The Wiley Network

Celebrating Excellence: hear from a Wiley Research Hero recipient

Celebrating Excellence: hear from a Wiley Research Hero recipient

In this blog post, hear from Dr. Maria Elena Indelicato (who goes by Marilena), a recent recipient of a Wiley Research Hero Award, and Dr. Estella Carpi, the colleague who nominated her. Marilena shares her academic journey, from her early studies in media and communication to her transformative engagement with feminist, queer, and critical race theories. She reflects on the challenges she’s faced in academia, including discrimination and precarity, and how these experiences have shaped her work. 

Estella, who has worked closely with Marilena since their doctoral years at the University of Sydney, discusses why Marilena is so deserving of this recognition. She highlights Marilena’s groundbreaking contributions to decolonizing knowledge and advocating for marginalized perspectives, both within the academic community and beyond. 

This conversation offers insight into Marilena’s inspiring dedication to research, her commitment to social justice, and the far-reaching impact of her work—making her a truly deserving recipient of the Wiley Research Hero Award.



Dr. Maria Elena Indelicato

Asset

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who or what has inspired you throughout your research career? 

If I was asked this question in any other settings, I would likely talk for hours. I do genuinely enjoy sharing all sorts of information about myself as well as what has kept me motivated over time, things I have done, people I have met, jobs I have done, all the things that have marked my life trajectory. But for this interview I feel I would brag.  I guess my work reflects my academic and life journey. I started as a media and communication studies student in Rome with a few stints in Semiotics and Cultural Anthropology. For some time, I contemplated pursuing an academic career in Semiotics, but I did not feel that this discipline would be my home. Then I literally bumped into feminist and queer theory and all the sudden I knew that that was it, I had to be a feminist. This brought me to Australia, at the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, where I met Estella by a printing machine in the PhD shared working space of the Faculty of Arts.

I did not know a thing about the country before moving there. However, I learnt very fast the ABC of settler colonialism and the upholding of white supremacy through population management policies. It also happened that I bumped into critical race studies and, on my own, navigated my way into knowing the various aspects of the field. At one point, Victoria Grieves and Alana Lentin entered my life turning my amateur interest in the colonial legacy of the country into a systematic pursuit. To be honest, literally everything contributed to this, any encounter, any interactions, and even walks in some places in Sydney.

I must mention Jackie Jarrett who used to work at the Mudgin-Gal Centre in Redfern, the activists I hung out with during Occupy Sydney, the comrades of the Teachers Union, my PhD colleagues at the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, with a special mention to Sara Cefai, Hongwei Bao, Qiu Zitong, Anita Bressan and Kate O'Halloran. I also owe a lot to Yasamin Altaïra, and the young students I had the privilege to mentor, again I need to especially acknowledge Salim Noorzai.  

There are so many more people I would like to mention but they are too many, and they all contributed to the shaping of my theoretical formation and academic practices of space- making and scaffolding. Most importantly, in Australia, I found the ´archive´ and family history, which led me to develop a huge passion for deep dives in history, which I see as a fold that still shapes the present. I guess that, from an academic perspective, it is my love for writing histories of the present that makes me different from other scholars but also bears the traces of my life history. When I do research, it all plays back in my brain, every conversation, every encounter in the Sara Ahmed-sense. Most of my work stems from what plays back in my brain, on how my past interacts with what I am observing, on the one side, and what I am reading, on the other.  

When I moved to China, I believe I truly became a ´teacher´. I found myself mixing up all the styles, the ways I was taught in Italy, the ways that I learnt what Cultural Studies is about and last but not least, Chinese educators ‘emphasis on keywords and summaries. I really started mastering the art of teaching, making sure that no student was left behind or felt alienated. I learnt to break down complex concepts, guiding students first but, then also the reader through the journey of understanding how race, gender, sexuality, and colonialism, as heuristics, have all played out and conditioned our way of knowing and seeing the world. I learnt that teaching was all about giving tools to approach everything otherwise and, after some time, I believe that this insight became another driver of my work. My colleagues were also truly the most capacious and generous I have ever had, they really taught me everything I know about modernity as a state project, Chinese Cinema(s) and the history of the Chinese diaspora. Let me here mention Yongchun Fu, who introduced me to the archives of Chinese cinemas and diaspora, and Xiaoling Zheng, Hao Lu, Amy Zhou and Vincent Zhou for being the most brilliant students any teacher can wish for. Again, I believe that what I learnt from them informed some more of my work, especially my research on the history of interculturalism and Sinophobia. 

