Francesco Zavatti
Associate Professor
Researcher
I am an Associate Professor in history at Lund University since 2024, also awarded with the National Scientific Habilitation as Associate Professor in the field of Contemporary History by the Italian Ministry for University and Research in 2023. I am presently a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History, where I have been the research coordinator in 2023-2024.
I am specialised in the history of East-Central Europe and of Romania in particular, and interested in transnational history and memory studies across the European spaces, with special interest for the Baltic and Eastern Europe.
Since 2023 I am Principal Investigator the four-years' research project "Strategies for Survival of Displaced Fascists: The Romanian Legionaries in the Western Hemisphere, 1945-1965", focused on the post-war activities of Romanian migrated fascists. The project is financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen) and based at the Institute of Contemporary History, School for Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University.
Upon award of my doctoral degree in historical studies (Södertörn University, 2016), I have conducted research on the fundraising activities of the Catholic Church in favour of Ireland, first as a research associate for the project The Moral Economy of Global Civil Society (led by Prof. Norbert Götz at the Institute of Contemporary History, Södertörn University), and in 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher in the project The Moral Economy of Italian Civil Society, based at the Department of Political Sciences of Roma Tre University (under resposibility by Prof. Francesco Guida and Prof. Alberto Basciani) and co-financed by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, through Prof. Norbert Götz's project).
Since 2019 until 2021 I have conducted research on the Romanian far right memory politics as a researcher in the project Memory Politics in far Right Europe: Celebrating Nazi-Collaborationists in post-1989 Belarus, Romania, Flanders, and Denmark, led by Prof. Andrej Kotljarchuk, together with Madeleine Hurd and Steffen Werther, financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen) and based at the Institute of Contemporary History, School for Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University and along 2021 I have been project-specific researcher at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) with a pilot project on the memory work of the migrated legionaries in the Cold War era.
In 2021-2022 I have been Principal Investigator of the research project "Competing Visual Representations of the Future in Times of Environmental Consciousness", focused on how still-to-be-realised infrastructures were drawn in the Danish and Swedish printed media (1970-2000), financed by Ridderstads stiftelsen för historisk grafisk forskning and affiliated with the Institute of Contemporary History, School for Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University. My interest in Nordic studies brought me the appointment as Södertörn University's administrative director of the inter-Nordic research hub ReNEW in 2023.
In 2022-2024 I have been a researcher at the Department of History, Lund University. In 2022, I was invited as a researcher in the project "Ukrainian Long-Distance Nationalism in the Cold War", financed by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and led by Wallenberg Academy Fellow Per Anders Rudling, and in 2023-2024 I have been Principal Investigator for the research project "Motivations behind grassroots humanitarianism: Explaining the mobilization of Moldovan and Romanian civil societies in support of Ukrainian refugees (February – June 2022)", financed by Erik Philip-Sörensens Stiftelse.
Since 2025, I have joined as participant the research project "Civil Society without Boundaries: Nordic Humanitarianism Facing the Biafra Crisis", led by Norbert Götz and funded by the Swedish Research Council.