michele lancione's blog
Posts on Politics, Culture, and Travels
Today I am going to take part in an online gathering, organised by Osvaldo Costantini, with a number of Italian anthropologists. The gist is to continue to discuss the role of the military sector in the Italian academy.
I will take part in this gathering with students from the Cambiare Rotta movement as well as a representative of the Osservatorio Contro la Militarizzazione delle Scuole e dell’Universitá.
All welcome at the link in the poster.
I’ve been able to spend a few days in LA with very special people. Old and new friends, organisers in Skid Row and Echo Park Lake, scholars whom I deeply admire – including my comrade Ananya, with whom we are cooking something up.
LA is a city that grew in me throughout time. I visit the first time in 2012, while I was working with Stewart Clegg in Sydney, Australia. Then I came back a number of times, especially in recent years, to do some research, attend and sometimes contribute to events organised by Ananya at the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. The work these folks have done over the last 10 years is quite impressive – both in terms of scholarship and genuine community building and radical engagement with housing justice struggles.
This time, I was also able to meet my dear friends John and Henriette from the LAPD again, who are continuing their important work in Skid Row.
Not an easy city, LA. A city of cities – with plenty of injustices and raw urbanity – but also hope and resourfulness. I look forward to coming back again, hopefully soon.
In Turin over the next few days, there will be three events continuing the debate on war, the military, universities and forms of resistance.
On Friday, 8 May, 3.30 pm, at the Ferdinando Rossi Forum, we will discuss militarisation and universities, building on and expanding the book I wrote for Eris Edizioni. Info: https://www.forumferdinandorossi.it/
On Saturday, 9 May, there are two events. At 3.30 pm, at the Festival della Casa del Popolo – Estella, with comrades from Potere al Popolo, we will discuss Europe and precariousness: https://poterealpopolo.org/notizie/dai-territori/piemonte/torino-costellazioni-quarta-edizione-festival-estella/
Finally, at 7.00 pm, I will have the pleasure of joining EMERGENCY in a series of talks against armed conflict at the Mercato Centrale in Turin: https://www.pressenza.com/it/2026/05/r1pud1a-torino-tre-giorni-di-eventi-iniziative-e-peace-therapy/
All welcome!
I am happy to take part in the Altrimodi/Altrimondi festival in Turin, which in previous years was hosted in the Askatasuna social centre – evicted by police in December 2025 (read here). This year, the Festival will take place in the neighbourhood’s militarised street, where Askatasuna is located, in Vanchiglia, Turin. It will centre conversations about social injustice, climate injustice, war and much more.
I will act as chair of a conversation on militarisation and securitisation, amongst Michele Di Giorgio, Enrico Gargiulo and Valeria Verdolini.
All welcome! Check the entire program here: https://www.altrimondialtrimodi.it/
We continue with public debates and mobilisation in Turin.
Tonight a public gathering on the relationship between our city, our universities, and the military. We will discuss the political economy of death and continue to build antimilitarist practice.
All welcome to join at 6pm CEST at the Sereno Regis cultural study centre.
A very important work has just been published by the Transnational Institute, which is relevant to all of us working in Academia.
Their new report is titled Border Labs: How Universities Power the EU Border Regime. The report is a must-read to understand the extent of the constitutive work between agencies such as Frontex and our University sector in Europe.
I had the pleasure of writing the foreword, in which I discuss borders, the military, and the Academy through the framework of ‘no need for defence’.
Please download, engage and circulate: https://www.tni.org/en/publication/border-labs
The “Knowledge Doesn’t March” campaign is an initiative that brings together a network of organized entities from the world of schools and universities. Its goal is to provide a tool for severing the ties between public education and the military-industrial complex, and thus its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. It aims to reverse the tendency of our education system to be an instrument of war policies.
The campaign continues the work some of us have done in the past years to fight the constitution of an Academic-Military Industrial Complex in Italy and Europe. Much has been done in recent years on this front, including with the student movement against the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel in Palestine. From my side, I began by examining the arrival of Frontex in my Department in 2021 (here, a recent publication on the matter in Antipode; here a post on how the story unfolded), and then I centred the problem of the relationship between the Italian University and the Military in this pamphlet.
The assembly is open to all; more info on how to join is here.
On Thursday, 18th December, the police evicted and closed down one of the most important social centres in Italy: the Askatasuna, in Turin, where I live. Aska was (and still is!) an important infrastructure for the city and for many of us. I took part in public debates there, listened to concerts, did my own music, and many have used the space to think, to organise, and to provide public services to the neighbourhood of Vanchiglia and to the city.
