Alessandra Paiusco

About Alessandra Paiusco

Alessandra Paiusco is a PhD candidate in Political Science. Her current research focuses on climate change and migration. Her thesis is a Foucauldian-inspired archaeology on the concept of 'climate refugees'. Alessandra's doctoral supervisors are Björn Hammar, Erik Hysing and Ann-Catrin Kristianssen. 

Alessandra has also been course coordinator and lecturer in other departments. Her latest teaching experience includes Gender and the Nordic Welfare State (department of Gender Studies) and Sociology, Sustainability and Organization Theory (department of Sociology).

Resumé

Alessandra has a BA in Language, Culture and Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and she specialized in Sinology (Chinese language and culture). In 2014 she was awarded the People's Republic of China's government scholarship, which she spent specializing in advanced Chinese at Xiamen University Overseas College (厦门大学). She then enrolled in Ca’ Foscari University of Venice's MSc in Comparative International Relations, with a focus on Europe and Far East Asia. During her Master's studies, Alessandra spent a semester at Vilnius University's Institute of International Relations and Political Science (Vilniaus universiteto Tarptautinių santykių ir politikos mokslų institutas), where she deepened her knowledge of Baltic States' history and politics.

After a traineeship at the Italian Embassy in Hanoi, she compiled her Master's thesis on the trade-off between Vietnam’s economic model of development and the Agenda 2030’s overriding requirements for sustainability. 

Between the end of 2022 and September 2023 Alessandra has been based in Reykjavík and was kindly offered a work space at the university of Iceland.

Collaboration and assignments

• Alessandra is part of Örebro University's Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science Research (CESSS), a platform that brings together and creates synergies between environmental and sustainability researchers within sociology, psychology, and political science.

Upcoming engagements 

• currently on parental leave until fall 2025.