Giuseppe BOLOTTA

I am a socio-cultural anthropologist with a background in psychology, whose research integrates the social sciences and history in the study of contemporary Southeast Asia. Before joining Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, I taught and/or conducted research at a range of academic institutions, including the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), École Française d'Extrême-Orient (France), National University of Singapore (Singapore), University College Dublin (Ireland), and Durham University (UK). I have been involved in projects funded by the EU (Horizon 2020, FP7) and international foundations, and I am an active member of numerous international scholarly associations.

My work explores the material, religious, and ethno-linguistic dimensions of social life in contemporary Southeast Asia—especially in Thailand. Over the past 15 years, I have examined how young people come to be seen—and come to see themselves—as political and moral subjects across shifting historical and cultural contexts.

At the core of my research is a commitment to ethnographic depth and theoretical rigor. My monograph, Belittled Citizens: The Cultural Politics of Childhood on Bangkok’s Margins (NIAS Press, 2021), is based on extensive fieldwork in Bangkok’s slums, where I lived intermittently over four years. The book examines how urban poverty, faith-based development, and military politics shape human development in one of Southeast Asia’s key megalopolises. It traces how children living in poverty navigate overlapping regimes of state neglect, informal education, socially engaged Buddhism, Christian charity, and international children’s rights discourse—rethinking citizenship and selfhood as processes embedded in economic, religious, and political forces that are both local and global. The book also advances a child-centered approach to the study of Southeast Asian societies and Thai politics—one that reframes adult-centric analyses of institutions like Buddhism, kingship, or cosmology through the everyday perspectives of growing individuals.

As co-editor of Political Theologies and Development in Asia (Manchester University Press, 2021), I extended this work to consider how development in post–Cold War Asia has been shaped not only by secular trajectories of governance but also by religious ideas of sacrifice, transcendence, and desire, of both Abrahamic and Indo-Buddhist origin. My ethnographic research with child-focused NGOs—local and international, secular and religious—has also taken me beyond Asia, especially to rural West Africa in Sierra Leone. Drawing on fieldwork with marginalized childhoods—such as slum children, child soldiers, and child labourers— in aid environments and crisis settings, my research contributes to broader anthropological debates on modern humanitarianism as a historically contingent moral economy. Across the Global South, in Southeast Asia and West Africa, I have examined how aid interventions construct selective visibilities of suffering and care, revealing the contested moral, political, and economic negotiations that underpin global humanitarian practice.

Since 2020, my work has been focusing on Thailand’s youth-led pro-democracy movements. I explore how young activists use imagined kinship and emotional idioms—such as friendship and fraternity—to challenge cultural hierarchies and articulate egalitarian ideals within authoritarian political contexts. This research offers a historically grounded lens on generational rupture and moral contestation in Thai society, with broader implications for understanding the emotional and political dimensions of friendship, fictive kinship, and solidarity in contemporary liberation movements. I have also investigated how global human rights discourses intersect with local cosmologies and cultural idioms in shaping the ethics and aesthetics of nonviolent resistance in the region. Broadly, my aim is to understand—and amplify—how marginalized youth envision and enact alternative futures both within and beyond the nation-state. In a fractured world, these perspectives are vital not only to Southeast Asian studies but also to global conversations around justice, belonging, and possibility.

Currently, I am exploring pro-democracy memoryscapes in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Thailand. This project examines how youth activists transform suppressed memories of unpunished state violence into symbolic, ritual, and emotional tools of resistance against authoritarianism. It also investigates emerging “humanist” practices of remembrance that seek to bridge distinct episodes of political violence across ethnic and religious lines—producing shared moral frameworks for political solidarity and historical accountability.

CURRENT ACADEMIC POSITION

Associate Professor (Anthropology and History of Thailand and Southeast Asia) – Department of Asian and North African Studies (DSAAM), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Dorsoduro 3462, 30171 Venice, Italy.
Research Associate, Asia Research Institute (ARI), Religion and Globalisation Cluster, National University of Singapore.

NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC QUALIFICATIONS

National Scientific qualification as Associate Professor in the Italian higher education system - disciplinary field 11/A5 (Demography, Ethnography and Anthropology)
National Scientific qualification as Associate Professor in the Italian higher education system - disciplinary field 10/N3 (Cultures and Societies of Central and East Asia)

PREVIOUS ACADEMIC POSITIONS

01/02/2021 – 01/02/2024: Assistant Professor (RTDB), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
01/10/2019 – 30/01/2021: Postdoctoral Research Associate and Assistant Professor of Research, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom
09/10/2017 – 30/12/2018: Postdoctoral Fellow Lv II, School of Education, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland
08/10/2015 – 07/09/2017: Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute (ARI), Religion and Globalisation Cluster, National University of Singapore

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

29/09/2015: Ph.D. in Contemporary Anthropology: Ethnography of Diversity and Cultural Convergences (Research Field: Thailand), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
16/03/2012 – 28/09/2012: Visiting PhD Research Student, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
22/07/2008: Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology (magna cum laude), Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan
22/07/2006: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychological Sciences and Techniques, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan

RECOGNITIONS, RESEARCH FUNDING, AND SCHOLARSHIPS (selection)

2022: EuroSEAS (European Association for Southeast Asian Studies) Social Science Book Prize Shortlist
2017–2021: Research Fellowship, CRISEA Project (EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Grant No. 770562)
2019–2021: Co-investigator, “Boundary Breaking” (Prof Marcus Pound, PI), Durham University, funded by PORTICUS (Netherlands)
2017–2018: Co-investigator, “Safe Learning Study” (Prof Dympna Devine, PI), University College Dublin, funded by Concern Worldwide (Ireland)
2015–2017: Co-investigator, “Religion and NGOs in Asia” (R. Michael Feener, PI), National University of Singapore, funded by Henry Luce Foundation (USA)
2016: Conference Grant, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
2014–2015: Research Grant ‘Allocation de Terrain EFEO’, École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Bangkok Centre, Thailand
2012–2015: Research Fellowship, SEATIDE Project (EU 7th Framework Programme, Grant No. 320221)
2013–2014: Ph.D. Exchange Program Fellowship, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
2012–2014: Scholarship, ‘Promising Young Researchers’, University of Milano-Bicocca

PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH GROUPS (selection)

15/10/2023 – 14/10/2025: Scientific Coordinator of the Ca’ Foscari research unit within the project Narratives, Symbols, and Imaginaries of (In)Equality in Southeast Asia — Funded by PNRR M4C2 Investment 1.1 PRIN — Project duration: 24 months
12/2017 – 04/2021: Member of the research team for the CRISEA project (Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia), Work Package 2 (Co-leaders: Prof Edmund Terence Gomez and Prof Pietro Masina), funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Grant Agreement No. 770562). Link: http://crisea.eu/researcher/bolotta-giuseppe/
09/2012 – 10/2016: Member of the research team for the SEATIDE project (Integration in Southeast Asia: Trajectories of Inclusion, Dynamics of Exclusion), Work Package 3 (Leader: Prof Silvia Vignato), funded by the EU 7th Framework Programme (Grant Agreement No. 320221). Link: http://seatide.eu/?content=researcher-staff

ORGANIZATION OF CONFERENCES, PANELS AND SEMINARS (Selection)

“Service – Duty – Care: Theorizing Civic Engagement from Asia to Europe and Beyond”, 28–29 June 2023, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, co-organized with Prof. Till Mostowlansky, co-sponsored by Ca’ Foscari (MAP, DSAAM), Geneva Graduate Institute, and the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
“Hidden Colonialism: History and Anthropology in Thailand and Greece – Subversive Comparisons”, Speaker: Michael Herzfeld (Harvard University), in dialogue with Giuseppe Bolotta, 18 May 2023, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
“Graduate Conference on Social Movements in Southeast Asia”, 23–24 September 2022, Canossian Institute, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, co-organized with Dr. Edoardo Siani and Dr. Richard Tran.
“Geopolitics of Southeast Asia Seminar Series”, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Zoom seminars:
“Red soil, rubber, and indigenous rights: Land conflicts in the Cambodian highlands” with Catherine Scheer (EFEO), 26 March 2021
“Critically Rethinking Public Spaces from Asia: Lessons from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam” with Prof. Marie Gobert (University of Paris), 30 April 2021
“Immortal Medicine: Resilience of Alchemic Practice in Nation-building in Myanmar” with Dr. Celine Coderey (National University of Singapore), 14 May 2021
“Charitable Faiths: NGOs and Religion in Asia”, International Workshop, 15 May 2017, Boston University, US
“Political Theologies and Development in Asia”, Workshop, 21 February 2017, Asia Research Institute, Singapore
“How to Study Religion in Times of Crisis?”, Roundtable, 28 May 2016, Asia Research Institute, Singapore
“Rethinking the Concept of Moral Economy: Anthropological Perspectives”, panel co-organized at 14th EASA conference, 21–23 July 2016, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
“Epistemology, Methods and History of the Sciences of Childhood”, Seminar Series (2014), EHESS, Paris
“Which Discipline do Children Belong to? Crossroads in Research on Childhood”, International Workshop, 23–24 May 2013, EHESS, Paris
“The Making of Cultural Identity in the Case of Unattached Children”, panel at IUAES conference on Children and Youth, 26–30 November 2012, KIIT University, India

