About
Dr. M. Stella Morgana holds a Ph.D. in “Middle Eastern Studies” and an MA in “Middle Eastern Studies” from Leiden University, where she studied the interconnections between Iranian workers and state power in post-revolutionary Iran. She received a BA in “Islamic Studies” from the University of Naples L’Orientale, where she graduated with a thesis on Iran’s legal measures against the opium trade. She completed two post-graduate diplomas: one in “Journ. and Foreign Affairs” from LUISS University of Rome – with a thesis on conscientious objection in Turkey – and one in “Reporting from Crisis Areas” from the University of Rome - Tor Vergata.
Before starting to trek the academic/research path at Leiden University, Stella worked as an editor, website manager, and freelance reporter for almost ten years – from 2007 to 2016. She has lived in Rome, Tehran, London, Leiden, Palermo, Amsterdam and Liverpool, with long work/research stays in Istanbul and Beirut. Between 2017 and 2020, she conducted extensive field research in Iran, where she studied Persian at the Dehkhoda Institute – University of Tehran. In 2018 she joined Ponte 33 (a publishing house whose main commitment is to translate Iranian literature books into Italian) as an editor and event manager.
In 2019 and early 2020 she was visiting scholar at Tarbiat Modarres University of Tehran and SOAS University of London. In the same year, she worked as a researcher within the project “Labour and migration governance: Insights from the South-to-West Asian Corridor” at Leiden University.
Between 2020 and 2022, Stella was Lecturer in Political Science/Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
In 2022 she has been awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Liverpool with a project on digital labour and gig workers in Iran.
Stella is also deputy co-chair of the Research Staff Association (RSA) at the University of Liverpool and active member of the British Academy ECR network.
In 2024 she was nominated Research Culture Champion of the Year at the University of Liverpool.