When I was obliged to leave both Australia and China, I somehow felt that I stopped learning directly from my own life, perhaps because of Covid or because my current position is research only. However, more recently I feel that I am connected again with various communities of thinkers from whom I am learning and also developing a few new skills.My partner, João Figueiredo, deserves a special mention since he is just brilliant, and he always challenges me. At times, when we talk, he just comes up with beautifully articulated ideas about how the figure of the ´native´, race and anti-blackness operate in different contexts.  

What challenges have you faced in your career so far, and how did you overcome them?  

One time somebody threatened to kick me out of my PhD program after having put me on an extended probation. Later, I was told it was all about this person being new in the department and new to ´international students´. I still owe a huge debt of gratitude to Natalya Lusty, who stood up for me and made sure that I stayed in the program. I will never forget how calmly she once asked me to leave the room for her to take matters into her own hands. Other than this, I have faced the usual challenges, discrimination because I am not a native speaker of English, power abuses by administrators and senior colleagues, the usual ´boss´ who is a bully, the occasional colleague who sexually harasses you and, of course, precarity. When people ask me how come I have moved this much, my answer simply is `I needed a job. ´ 

What's next for you in your research journey?   

Experimenting with settler colonial studies frameworks outside of settler colonial nation states in relation to the rise of the far right and current wave of repression of dissent. None of these ideas are mine, they have all stemmed from conversations I have had with like-minded colleagues on a WhatsApp group called “The Circle” that Alana Lentin started around the time Twitter became X. Because of this group, I have also promised myself to read Cedric Robinson and learn more about racial capitalism while keeping up with my interest in reading about disability and critiquing TERF-ism. These are the tabs that are pending open in my brain at the moment.  

The historical moment we are currently living in is plainly dangerous and most studies of the far right fall short to grasp the full picture. Obviously critical race studies scholars have advanced better analyses but much more is needed, and more spaces need to be opened to allow critical scholars to join the dots between entrenching nativism at home and heightened imperialism abroad.  

On a more practical level, I am looking forward to getting back to teaching and having more opportunities to mentor students from under privileged backgrounds alongside completing my ongoing project on the history of Black affect and the uses of sentimentalism by Black American scholars and activists. 

What advice would you give to early-career researchers or students who aspire to make an impact like you have?  

This is a very interesting question. I remember when I started my PhD, and I truly did not know a thing besides reading and writing. I did not know how to present papers, compete for funding, publishing for journals, I literally knew nothing. So, once I was in this reading group sharing with others the idea of asking our department to run some seminars to train us about this stuff. One of my colleagues, who was not only a white Australian but also the son of two academics, replied to me that he did not understand why we should be trained about something as banal as giving a paper or submitting a manuscript and then went on listing all the steps and things that you need to know to do this kind of stuff. We all went silent till Hongwei Bao, who was senior to us by a few years, offered to help us with learning the ropes of academia in Australia. Coincidentally, Hongwei Bao is known for mentoring and inspiring queer theory scholars all around the world. A few more colleagues helped me along the way with lots of very useful advice and practical tips to ´make it´ for example Sukhmani Khorana read and proofread almost all my applications, while always giving the best advice on how to deal with other academics. I would not have been able to stay in academia without her. 

I am highlighting all these experiences as they led me to develop a preoccupation for students and early career researchers who do not come from privilege. So, my advice is usually about career development, how they can bridge gaps, adapt and compete successfully for funds and positions. My advice is usually about how they can level the playfield. It is always very concrete. But I also advise one crucial thing that my mother taught me very early on in my life. As far as I can remember, she always told me that there is nothing more important than your freedom and independence. I guess that this advice makes very little sense from those who do not share my mother's background. We are accustomed to not see any merit in working class culture and values, but it is from my working class parents that I learned the importance of building a reputation for yourself that is neither about status, climbing the ladder, nor about proving yourself to those who enjoy a better social standing than you. It is more about proving that you have integrity and when you are an academic the only way to preserve your integrity is to steer away from power-hungry professors and so-called star professors. 