INVITED TALKS (selection)

· “Reverse Mirrors: Humanist Remembrance of State Violence in Thailand's Pro-democracy Memoryscapes”, paper presented at the workshop: Positioning Southeast Asia in Global Social Movements Theory, 01/07-02/07/2025; Von Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. 

· “Children of the Kingdom: Contesting Thai Childhood in the Age of Protest", paper presented at the conference ITASEAS, Italian Association of Southeast Asian Studies, 04/06-06/06/2025, Campus Luigi Einaudi - Università di Torino, Italy.

· “Transnational Insights and Local Realities: Designing Studies on Social Inequality and Youth in Thailand", public lecture 22/10/2024, Università Thammasat, Bangkok, Thailandia.

· “Jail Solidarity, Human Rights, and Buddhist Selflessness in Thailand’s Youth Activism", paper presented at the workshop: Humanitarianism from Below: Alter-politics and Struggles for the Universal, 25/01-26/01/2024, Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. 

·      “Alterpolitics in Southeast Asia: A cross-sectoral & transnational dialogue”, Rountable, 28/06-01/07/2022, EuroSEAS conference (European Association for Southeast Asian Studies); EHESS, Parigi, Francia.

·      “Belittled Citizens: The Cultural Politics of Childhood on Bangkok's Margins”, Book Launch, 28/12/2022, Southeast Asia Junction (SEA Junction), Bangkok, Thailandia.

·      “Belittled Citizens: The Cultural Politics of Childhood on Bangkok's Margins”, seminar, 20/09/2021, Ciclo del Laboratorio demo-etno-antropologico (LAB DEA), Coordinatrice: Prof. Franca Tamisari, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Venezia.

·      “The Innocent Victim: Compassion and the Cultural Politics of Humanitarianism in Southeast Asia”, seminar, 07/10/2020, seminario di “Medical Anthropology”, Coordinatrice: Prof Celine Coderey, Yale-NUS, Singapore.

·      “Political Theologies and Development in Asia: Book Launch”, Webinar, 27/08/2020, Asia Research Institute, Singapore. 

·      ‘‘Statistical psyches’ – an epistemological challenge for psychological anthropologists’, paper presented at the Roundtable: The end of interdisciplinary negotiations? Placing Psychological Anthropology in context, Conference of the German Anthropological Association, GAA, 29/09/2019-2/10/2019, University of Konstanz, Germany.

·      ‘Antropologia applicata come traduzione? Economia informale, migrazione e welfare non-statale a Bangkok [applied anthropology as translation? Informal economy, migration and non-state welfare in Bangkok], conference paper, VI Convegno Nazionale della Società Italiana di Antropologia Applicata, 13-15/12/2018, Cremona, Italy.

·      ‘Beyond the Anti-Politics Machine: “Development Missionaries” in the Slums of Bangkok’. Paper presented at Religion in the Age of Development conference, 07-08 June 2018, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

·      “Brokering Religion and Development: Ethnographic Approaches to Faith-Based Organizations” (with Catherine Scheer and Michael R. Feener). Public Lecture at the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (18 May 2017), Columbia University, New York, US. 

·      “Catholic Schools Teaching Buddhism, Secular NGOs Enforcing Religion: Catholicism in Buddhist Thailand”. Paper presented at the Charitable Faiths: NGOs and Religion in Asia International Workshop (15 May 2017), Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs (CURA), Pardee School of Global Affairs, Boston University, Boston, US.

·      “The Little Ones to be Saved”: (Religious) NGOs Addressing Poor children in the Slums of Bangkok. Paper presented at the Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA) Conference, 12-13 December 2015, Kyoto University, Japan.

