Barbara Faedda
Barbara Faedda is the Executive Director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. in Legal Anthropology and Social Science from the Università Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli after studying at Sapienza Università di Roma (Laurea in Lettere). She studied in Paris at the Summer Institute of International & Comparative Law (Cornell Law School and Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), and at Boston University (as a visiting scholar). Her background includes experience in an Italian luxury fashion firm in Rome in the 1990s and a continuing research interest in food and fashion studies.
Dr. Faedda is also Adjunct Professor in Columbia's Department of Italian, where she teaches courses on contemporary Italy.
In 2016, she conceived the International Observatory for Cultural Heritage (IOCH), dedicated to all issues relating to the survival, protection, conservation, and use of cultural heritage. Among the programs she has designed are the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day; Women Leaders Now (annual events for Women's History Month and International Women's Day); and the Rule of Law Initiative. In 2016 she also relaunched the Italian Academy publications, as an author and as an editor.
In 2019, Dr. Faedda was appointed Ambassador, Permanent Observer for the European Public Law Organization to the United Nations. She presented her credentials on May 21, in New York, to the Secretary-General of the U.N., António Guterres. (The Italian Republic is among the founding members of EPLO.)
In 2020, she was named the 2020 Illustrious Alumnus/Alumna of Sapienza Università di Roma, the distinguished institution that is more than 700 years old.
In 2022 the President of the Italian Republic named Barbara Faedda a "Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica" (Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic).
Selected Publications:
Selected books
A Lost Mediterranean Culture. The Giant Statues of Sardinia’s Mont’e Prama, ed. with P. Carta, Columbia University Press, 2023.
A Shared Global Heritage. Architectural History, Conservation, and Preservation, ed., The Italian Academy Publications, Columbia University, 2023.
Rule of Law. Strategies, Experiences, and Interpretations, ed., Ronzani Editore & Columbia’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, 2021.
Élite. Cultura italiana e statunitense tra Settecento e Novecento, Ronzani Editore, 2020.
From Da Ponte to the Casa Italiana. A Brief History of Italian Studies at Columbia University, Columbia University Press, 2017.
Present and Future Memory. Holocaust Studies at the Italian Academy (2008-2016), ed., The Italian Academy Publications, Columbia University, 2016.
I mille volti della moda, Costa&Nolan, Milan, 2007.
Luoghi di frontiera. Antropologia delle mediazioni, with L. Bindi, Punto di fuga Editore, Cagliari, 2001.
Selected Articles:
“The International Observatory for Cultural Heritage of the Italian Academy, Columbia University”, in Rivista Territori della Cultura, Centro Universitario Europeo per i Beni Culturali, 2024.
“Lorenzo Da Ponte and Cultural Life in the United States”, in Italian Opera in the United States, 1800-1850. At the Origins of a Cultural Migration, G. Gerbino and F. Zimei, eds. (LIM Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2023)
“Fashion and Technology. Hand and Machine in (High-End) Fashion Design”, in Companion to Fashion Studies, Paulicelli E., Manlow V., and Wissinger E., eds. (Routledge, 2021)
“Lorenzo Da Ponte and the New York Cultural Élite”, in Un Ponte di Musica. Itinerari dell’Opera italiana in America, C. Orazi ed. (Zecchini, 2020)
“An Italian Perspective on the U.S.-Italy Relationship”, in Italy in the White House: A Conversation on Historical Perspectives, David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History (The White House Historical Association, 2016)
“Quando l’America scopriva la Sardegna attraverso pirati ed esploratori”, in Sardinia. Un’isola nell’immaginario anglo-americano, P. Carta, F. Falchi, G. Salide, eds. (Editoriale Scientifica, 2016)
“We are not racists, but we do not want immigrants,” in Migrant Marginality. A Transnational Perspective, J. Capetillo-Ponce, G. Jacobs, P. Kretsedemas, eds. (Routledge, 2014)
“L’immigration law statunitense,” with L. Melchionna, in La governance dell’immigrazione. Diritti, politiche e competenze, E. Rossi, F. Biondi Dal Monte, M. Vrenna, eds., Scuola Superiore S. Anna of Pisa (Il Mulino, 2013)
“Neurolaw: come le neuroscienze potrebbero cambiare l’antropologia giuridica,” in Antropologia giuridica. Etnografie e temi attuali, A. De Lauri ed. (Mondadori Universita’, 2013)
“Emozioni e paure. Come la politica utilizza l’Altro,” in Politica ed emozioni nella storia d’Italia dal 1848 ad oggi, P. Morris, F. Ricatti, M. Seymour, eds. (Viella, 2012)
“Stolen Generations and the Missing Reconciliation: The Unknown Case of Somali-Italian Children”, in Anthropology News, APLA Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Column, AAA American Anthropological Association, 2010.
“A new trend: Immigration Law and Lawyers in Italy”, in Anthropology News, APLA Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Column, AAA American Anthropological Association, 2008.
“Immigrati nelle vetrine dei musei. Ellis Island, un paradiso per turisti”, in AM Antropologia museale, Journal of SIMBDEA, The Italian Association of EthnoAnthropological Museums, 2008.
“Un approccio di antropologia del diritto al problema dell’armonizzazione europea: l’esempio nordamericano”, in Shifting Borders. Negotiating Places. Cultural Studies and the Mutation of Value(s), (Bordighera Press, 2006)
“Legal Anthropology in Italy”, in Anthropology News, and in PoLAR Political and Legal Anthropology Review, APLA Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Column, AAA American Anthropological Association, 2004.
“L’antropologo culturale e il giurista. Per una moderna antropologia del diritto”, in Materiali per una Storia della Cultura Giuridica. Fondati da Giovanni Tarello, Il Mulino, 2002.