I took part in the demonstrations that followed on the night of the eviction, as well as on Saturday, the 20th. The police attacked us with teargas and water cannons, militarising the entire city centre for two full days. We are going to continue our fight. It is not just about Aska, which has been closed following the upsurge of struggles against the military, and for Palestine, in Turin in the last two years. It is about our collective capacity to stay together, alive and in a meaningful way.
I wrote an article in the magazine Effimera discussing the events and the hate (from the right, the centre and the left) fueling the eviction of a place like Aska.
The piece can be read, in Italian, here: https://effimera.org/askatasuna-e-il-controllo-violento-della-violenza-di-michele-lancione/
On my Instagram profile, I’ve also documented the violence of the Police.
In Italy, there are several bills that aim to introduce the IHRA’s operational definition of antisemitism, i.e. the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Although they refer to the fight against antisemitism, these bills trivialise it and equate it with the expression of critical opinions towards the Israeli state’s occupation policies. These policies have been recognised as illegal and racially discriminatory by the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in July 2024, and as forms of apartheid by the most important Palestinian, Israeli and international organisations working in defence of human rights. As demonstrated by these same organisations and numerous United Nations reports, the policies implemented by the State of Israel have accelerated over the last two years and have resulted in forms of genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.
With a number of academics around the peninsula, today we have started an appeal to block these bills. They have nothing to do with anti-semitism, and they are just there to undermine our capacity to contest the genocidal project of the State of Israel in Palestine.
If you work in Italian academia – or perhaps you are visiting – consider signing our petition: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YyUjMyjVoZc5aZ23fUyoCKVLsZswkCgrMO2F83eihV8/edit?tab=t.0
We, the lecturers and researchers of Italian universities, express our deep concern about the situation of Mohamed Shahin, imam of the Omar Ibn al-Khattab mosque in Turin, currently detained at the Caltanissetta Repatriation Centre following an expulsion order issued by the Ministry of the Interior.
Mohamed’s offence? Speaking for Palestine. Sign our petition: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScS7NW8AOBCa-uCPe1XnsNknvE5qa_jMuRmmonfPAVEDtkprA/viewform — which I am providing with an automated English translation below.
APPEAL BY UNIVERSITY LECTURERS AND RESEARCHERS FOR THE RELEASE OF MOHAMED SHAHIN
We, the lecturers and researchers of Italian universities, express our deep concern about the situation of Mohamed Shahin, imam of the Omar Ibn al-Khattab mosque in Turin, currently detained at the Caltanissetta Repatriation Centre following an expulsion order issued by the Ministry of the Interior.
The revocation of his long-term residence permit and the consequent risk of forced repatriation to Egypt raise serious questions about respect for fundamental human rights. It is well known that, prior to his arrival in Italy more than twenty years ago, Mr Shahin was considered a political opponent of the Egyptian regime. The prospect of his forced return to Egypt would expose him to a real risk of persecution, arbitrary detention and inhuman treatment.
The reasons behind the revocation of his permit appear to be linked to his public statements on the situation in Gaza and his critical stance on the actions of the Israeli government. If this is the case, we would be faced with an extremely worrying precedent: the use of administrative instruments to target the exercise of freedom of opinion, which is protected by Article 21 of the Constitution and by international conventions to which Italy is a party.
Similar cases in recent years confirm a trend towards sanctioning foreign citizens for their political opinions or expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The use of CPRs in this context risks becoming a form of indirect repression of dissent and arbitrary limitation of democratic space.
It is important to remember that Mohamed Shahin has long been involved in interfaith dialogue and social cooperation. Numerous religious communities, civic associations and interfaith groups have publicly attested to his contribution to building peaceful relations between different components of the city of Turin, highlighting the collaborative and open nature of his work. In particular, the Turin Christian-Islamic Dialogue Network, in a statement addressed to the President of the Republic and the Minister of the Interior, highlighted Mohamed Shahin’s central role in interfaith dialogue and community life in the San Salvario neighbourhood.
In light of all this, we believe that immediate action is essential to ensure full compliance with constitutional principles, the Geneva Convention and Italy’s international obligations regarding human rights and protection against refoulement.
We therefore call for:
The immediate release of Mohamed Shahin and the suspension of the execution of the expulsion decree.
The review of the decision to revoke Mohamed Shahin’s residence permit, ensuring an impartial examination in accordance with national and international legal standards.
The protection of the right to freedom of expression in academic, cultural and religious contexts, regardless of the origin or faith of the individuals involved.
The closure of CPRs, places where human rights are violated.
As lecturers and researchers, we recognise the civic responsibility of the university to defend democratic values, promote pluralism and oppose all forms of discrimination or unlawful restriction of fundamental freedoms.