·      “From Thaification to de-Thaification of Catholicism: “Development Missionaries” in the Slums of Bangkok”. Paper presented at The Mission of Development: Techno-Politics of Religion in Asia conference, 03-04 December 2015, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

·       “My Kids Are dek salam”: NGOs, Mothers and Children’s Mobility in the Slums of Bangkok. Paper presented at the research workshop of the European Union’s project Integration in Southeast Asia: Trajectories of Inclusion, Dynamics of Exclusion (SEATIDE), 13 February 2014, EFEO, Chiang Mai Centre, Thailand.

·      “Aid Agencies, (Engaged) Buddhism, Urban marginalities: Visions of the Socio-Political Order Embedded in Buddhist Structured Aid Interventions (Bangkok, Thailand)”. Paper presented at the 7th EuroSEAS Conference, 02-05 July 2013, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (ISCPS), Lisbon, Portugal.

·      “Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ and the State: Institutional Caring Practices Promoting Conflicting Subjective Positions. The Case of Bangkok Slum Children (Thailand)”. Paper presented at the IUAES Conference on Children and Youth in a Changing World, 26-30 November 2012, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India.

·      “The Ethnographical Analysis of a Psychological Voluntary Work in Thailand”. Paper presented at the 6th EuroSEAS Conference, 26-28 August 2010, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS AND PODCASTS (selection)

·      Panorama (2023) – “Fragments – Political Earthquake in Thailand” (by Mario Bonito), 19 May 2023: https://www.panorama.it/podcast/frammenti-cronache-di-un-mondo-sottosopra/frammenti-terremoto-politico-in-thailandia

·     “Belittled Citizens: The Cultural Politics of Childhood on Bangkok's Margins”, The Nordic Asia Podcast, interview with Giuseppe Bolotta by Fanny Töpper, 29 October 2021, https://nias.ku.dk/nordic-asia-podcast/podcasts/belittled-citizens/

·      The New York Times (2020) – “In Thailand, Students Take on the Military (and ‘Death Eaters’)” (by Hannah Beech), 20 August 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/world/asia/thailand-student-protest-military.html

·      Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russian) – “The Thai Hunger Games” (by Natalia Portyakova), 15 August 2020: https://www.ng.ru/vision/2020-08-15/thailand15082020.html

·      Al Jazeera (2019) – “‘Bonds of Friendship’: Pope Francis Heads to Thailand and Japan” (by Kelly Olsen), 19 November 2019: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/friendship-pope-francis-heads-thailand-japan-191118065606626.html

·      ABC (2017) – “‘Thailand's National Children's Day Represents a Celebration of the Country's Military’” (by Liam Cochrane), 15 February 2017: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-11/thailands-military-dominated-national-day-for-children/8244108 

·      The Religious Studies Project Podcast - Series of interviews co-hosted with Catherine Scheer titled “Religion and NGOs Series”:
Interview with Erica Bornstein: “Beyond ‘Faith-Based Organizations’: Religion and NGOs in a Comparative Perspective”, 30 October 2017
Interview with Melissa Crouch: “Muslims, NGOs, and the Future of Democratic Space in Myanmar”, 13 November 2017
Interview with Elena Shih: “Christian Evangelical Organisations in Global Anti-Trafficking Networks”, 27 November 2017
Interview with Robert Hefner: “Muslim NGOs and Civil Society in Indonesia”, 18 October 2017

SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATIONS MEMBERSHIPS

Observatory of Political Alternatives in Southeast Asia (ALTERSEA)
European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS)
Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA)
European Network for Psychological Anthropology (ENPA)
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
Sciences de l’Enfance, Enfants des Sciences (SEES)
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES)

OTHER ACADEMIC ROLES 

Member of the DSAAM Board “Departments of Excellence” Project (2023–2027) and of the Department's Research Committee 
Editorial Board Member, Antropologia (Class-A journal in Area 11/A5, ANVUR classification)
Teaching Committee Member, MA in Languages of Asia and North Africa for Business and International Cooperation (LAAMICI)
Erasmus+ ICM Coordinator (incoming/outgoing mobility with Chulalongkorn and Thammasat Universities, Thailand)
Scientific Committee Member: MAP, Marco Polo Centre for Europe–Asia Connections; OPRI, Observatory for Politics & International Relations

Language Proficiency

Thai (oral & written): Fluent
English (oral & written): Fluent
French (oral & written): Intermediate
Chinese: Basic
Italian: Native speaker