Carla Vitantonio, former Policy Leader Fellow and member of the EUI alumni community, speaks with the EUI EDI Officer, Giuseppe Zago, as she reflects on the many lives she has built across the globe, each shaped by her international experiences. The episode opens with her unconventional journey from political theatre and social activism to leading humanitarian missions in some of the world’s most complex environments. Her early performance work, focused on exposing systems of power and inequality, gradually led her towards international development, first through short missions, and later as a full-time humanitarian worker.
Drawing on her experience, Carla offers a candid critique of the humanitarian sector entangled with colonial legacies. She reflects on how many aspiring humanitarians begin their careers driven by ‘good feelings’, yet this motivation often sits within a broader system of whiteness, intended not as skin colour, but as a global structure of privilege inherited from colonial rule. Through personal stories, including her own experiences of discrimination growing up in rural southern Italy, she illustrates how these power dynamics shape both perception and practice in the field.
The conversation then widens to the global political landscape. Carla traces a line back to the Genoa Social Forum of 2001, a moment she identifies as pivotal in the criminalisation of civil activism and the securitisation of issues, such as migration, that are not actually security threats. She argues that today’s ‘polycrisis’ cannot be addressed with one single solution: “If we are facing a polycrisis, we need polysolutions,” she notes, emphasising the importance of collective action. While individuals and individual education matter, she observes that organisations carry significant weight, yet they often fail to push back. When individuals do mobilise, they are frequently punished, reinforcing a trend that has been unfolding from far earlier than 2025.
From here, the discussion turns to the politics of ‘othering’, which Carla explains by intertwining it with her own experience stemming from years of living in Pyongyang, Myanmar, Cuba and Italy as a queer woman. She argues that ‘othering’ is the process of allowing differences to overshadow similarities, often casting ‘the other’ as the enemy or victim and stripping them of their agency, and it operates not only in humanitarian work but also across society.
She also touches on language as an instrument of power, and not merely as a performative act. “If you are not present in the law, if you are not recognised as a subject, how can you have rights?”, she notes, leading into a discussion of the coloniality of gender: “As Europeans, we should get extremely worried by the fact that our legal frameworks are becoming increasingly restrictive and preach less about saving Africa.”
The episode also touches on Carla’s literary work. Her trilogy, Pyongyang Blues, Myanmar Swing and Bolero Havana, is tied together by musical references. What began as an editorial expectation evolved into a meaningful artistic choice: each musical style reflects the emotional landscape of the country she lived in. North Korea carries the melancholy of a blues, Myanmar the energy of a swing during its brief democratic period, and Cuba the depth of the bolero, inspired in part by the legendary singer María Teresa Vera.
Throughout the conversation, Carla emphasises the importance of reflexivity, offering the listener a personal, yet analytical account of what it means to work within global power and resistance to its structures.
To delve deeper into the topics, below are some recommendations from our guest:
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Episode details:
Host: Giuseppe Zago, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the EUI
Guest: Carla Vitantonio, EUI Policy Leader Fellow, humanitarian worker, and author
This initiative was produced in collaboration with the EUI's researcher-led web radio, Radio Cavolo. Do you have a question about the podcast? Drop a line to radiocavolo@eui.eu.