Tommaso Virgili

Tommaso Virgili joined the Martens Centre as Visiting Fellow in April 2019. His main areas of expertise are Islam, radicalisation, individual liberties, and integration of migrants. He was previously Programme Director at the European Foundation for Democracy, a Brussels-based think tank devoted to prevention of radicalisation, where he remains Visiting Fellow. Prior to that, he held posts at the European External Action Service  (covering Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan), at the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum think tank, and at the Italian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Tommaso holds a Ph.D. from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa focused on Islam and individual liberties in the Constitutions of Egypt and Tunisia. He previously obtained a Master of Arts in Middle East, Islamic Studies and Arabic at the American University of Paris and Cairo, and a Master’s Degree in Law at Sant’Anna School in Pisa. In addition to his native Italian, Tommaso speaks fluent English and French, and intermediate Spanish and Arabic.