Greta Semplici has recently earned a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) from the Oxford Department of International Development. Her research explored the concept of resilience from the perspective of pastoralist populations. She conducted an ethnographically informed study of desertscapes based on extended multi-sited fieldwork in Turkana County, in the arid lands of Northern Kenya. Her current research interests lie at the interface between mobility, migration, and borderlands, drawing lessons from the experiences of ‘mobile peoples’ understood as social groups for whom mobility is central to social, political and economic organization, as well as a core principle of ideology and philosophy. Mobile peoples ̶ which encompasses pastoralists, nomadic hunters and gatherers, and other peripatetic peoples (e.g. Travellers) ̶ are often excluded from mainstream research on migration and displacement.
Previously, Greta worked for FAO Somalia as Monitoring and Evaluation International Consultant and collaborated with LAMA Development and Cooperation Agency for research on formal and informal social protection strategies in rural Malawi. She also held several research assistance positions with ODI (Overseas Development Institute), IMI (International Migration Institute), and EUI (European University Institute). She holds a B.A. in Development Economics and International Cooperation from the University of Florence (
laurea triennale) and an M.Sc. in Development Economics from the University of Florence (
laurea specialistica). Greta will spend the academic year 2020/21 working on her book manuscript, provisionally titled, ‘Moving Deserts: the resilience challenge in drylands’.