Leila Simona Talani has been Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of European and International Studies since 2014. She became editor of the Palgrave series on the Politics of Migration and Citizenship in 2020. In 2022 she founded the Centre for Italian Politics @ EIS of which she is the director. Since November 2024 she is the Director of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for the relations between the EU and the UK at King's college London.

In 2017 she was awarded a visiting Professorship at the Kennedy School of Government of the University of Harvard. She was also appointed Jean Monnet Chair of European Political Economy by the European Commission in 2012.

She was previously at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and in the department of European studies of the University of Bath. From November 2000 until September 2001, she held the position of Associate Expert for the United Nations Regional Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention based in Cairo working on irregular migration from the Middle East and Northern Africa to EU countries. In the academic year 1999-2000 she taught 'The political Economy of European Integration' at the European Institute of the London School of Economics where she had previously held a research and teaching fellowship for the academic year 1998-1999.

Leila was awarded a PhD with distinction at the European University Institute of Florence in 1998.

She is the author, among other titles, of: The Migration Question (OUP/Hurst 2025) with Matilde Rosina, The IPE of migration in The globalization era (Palgrave 2022); The political Economy of Italy in the Euro (Palgrave 2017), The Handbook of the International Political Economy of Migration (Edward Elgar, 2014-2017); The Arab Spring in the Global Political Economy(Palgrave, 2014), Dirty Cities: towards a political economy of shadow dynamics in global cities (Palgrave, 2013), European Political Economy (Ashgate: 2013), Globalization, Migration and the future of Europe(Routledge 2011), and From Egypt to Europe (I.B.Tauris, 2010).

Research

• International Political Economy and the Middle East
• European Political Economy
• The political Economy of International Migration
• The City of London and the British Financial Sector
• Italy and the EMU

Her research interests currently focus on the global political economy and the migration crisis and on the consequences of the global financial crisis on the capitalist structures of European countries.

PhD supervision

Leila welcomes applications for PhD topics related to any of her research interests.

Expertise and public engagement

Membership of editorial boards:

International Relations and Diplomacy

International Political Economy Yearbook

Reviewer for:

Palgrave International Political Economy series

International Spectator

European Journal of International Relation

Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Francis and Taylor

British Journal of Politics and International relations

Routledge International Political Economy series

Francis and Taylor Journals

Ashgate

Cambridge University Press

Evaluator for:

INTAS projects

MIUR projects (Italian Ministry For University and Research)

Membership of professional bodies and networks

International Affairs Institute (IAI: https://www.iai.it/en/persone/leila-simona-talani)

International Studies Association

ECPR,

British International Studies Association

Political Studies Association

European Union Studies Association

Council for European Studies

British Council network on migration: Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the dialogue between cultures

European Migration network

European University Institute

London School of Economics, European Institute

Media

BBC, Rai, Al Jazeera, La Stampa, CNN