If you are an academic and you want to make sure you are known for your integrity, do not get close to anybody who would make you feel like they own you or use their proximity to you as a way to ´diversity wash´ their research and public profile.  In other words, protect your academic freedom and independence while keeping in mind the academic and non-academic communities you want to serve with your work. 

What principles or qualities are important to you as a researcher?  

Many scholars, understandingly, do not like teaching. Teaching entails lots of administrative work and it is often physically exhausting. It is also difficult to reach out to students who have all sorts of backgrounds and who are not necessarily attending your class because they are interested in what you have to say. But I love teaching no matter what and I am pretty good at it. I also love being an editor. In general, I like creating opportunities to learn and learn along with others and from others. Teaching and being an editor allows you to do so much more than undertake research on your own or have a career that is output oriented. So I guess that I am very collegial and I see research as a collaborative process of learning that includes colleagues but also students.  As a matter of fact, whenever I present my work on the far right, I acknowledge my students from the Ningbo Tech University because it is together with them that I developed my framework to understand the mainstreaming of Muslim racism, and the rise of anti-gender movements across Europe. In this regard, I would like to mention the Editors of the Journal of Intercultural Studies, Paula Muraca and Melissa Phillips, for running the journal I work for as Book Review Editor, with so much academic generosity and collegiality. 

Is there anything else that's important that you'd like to say?  

I would like to thank Estella for her nomination. I was humbled by her choice and the news that her nomination was selected for the award. In my heart, I still feel that she herself deserves this award more than I do. I would like to seize this interview as an opportunity to remind us all that it is very important that we continue to stand in solidarity with all those who are oppressed and together fight for our collective liberation. 

Now let’s hear from the nominator Dr Estella Carpi 

Dr Carpi is an Associate Professor in Humanitarian Studies at University College London and regularly deals with Critical Race, Gender, and Cultural Studies debates and theories which Marilena’s work largely revolves around. Marilena and Estella shared the pains and achievements of the doctoral years throughout 2010-2014 at the University of Sydney in Australia, while being based in different Departments. 

Can you tell me why you decided to nominate Marilena for this award?  

Marilena has made extraordinary contributions to the decolonization of knowledge and research, advancing the inclusion of marginalized perspectives and redefining the boundaries of academic discourse. 

Marilena has been a pioneering force in promoting indigenous knowledge systems, deconstructing Eurocentric paradigms, and advocating for equitable research practices that honour diverse ways of knowing. Through her scholarship, she has worked tirelessly to propose tangible avenues to dismantle the colonial frameworks that have long dominated academic and research institutions. She continuously endeavours to create space for scholars and students from historically underrepresented communities to have their voices heard, making academia more inclusive and just. 

How does it feel to see your nominee recognized with this award, and what significance does their achievement hold for you as their nominator?  

It was an amazing feeling to know that Marilena received the award, and that my thoughts on her scholarship and the latter’s impact on the local community of scholars and students in Australia were highly taken into account in the nomination process. 

What specific qualities or achievements do you think set Marilena apart from others?  

One of the most remarkable aspects of Marilena’s career is her commitment to unearthing the experiences of international students in the Australian higher education system, to document the practices and discursive strategies of institutional racism and discrimination.

She has inspired countless students and researchers to pursue work that is not only academically rigorous, but also socially responsible and ethically grounded. By fostering an environment of critical inquiry and reflexivity, she has helped to cultivate a new wave of scholarship that is committed to social justice and the dismantling of epistemic violence. 

Her contributions extend beyond the academic sphere, as she has also worked to bring decolonial perspectives into public discourse. Through her publications, public lectures, and community engagement initiatives, she has raised awareness about the harmful effects of colonialism on knowledge production and has advocated for systemic changes within academic institutions globally. This had already had a large impact on the community of doctoral students during the years of our doctorate in Australia. 

In recognition of Marilena’s dedication to transforming the landscape of knowledge and research, I can think of no scholar more deserving of this award. Her work constantly inspires my critical approach to the unequal political geographies of humanitarianism and the rights of peoples. She exemplifies the principles of decolonial scholarship and has made an indelible impact on the field.