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What do you teach at Ca’ Foscari? What are your main research interests? 
I teach Modern Hebrew Language and Literature, after graduating in Languages right here at Ca' Foscari and then earning a PhD in History at the European University Institute in Fiesole. I carried out post-doc research at the University of Aix-Marseille, in France, and in Israel, before returning to Venice. I mainly focus on the history and memory of Jews in Arab countries - notably Egypt and North Africa - in contemporary times and on Israeli literature and society. 

What led you to pursue a research career? What are you most passionate about in your field of study? 
It was a fairly natural progression after graduation, which also depended on lucky encounters with lecturers who made me realise that research could be an option for me. Apart from this, my first trips as a student to Tunisia, Egypt and especially Israel were an important experience in bringing me closer to the worlds I later began to study as a researcher.
More generally, I think that Hebrew and Jewish studies is a particularly interesting field because it lets us observe, whether looking at the distant past or at times close to us, phenomena - such as migration, the identity as a diasporic people, the interaction between memory, religion and national identity - that are at the heart of the world today. Knowing Hebrew means dealing not only with Israel and contemporary Israeli society, but also with a civilisation that has always been halfway between the two shores of the Mediterranean and beyond.

What does teaching at the university mean to you?
Teaching at university is an experience that first of all brings me closer to young men and women who are often passionate about the disciplines they are studying and lets me share with them what I myself have studied over the years. Apart from research, which in humanities is actually a rather lonely activity, I think that human contact, being together in the classroom - which in the last year and a half has only partly happened - is one of the most beautiful aspects of this job.

You work in a department dealing with non-European worlds: what does working on cultural diversity mean to you in an increasingly interconnected world?
We should all be concerned with cultural diversity today, not just those who do it for a living because they research countries outside Europe or study languages such as Hebrew, Chinese or Arabic. Being concerned with cultural diversity should simply mean being aware of the differences in any society, both present and past societies and, ultimately, how the contemporary world, and especially the Mediterranean, is changing.