AUSBILDUNG UND WEITERBILDUNG

Since 2020 Freie Universität Berlin, PhD, Social and Cultural Anthropology, expected 2026 Dissertation: “Projecting Accountability, Denouncing Border Violence. Legal Counter Practices in and beyond the Mexico-U.S. Borderlands” Funded with a scholarship from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation

2019 Freie Universität Berlin, Master of Arts, Interdisciplinary Latin American Studies 2019 Degree: 1,0 (A+) Thesis: “Belonging, Rights and Justice: Multi-sited Narratives Travelling through the Deportation Corridor between the UK, U.S., and Jamaica”

2019 Humboldt University Berlin, Master of Arts, European Ethnology

2015 Freie Universität Berlin, Bachelor of Arts, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Italian Studies Bachelor’s Thesis: “Discourses around Dying in the Mediterranean Sea: Causes and Solutions between Search and Rescue Operations, Control and Externalization - A critical Analysis of German online media reports.” Degree: 1,2 (A)

2010 Certified Foreign Language Correspondent GE-SP-EN

WEITERE AFFILIATIONEN

2021- 2022 University of California San Diego, Visiting Researcher, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies

2018 University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, Visiting Graduate Student, Cultural Studies Graduate Program

2013- 2014 La Sapienza, Universitá di Roma, Undergraduate Student, Cultural Anthropology Program

STIPENDIEN

2020- 2024 Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Scholarship

               Awarded to conduct doctoral studies and field research in the United States and Mexico

2024 DAAD Conference Mobility

2023 Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility 

Instructor of Record

2024-2025 “Law, Gender, Migration: Ethnographies of Legal Anthropology,” BA Seminar, Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freiburg University, Winter Term (German)

2024-2025 “Ethnographies of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” BA Seminar, Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin-Luther University Halle, Winter Term (German)

2016-2017 “It’s Not About migration, It’s About Border Politics,” BA and MA seminar, Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University Berlin, Summer and Winter Term (German)

Erasmus + Teaching Mobility

2023

Lecture Series in Buenos Aires/Argentine (Spanish)

“Rights Violations and (Legal) Resistance in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” Program for Political and Legal Anthropology, Universidad de Buenos Aires

“Rights Violations and (Legal) Resistance in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” Comisión Argentina por Refugiados y Migrantes (CAREF), Buenos Aires 

“Comparative Border Regimes, Rights Violations and Resistances in the EU and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Buenos Aires 

Invited Lectures 

2024 “The Criminalization of Migration and Solidarity,” Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin-Luther University Halle (English)

2023 “EU-Solidarity and the Criminalization of Migration,” University College Dublin (English)

2022 EU ad hoc Relocation Mechanisms, Social and Educational Sciences Department, Fachhochschule Potsdam (German)

2022 NGO Advocacy: a Comparison on the EU and U.S. Border Regimes, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of San Diego California (English)

Forthcoming 

Bellezza, S. (2026a). From Pre-Clearance to Self-Deportation at the Mexico-U.S. Border: How the CBP One App’s Function Creep Reconfigured the Techno-Humanitarian Border. Movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies (forthcoming)

Bellezza, S. (2026b). Illegal Policies or “Illegal” People? Truth and Evidence in the Courts under the Trump administration. Focaal. Journal for Global and Historical Anthropology. Submitted as part of a special issue on Brokering evidence: Truth claims and (Non)citizens’ Quests for Rights, eds. Flávio Eiró, Sophie Andreetta, and Jill Alpes (under review)

Binder, C., Bellezza, S., Gheorghiev, O., Perret, S., & Uhde, Z. (2026). Political economy of datafication of migration politics. In S. Pollozek, K. Leurs, S. Perret, P. Seuferling, A. Fill, A. Meloni, V. Nagy, & Z. Uhde (Eds.), Migration Data Matters: A Keyword Approach to the Datafication of Migration and Border Control. Liverpool University Press (forthcoming)

Jegen, L., Bellezza, S., Pfeiffer, M., Scheel, S., & Uhde, Z. (2026). Colonial Continuities. In S. Pollozek, K. Leurs, S. Perret, P. Seuferling, A. Fill, A. Meloni, V. Nagy, & Z. Uhde (Eds.), Migration Data Matters: A Keyword Approach to the Datafication of Migration and Border Control. Liverpool University Press (forthcoming)

Pereira, A., & Bellezza, S. (2026). Technologies on the Move. In S. Pollozek, K. Leurs, S. Perret, P. Seuferling, A. Fill, A. Meloni, V. Nagy, & Z. Uhde (Eds.), Migration Data Matters: A Keyword Approach to the Datafication of Migration and Border Control. Liverpool University Press (forthcoming)

Scheel, S., Bellezza, S., & Jegen, L. (2026). Categories/ Categorization. In S. Pollozek, K. Leurs, S. Perret, P. Seuferling, A. Fill, A. Meloni, V. Nagy, & Z. Uhde (Eds.), Migration Data Matters: A Keyword Approach to the Datafication of Migration and Border Control. Liverpool University Press (forthcoming)

Monographie

Bellezza, S., Calandrino, T., Küffner, C., Borghi, L., Biondo, A., Gleitze, J., & Maniatis, G. (2017). Criminalization of Flight and Escape Aid (S. Bellezza, T. Calandrino, & Borderline-Europe - Menschenrechte ohne Grenzen e.V, Eds.). Tredition. 

Contributions to Edited Volumes

Bellezza, S., & Sadik, H. (2021). Humanitarian Engagement in Maritime Rescue and Migrants’ Relocation. In G. Bevilaqua (Ed.), Human Security in Navigable Spaces: Common Challenges and New Trends. Editoriale Scientifica.

Bellezza, S. (2018). Beihilfe zur unerlaubten Einreise” Reflexionen zu einer Prozessbeobachtung. In R. Römhild, A. Schwanhäußer, B. Zur Nieden, & G. Yurdakul (Eds.), Witnessing the Transition: Moments in the Long Summer of Migration’. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. https://doi.org/10.18452/18704

Weitere Texte

Bellezza, S. (2024). Ein Blick auf die Reform des EU Facilitator’s Package. Medico International. 

Bellezza, S., Jorge, B., Türtscher, J., & Vierheilig, L. (2023). Deconstruct Solidarity in the EU: Solidarity with People, Not between States! borderline-europe. Human Rights Without borders. 

Bellezza, S., Brezger, N., Bünger, C., Henkel, H., Pacor, M., Platania, G., & Schwarz, J. (2021). EU ad hoc relocation. A lottery from the sea to the hotspots and back to unsafety. borderline-europe. Human Rights Without borders.