I’m a philosopher from Basel, Switzerland, with roots in Northern Italy. Currently, I’m a Visiting Fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin, working on Kant’s metaphysics of existence and modality.

In my graduate and undergraduate years at the University of Basel, I’ve been taught a curriculum with strengths in the history of philosophy and an emphasis on the so-called continental tradition. Working as a student assistant for five and a half years has made me pursue an academic career. Planning and teaching tutorials on the classics of Modern Philosophy has made me delve into the texts more deeply than ever, and I’ve learnt how rewarding teaching philosophy is.

After graduating from Basel, I took up a PhD position at the University of Fribourg. Admittedly, my application was largely circumstantial—the first job ad I saw. Yet, Fribourg proved an educational environment for me in a dialogical fashion: I could not count on departmental colleagues familiar with my philosophical background, which taught me to translate every one of my theses into contemporary philosophical lingo. At the same time, I would not have been influenced and would never have worked on topics in contemporary anglophone philosophy had I not enjoyed the rich discussions in Fribourg and had I not spent a year at Columbia University’s Department of Philosophy under the supervision of Chris Peacocke.

My diverse background influenced my philosophical interests and approach in myriad ways. Reading the Moderns instilled a regard for systematic unity in me. Kant and Hegel pushed me to never lose subjectivity out of sight: first, by requiring that theories are intelligible in the sense of accounting for how we can gain knowledge about them; second, by never treating subjects as objects of a particular sort; and, third, by remembering that philosophy is an exercise in self-understanding. More unexpectedly, the critique of metaphysics of post-war philosophers such as Derrida, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein has had the opposite effect on me. I’m convinced that robust metaphysics has an essential role to play in understanding ourselves and the world.

After my studies, I worked and taught as a graduate assistant at the chair for Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Fribourg, where I also obtained my PhD in 2021. After a brief period as a Postdoc at the University of Lucerne, I took up a position as a scientific collaborator at the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), where I was involved in managing large research consortia (‘National Centres of Competence in Research’ or NCCRs). My time there has made me appreciate how research cultures differ from subject to subject and has made me take a sustained interest in science policy.

Outside the philosophy room, I’m an avid cook, mainly drawn towards the cuisine of my second home, Italy. But my gustatory fascination knows little to no bounds. I always try out new cuisines, recipes, and traditions. I also like to venture out on a road bike, one of the best ways of discovering one’s surroundings. Besides, I can seldom resist the temptation to play football (or ‘soccer’, if you will), but sometimes, watching a game on TV will do, too, particularly of Juventus Turin or the Italian National Team. Moreover, I’m a hobby photographer. To see some of my pictures, check out my Instagram account.