Valeria Talbot is a Senior Research Fellow and Co-Head of ISPI's Middle East and North Africa Centre, in charge of Middle East Studies. She also is a lecturer at the Master in Middle Eastern Studies in ASERI – Catholic University, and at the IULM University of Milan. She was ISPI scientific coordinator of Arab Trans, a FP7 funded research project on political and social transformations in the Arab World after the Arab uprisings in 2010-2011. She was the scientific coordinator of the “Med and Gulf Executive Briefings” Project, aimed at advising the business community on economic opportunities in the MENA countries. From 2007 to 2012, she was Associate Editor of the ISPI review Quaderni di Relazioni Internazionali. Furthermore, Talbot is a member of the Med Think 5+5 scientific committee and EuroMeSCo liason officer.
She is active as a scholar, contributing to research projects and publishing a number of papers, articles and books. In particular, she is the editor of Focus Mediterraneo allargato, a quarterly report commissioned by the Italian Parliament and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Before joining ISPI, she worked at the University of Catania and at the European Parliament in Brussels. She holds a master degree in Political Science from the University of Catania and at M.Phil. in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
She contributed also to several other publications such as: Democratisation against Democracy, with A. Teti, P. Abbot, P. Maggiolini, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020; 'Gulf monarchies' role in the new MENA region', in C. Altomonte-M. Ferrara (eds.); 'The economic and political aftermath of the Arab spring. Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa countries', Edward Elgar, 2014; 'Politics, International Relations and Cooperation in the Mediterranean Area', M. Ferrara, R. Mavilia, V. Talbot (eds), Rubbettino, 2013, ISBN 9788849837759; 'The Gulf States’ Political and Economic Role in the Mediterranean', in IEMed Mediterranean Yearbook, 2011; 'GCC Economic Presence in the Mediterranean and Outlook for EU-GCC Cooperation', GMF-IAI Mediterranean Paper Series, December 2010.
