Current Positions

• 01/10/2025 – Ongoing: University Assistant (Postdoc), Department of Economic and Social History, University of Vienna, Austria
• 01/02/2024 – Ongoing: Research fellow, International Studies Group (ISG), University of the Free State, South Africa

• Curriculum Vitae

Education

• 01/10/2017 – 07/06/2021: PhD in African History and Institutions (with distinction)
  PhD programme in Global Histories, Politics and Cultures, Department of History and Culture (DISCI), University of Bologna, Italy. PhD dissertation titled: “Transitions in the Monetary History of Eritrea. Colonial Policies, Military Labour, and the Maria Theresa Thaler (1885-1921)”
• 01/10/2012 – 17/03/2016: Laurea Magistrale (MA) in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology. Grade: 110/110, cum laude. School of Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Italy
  Title of the dissertation: “Mappe, Capi e Mercati. Strategie del Potere Coloniale nei Northern Territories della Gold Coast (1896-1937)”
• 28/09/2009 – 8/10/2012: Laurea (BA) in Anthropological Sciences. Grade: 110/110, School of Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Italy. Title of the dissertation: “Enjoy the Movement, Forget the Rest. Il Parkour tra Controcultura ed Omologazione”

Research Interests

• African social and economic history (19th–20th century)
• The global history of money
• Indian Ocean studies
• Labour history
• Economic anthropology

Networks and Activities

• 01/02/2025 – 19/09/2025: Co-organiser of the workshop “African Consumers and the Global Economy: A New History”, September 18 – 19, 2025, Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna
• 27/04/2023 – 19/01/2025: Member of the Programme Committee of the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies (SGNCS) Symposium 2025, Global Studies Center, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait
• 01/12/2023 – 27/09/2024: Member of the Organising Committee of the “17th Meeting of the African Economic History Network", Faculty of Economics, MEMOTEF, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
• 01/02/2022 – 14/09/2022: Organiser and member of the scientific committee of the inaugural bootcamp for early career scholars “Money and Monetary Institutions in Africa” (partially funded by the Young Scholars Initiative, YSI), University of the Free State, South Africa
• 01/02/2018 – 07/09/2018: Member of the secretariat of the “ASAI V - Fifth Conference of the Association for African Studies in Italy”, Bologna, 5-7 September 2018, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
• 01/12/2017 – 13/10/2018: Member of the Organising Committee of the “13th Meeting of the African Economic History Network”, Bologna, 12-13 October 2018. Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna, Italy

Memberships and Roles in Scientific Associations

• 07/09/2025 – ongoing: Member of the International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH)
• 16/09/2021 – ongoing: Founding member of the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies (SGNCS), Member of the Membership Committee (since 13/10/2023)
• 17/01/2020 – ongoing: Member of the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), Organiser (since 01/09/2022)
• 12/10/2018 – ongoing: Member of the African Economic History Network (AEHN)
• 05/09/2018 – ongoing: Member of ASAI (Associazione per gli Studi Africani in Italia), Secretary (01/01/2019– 12/02/2021)

Participation in Editorial Boards of Journals

• 07/01/2025 – ongoing: Editor of the section “Shapes of Money” of the peer-reviewed journal Global Nineteenth-Century Studies (Liverpool University Press).
• 01/04/2019 – ongoing: Chief copyeditor of the peer-reviewed OA journal Afriche e Orienti

Selected Publications

• De Cola, Alessandro. ‘Debt Slavery and Antislavery Activity: The Pearling Industry in the Italian Colony of Eritrea’. In Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Red Sea Region, edited by J. Miran and A. Martínez d’Alos Mòner. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2026. [Book chapter]
• De Cola, Alessandro. ‘Reframing African Monetary History: A Southern African Perspective’. With Geraldine Sibanda. Southern Journal for Contemporary History 49, 2 (2024): 3–9. doi.org/10.38140/sjch.v49i2.7973 [Dossier introduction]
• De Cola, Alessandro. ‘African Agencies in the Making of Colonial Currencies: The Case of Ḥasan Mūsā al-ʿAqqād in the Italian Colony of Eritrea (1885–1890)’. Afriche & Orienti 27, 1 (2024): 184–206. doi.org/10.23810/AEOXXVIII2024110 [Journal article]
• De Cola, Alessandro. ‘Money and the Regularisation of African Soldiers in the Early Phase of Italian Colonialism in Eritrea’. War & Society 42, 2 (2023): 140–156. doi.org/10.1080/07292473.2023.2189345 [Journal article]
• De Cola, Alessandro. ‘The Maria Theresa Thaler in Italian Eritrea: The Impact of Colonial Monetary Policies during the First World War’. In Monetary Transitions. Currencies, Colonialism and African Societies, edited by Karin Pallaver, 81–104. Cham: Palgrave, 2022. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83461-6_4 [Book chapter]
• De Cola, Alessandro. ‘Il problema monetario nella colonia eritrea: il tallero di Maria Teresa nella letteratura coloniale (1857-1941)’. In Una moneta per l’impero. Pratiche monetarie, economia e società nell’Africa Orientale Italiana, edited by Karin Pallaver and Gian Luca Podestà, 47–76. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2021. series.francoangeli.it/index.php/oa/catalog/book/690 [Book chapter]