Bio

Mattia is a PhD Candidate at the School of International Studies of the University of Trento (Italy). His research interests include language rights, subnational constitutionalism, and the relation between ‘old’ and ‘new’ minorities. In particular, through his PhD project, he advocates a much more interdisciplinary, inclusive and integrated approach to linguistic diversity in Europe.

Prior to his PhD, Mattia worked as a Junior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights of EURAC Research (Bolzano) on a series of projects related to diversity in education, territorial and non-territorial autonomies and migration phenomena.

He holds MAs in Modern Languages (University of Padua) and International Relations (University of Trento), jointly with a Graduate Diploma in Transnational Governance (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa).

Project

During my stay I am planning to work on an interdisciplinary bottom-up approach to multilingualism and heritage language maintenance. I will highlight critical points in the debate surrounding the evolution and expansion of minority language rights. Indeed, a more elastic understanding of some common analytical categories may help to broaden or revive the debate in different disciplines. This means going beyond territoriality, personality, and given minority labels to recognise the dynamism and blurriness of such concepts.