OLBIOS CORRESPONDENT BULGARIA & ITALY

Francesco Trupia is a PhD Candidate trained in Political Philosophy at the Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, where he also obtained his MA in Philosophy with a major in Intercultural Relations. Besides, he graduated at the University of Catania in Political Science and International Relations. After his sabbatical year in 2014, Francesco began to increase his interests in Eastern Europe by interning the NGO Focus in Bulgaria and the Refugee Project, working with vulnerable minorities. In 2016, he became one of the international fellows of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Resource Research Centre, exploring the links between minority issues and the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh after the last constitutional reforms in the post-Soviet Armenia. While attending numerous summer schools in Russia, Serbia, Germany, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia and Kosovo, in 2017 Trupia joined the London-based think tank Institute for Islamic Strategic Affairs – IISA by contributing for the Refugee&Border Control Program. He is currently a Field Officer in HOLDS Foundation, where he conducts mapping surveys in the post-Balkan Route scenario. Trupia’s current interests include minority groups and migratory phenomena over Eastern European contested territories. Counting on his fieldworks, he has presented his research in Turkey, Netherlands, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria. His monograph on “Migranthood & Self-Governing Rights: A New Paradigm for Eastern Europe” has been recently published by Lambert Academic Publishing.