ALEX PANICACCI
LEARNING & LIVING
My academic path has been by some accounts unusual. I have not specialized in one specific subject and have never been a full-time scholar in the conventional sense.
In lieu of specialization, I worked in various sectors, from creative arts to public and international affairs. My experience as a first-generation international working student often frustrated me, giving me the impression that I had to work harder to be understood. I felt like I was never going to be able to excel at what I liked, learning, because of practical constraints.
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It was not until I completed my PhD that I realised my weaknesses were in fact my strengths. My multilingual identity and my work outside the academia grounded me in my social investigations, while my interdisciplinary background refined my inquisitive nature. Entering different work environments and interacting with individuals from diverse backgrounds on a daily basis informed concrete actions, exemplified by my contribution to several projects, such as Multilingual Capital or Multidentities.
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I completed my PhD in Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2018. My research mostly derived from my personal experience as a migrant and a traveller. I was born in Italy with an innate sense of wanderlust. The idea of traveling and exploring the world has always fascinated me. Yet, I realised at a very young age that we need time to feel, taste, and process what we experience. It’s for this reason that in my early adulthood, I decided to embark for a journey without a return ticket. The first destination was London, where I completed my studies.
During that time, my ‘British self’ vibrantly flourished while my ‘Italian self’ remained hidden somewhere but did not vanish in the process. In a curious twist, one identity pervaded the other one, giving it a new shape and connotation. I imagined that the stories of other migrants and multicultural individuals would be similar to mine, so I decided to start a deeper investigation into what factors regulate individuals’ identity shifting across language and culture.
The premise of my research is thus the result of first-hand experiences with struggle and excitement, deriving from the realisation that personality and emotions can be affected by speaking other languages or experiencing different culture and that every experience of diversity, whether subjective or reflexive entails some benefits and difficulties we should all be aware of.
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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
Doctor of Philosophy, BIRKBECK UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
October 2012 - October 2017
I completed a PhD in Applied Linguistics & Communications (currently Languages, Cultures, and Applied Linguistics)
under the amazing supervision of Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele.
My PhD dissertation focused on intercultural exchange in the context of migration.
I further explored this topic in my book entitled "Exploring identity across language and culture”, where I examine the ways in which immigrants’ linguistic and cultural practices interconnect with their personality and emotional attributes to inform language use, behaviour, social integration, and perceptions of self-identity. The findings shed light on community dynamics, inspiring advanced approaches to analyse socio-psychological trends in the population.
Master's of Arts, UNIVERSITA` DI PISA
September 2008 - July 2009
I completed a Master's degree in Philosophy of Language with honours.
My dissertation examined the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (cf. Wierzbicka)
Master's of Arts, KING'S COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
September 2007 - June 2008
I completed a Master in Philosophy, English, and Digital Humanities with Honour as a visiting student
with a Socrates Studentship for international mobility.
Bachelor's of Arts, UNIVERSITA` DI PISA
October 2003 - April 2006
I completed a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy with Honour.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON & UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
September 2019 - present
I am the recipient of a British Academy Fellowship (approx $600,000) to conduct an individual project entitled
"Is diversity an obstacle to integration?"
This project specifically focuses on Seattle's diversity and addresses concerns related to the ambiguity surrounding the concept diversity and the lack of attention to real-intersectional processes related to inclusion strategies. I address questions such as ‘who is diverse from whom?’, ‘what determines people’s cultural affiliations and sense of belonging to a community?’ The purpose is to deconstruct the ambiguity that elicits discrimination, such as ‘identity questioning'.
Consular Officer, ITALIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS & INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
January 2010 - September 2019
I worked with the Passport Office in 2010 and with the Citizenship Office in 2019.
I was in charge of the entire citizenship & passport application handling, which involved issuing and voiding official certificates & passports, checking official documents and criminal records (i.e., birth, marriage certificates), interviewing applicants including vulnerable candidates ad refugees (testing cultural and linguistic knowledge, assessing their case), assisting during citizenship ceremonies,
transmitting data, updating the general database.
During this time, I contributed large-scale data analyses to evaluate migration and demographic trends and file reports for press conferences. I also volunteer as an English language teacher and a cultural advisor for new migrants and those in need.
Research & Teaching Fellow, BIRKBECK UNIVERSITY OF LONDON & UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
September 2018 - April 2019
As a researcher I was in charge of part of the research process: conducting observations and assessments, literature review, participant recruitment & sampling, testing, basic analysis. The three research projects I was involved in were in the fields of language learning, phonetics, cognitive linguistics, and neurolinguistics. We analyzed aspects such as traumatic experiences in relation to language, speech, learning progress, language attrition.
Senior Cultural Promoter, IMPACT IDEAS LTD
October 2011 - October 2018
I was in charge of managing promotional campaigns for cultural events and initiatives. My main duties were: collecting user and community data, conducting basic analysis, filing marketing reports, planning community engagement and outreach. From 2013 to 2018 I was supervising, training, and coaching small teams of promoters.
Leverhulme Research Fellow, INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION & WARWICK UNIVERSITY
September 2016 - April 2018
I was in charge of part of the research process: conducting observations and assessments, literature review,
participant recruitment, and testing. The two research projects I was involved in were in the fields of language learning, phonetics, cognitive linguistics, and neurolinguistics. We analyzed aspects such as traumatic experiences in relation to language, speech, learning progress, language attrition. I completed a training to work with emotionally vulnerable candidates that proved incredibly useful when interviewing refugees, immigrants, trauma survivors, or individuals affected by PTSD. The testing involved speech recordings, tasks, interviews, survey administration, memory tasks.
Sustainability/Data Manager, S&P GLOBAL (formerly TRUCOST)
October 2012 - October 2017
When I joined, Trucost was helping financial institutions, corporations and governments navigate the transition to a sustainable future. Since the incorporation with S&P Global, the company served as the central source for sustainably intelligence, matching customers with the ESG products, insights and solutions. At Trucost, I was in charge of the entire user database, handling accounts, and outreaching to new blue-chip organizations and stakeholders to create new partnerships. Trucost offered me a great opportunity to learn about corporate social responsibility, environmental issues, equity, and sustainability, climate performance and climate risk exposure.
PhD. Candidate & Research Fellow, BIRKBECK UNIVERISTY OF LONDON
September 2015 - December 2017
My main duty was to manage the research process end-to-end, including the dissemination of findings and preparation of publications (observations, assessment, questions and hypotheses, participant recruitment & sampling, experimental analysis, interventions, outreach). The research projects I conducted were focusing on migrants' cultural adaptation, emotion, and multilinguals' sense of self in relation to their languages.
