Presentation en anglais

English Presentation

Simon Mastrangelo holds a Master’s degree in Arts (History of Religions) from the University of Geneva. His Master’s thesis is about the legacy of the Orientalist Louis Massignon. From April 2013, he started working as a student-assistant at the Institute for Social Sciences of Contemporary Religions (ISSR) on the Swiss National Fund project « (In)visible Islam in the City: (Im)material Expressions of Muslim Practices within Urban Settings ».

In Octobre 2017, Simon Mastrangelo received his PhD within the framework of the Swiss National Fund project « Undocumented Mobility (Tunisia-Switzerland) and Digital-Cultural Resources after the “Arab Spring” ». His PhD thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Monika Salzbrunn, is entitled « Making sense of a migratory path made of hopes and disappointments. Study on the mental representations, beliefs and narrative tools of Tunisian undocumented migrants (harraga) ». In his research, Simon Mastrangelo analyses how Tunisian harraga claim their right to free movement and how they challenge migratory policies. He also studies the mental representations of ‘good life’ among these migrants, notably via the imaginary of success and personal achievement. He eventually analyses how harraga look back on their own migratory experience and how they make sense of their life course, particularly through the reference to destiny (maktoub).