia under Italian Fascist rule.
Mr. D’Avanzo has held research fellowships and visiting positions across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Africa, including at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, and the University of Hamburg. He has also taught at the University of Milan and organized and presented at international conferences on Jewish history, colonial legacies, and African politics.
Mr. D’Avanzo’s work has been published in Contemporanea, Quaderni Asiatici, Yad Vashem Studies, and Jewish Social Studies. A forthcoming chapter will appear in The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel. His research has received support from institutions including Yad Vashem, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the European Association for Jewish Studies, Ermenegildo Zegna, Bando Vinci, ASMEA, and the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.
Fellowship Research
While at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Sosland Foundation Fellow, Matteo D’Avanzo will conduct research on how Italian fascist rule shaped Jewish life across a constellation of territories under Italian control on two continents, including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, Rhodes, Albania, and Slovenia. Through consular records, Jewish communal archives, and institutional correspondence, Mr. D’Avanzo’s research traces the overlooked connections between imperial violence and the unfolding of the Holocaust in these regions. By bringing together sources from across Africa and Europe, his research aims to offer a new perspective on the Holocaust’s imperial dimensions and the transnational reach of fascist antisemitism.
Residency Period: January 1, 2026–April 30, 2026