Ersilia Francesca

Ersilia Francesca is a Full Professor of Islamic History at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale', where she is affiliated with the Department of Asia, Africa and Mediterranean. She teaches Gender Politics in an Islamic Context and Contemporary Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa across multiple graduate programs including Relazioni e Istituzioni dell'Asia e dell'Africa, Lingue e Culture Comparate, and Lingue e Culture dell'Asia e dell'Africa.

Her research focuses on three main interconnected areas: Islamic law, gender studies in Islamic contexts, and the history of Islamic economics. Professor Francesca has established herself as a leading scholar in Ibadi studies, particularly through her early work on medieval Islamic commerce and more recent publications exploring the role of Ibadi minority in Islamic history. She has published five monographs including her seminal 2002 work 'Theory and Practice of Commerce in Medieval Islam' and 'Economy, Religion and Morality in Islam' (2013), which was the first comprehensive reconstruction of Islamic economic thought in Italian.

Recent publications demonstrate her evolving research trajectory toward contemporary issues, particularly the intersection of gender, climate change, and politics in the MENA region. Her 2024 publications examine labor ethics in classical Islamic texts while also addressing modern challenges facing women in North Africa and the Middle East. Professor Francesca has increasingly focused on the gendered impacts of climate change, positioning herself at the intersection of environmental policy and Islamic feminist scholarship.

• Editor of Studi Magrebini/North African Studies (Class A journal)
• Co-editor of the series Studies on Ibadism and Oman with Abdulrahman al-Salimi
• Member of the scientific committee of the International Association on Ibadi Studies
• Member of editorial boards for Donne fedi culture and Manifesta

Professor Francesca has maintained an active international scholarly presence through visiting positions at SOAS (London, 2015), EPHE (Paris, 2018), and École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris, 2024). She currently participates in the French Institute of Islamic Studies project 'Faire société: modèles normatifs et hétéronomie dans les islams minorityitaires' and has coordinated research on post-revolutionary North Africa, particularly examining gender mobility and social activism.