Stefano Nicastro
PhD Student - History
- School of History, Classics and Archaeology
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Contact details
- Email: s1792516@ed.ac.uk
Background
I studied History at the University of Milan (Italy) and I spent a semester abroad in Istanbul (Turkey) at the Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi via the Erasmus programme. Subsequently, I completed a MSc in Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic at the University of Edinburgh and I further studied Arabic in Egypt at the International House Cairo – ILI. I am currently a PhD Student in History at the University of Edinburgh funded by a School of History, Classics and Archaeology Doctoral Scholarship.
Qualifications
MA (Hons.) in History, University of Milan.
MSc in Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic, University of Edinburgh.
Responsibilities & affiliations
2021-ongoing – President of the Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies Society (LAIBS), University of Edinburgh.
2021-ongoing – Committee member of the Edinburgh Early Modern Network (EEMN), University of Edinburgh.
Undergraduate teaching
2022-2023 – Medieval Worlds: A Journey through the Middle Ages (Undergraduate Course).
2021-2022 – Medieval Worlds: A Journey through the Middle Ages (Undergraduate Course).
2020-2021 – Early Modern History: A Connected World (Undergraduate Course).
Research summary
Political and economic relationships between Genoa and Mamluk Egypt.
Cross-cultural and trans-regional interactions between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean during the later Middle Ages.
Movements of people, goods and ideas.
Current research interests
My work aims to deepen and re-evaluate our understanding of Mamluk-Genoese diplomatic and commercial exchanges.Organiser
2021 – 5th Edinburgh International Graduate Conference in Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies. ‘Sites of Encounter and Cultural Exchange (500-1500 CE)’.
Papers delivered
2021 – ‘Genoa in the Middle Ages: The Use of Arabic Sources to Reconstruct the History of a Latin City’ at the Medieval Mediterranean Exchanges Workshop, Woolf Institute, Cambridge.
2021 – ‘Genoa and Mamluk Egypt: Return of Captives in 14th Century Alexandria’ at Pre-Modern Migrations: Communities, Ideas and Materials on the Move, University of Edinburgh.
2019 – ‘Islamic perceptions of Genoa in fourteenth century Arabic literature’ at the 3rd Edinburgh International Graduate Conference in Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies. ‘Historical Inertia: Continuity in the Face of Change 500—1500 CE’.