About me
I am a dual national by birth (British-Italian) and a naturalized Senegalese citizen. Nomadic spirit, I have lived and worked in different European, African and Asian countries. Since 2009, I am based in the Netherlands. I have two beautiful children and in my spare time I love meeting people from different walks of life, am a keen Instagram user, enjoy outdoor hiking and biking, as well as reading and listening to music.
About my work
I am an anthropologist with a foot in academia and one in the outside world. I believe in the power of ethnography to understand complex situations and in anthropology that is theoretically sound, understandable and relevant for business. I specialise in international migration and in supporting innovation in different professional fields, from international development to healthcare.
Borders fascinate me. When they can be crossed, I see opportunities for innovation. In my work, I spent more than two decades researching how migrants engage across home and host countries, promoting change in both. From my personal background, my ethnographic approach and my experience among migrants I have learned that innovation requires stepping out of our comfort zone and engaging with different worlds.
Today, I carry this insight into work with organizations. I am passionate about encouraging people from different disciplines, fields, or professional roles to cross borders, by communicating, collaborating, inspiring each other. In my latest work, I support Dutch university hospitals to make explicit some of the invisible dimensions of interdisciplinary (team)work among healthcare professionals. Good care is often quantified through protocols, checklists, and technology. Ethnography helps qualify it, which is essential to co-create more resilient healthcare solutions and services.
I joined the Social and Cultural Anthropology Department at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2014. Prior to this and after obtaining a PhD in 2006, I held positions at universities in Italy, Senegal, the UK and the Netherlands. I have extensive experience working at the crossroads between academia and practice, and have conducted research-based assignments for the European Commission, United Nations, intergovernmental agencies, NGOs and industry companies. Before making research my passion, I was an international development and humanitarian practitioner in Africa and Asia.
Borders fascinate me. When they can be crossed, I see opportunities for innovation. In my work, I spent more than two decades researching how migrants engage across home and host countries, promoting change in both. From my personal background, my ethnographic approach and my experience among migrants I have learned that innovation requires stepping out of our comfort zone and engaging with different worlds.
Today, I carry this insight into work with organizations. I am passionate about encouraging people from different disciplines, fields, or professional roles to cross borders, by communicating, collaborating, inspiring each other. In my latest work, I support Dutch university hospitals to make explicit some of the invisible dimensions of interdisciplinary (team)work among healthcare professionals. Good care is often quantified through protocols, checklists, and technology. Ethnography helps qualify it, which is essential to co-create more resilient healthcare solutions and services.
I joined the Social and Cultural Anthropology Department at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2014. Prior to this and after obtaining a PhD in 2006, I held positions at universities in Italy, Senegal, the UK and the Netherlands. I have extensive experience working at the crossroads between academia and practice, and have conducted research-based assignments for the European Commission, United Nations, intergovernmental agencies, NGOs and industry companies. Before making research my passion, I was an international development and humanitarian practitioner in Africa and Asia.
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