The Italian Embassy in Oslo celebrated Italian Research Day in the World 2026 on April 16 at the University of Oslo (UiO) with a hybrid seminar—led by four female professors—titled “Migrations and Migrants: Lives in Motion.” Opened by Ambassador Stefano Nicoletti and UiO Pro-Rector Bjørn Jamtveit, before an audience of Italian and international professors, researchers, and students in attendance and connected via livestream, the event addressed, from various perspectives, a burning issue: transnational migration flows and their political, social, and relational implications.
Professor Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, professor of modern and contemporary history at UiO, provided an introductory speech highlighting the correlation between waves of migration and the rise of racist and anti-Semitic groups and movements. Professor Lucia Carminati, an expert in the history of migration at the same university, focused her presentation on relational dynamics in multi-ethnic urban contexts, while Professor Monica Miscali, professor of modern history at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, provided an analysis of the migration dynamics of Italian citizens in Scandinavia in recent years. Professor Cristina Archetti, professor of political communication and journalism at UiO, concluded by focusing on the role of the media in influencing public opinion on issues such as national identity and integration.
On the sidelines of the event, Ambassador Nicoletti emphasized: “As with previous editions of Research Day, this year we have chosen a cross-cutting topic, capable of capturing the attention of both experts in the field and those wishing to gain greater awareness of an extraordinarily sensitive and complex issue like migration. I would like to thank the University of Oslo for its hospitality and collaboration in organizing the seminar, and the professors who enlivened the event with their presentations, demonstrating once again the high quality of research conducted by our scholars in Norway and Iceland.”
According to an open-source census conducted by the Italian Embassy in Oslo, updated earlier this year, there are currently nearly 700 Italian researchers and professors working in Norway (including visiting scholars), with substantial gender parity. Their presence is widespread throughout the country, from Oslo to Tromsø, encompassing a total of 44 universities and research institutions. However, a large portion of the Italian scientific community is concentrated in major Norwegian universities and institutions: more than a third are employed at NTNU Trondheim Polytechnic and the University of Oslo, while other major centers of aggregation include the SINTEF research center and the Universities of Bergen and Tromsø. The scientific community in Iceland, on the other hand, consists of 43 scholars.
