MariaCaterina

La Barbera

MariaCaterina La Barbera is PhD in Human Rights from the University of Palermo, Italy (2008). Her field of research is Feminist Legal and Social Philosophy. Intersectionality is her main area of specialization. Her research is interdisciplinary, covering Human Rights, Critical Legal Studies, Law & Society, Gender Studies, and Citizenship Studies. The common thread of her research is the conceptualization of equality and difference, focusing on intersectionality from a human rights perspective. The concepts of interlocking inequalities, social justice, social position, and membership are key in her research. Her research is oriented toward the analysis of normative conceptions of equality and diversity that underlie institutional praxis, focusing on how these are articulated within the frameworks of redistribution, recognition and participation that inform social justice-oriented public action. In particular, she investigates how social structures and political and legal institutions shape individual and collective positioning, focusing on the inequalities produced at the intersection of gender structures and migration regimes. She explored how theory shapes the praxis of intersectionality; how praxis affects its conceptualization; and how its implementation via public policies impacts society. She recently devoted to study the conceptualization of integration and membership underlying nationality acquisition form an intersectionality perspective. She engages in empirically-informed philosophy of law thanks to long-standing collaborations with sociologists and political scientists.

She started her career at the Department of Politics, Law and Society of the University of Palermo, Italy. She has been Visiting Student and Staff Researcher at the University of California-Berkeley. She obtained competitive postdoctoral fellowships such as the Ramon y Cajal fellowship awarded by the Ministry of Science and Education, the Jae-DOC fellowship to join the CSIC-Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales and a García Pelayo fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Presidency to join the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales of Madrid. She held teaching positions at National Distance Education University, University Carlos III of Madrid and Nebrija University. She has undertaken multiple research stays at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Aberdeen, and the European University Institute. She received the Award Joven Investigador en Filosofía Jurídica y Social from the Argentine Association of Philosophy of Law (2006) and the “Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence” (2017) from the European Commission. 

She is a member of the Academic Board of the PhD programs in Human Rights, Society, and Multi-level Governance of the University of Padua (Italy) and in Political Science and Administration and International Relations of the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). She currently is co-director of the Migration and Equality Working Group of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and coordinates the Observatorio sobre interseccionalidad of the Spanish National Research Council.

She has got the I3 certification (Incentivation of Incorporation and Intensification of research activity) from the Spanish State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science and Innovation and 3 six-year research periods (sexenios) recognized by the Spanish National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI) in the fields of Legal, Moral, and Political Philosophy (2006-2012) and Social Sciences (2013-2019 and 2020-2025). She has been certified by the Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) as apt to hold an Associate Professor position in the Spanish university system (Profesora Titular de Universidad). Her work languages are Spanish and English, Italian is her mother tongue.

Selected publications 
2025. w/ F Ahmadu et al. Harms of the current global anti-­FGM campaign, Journal of Medical Ethics, https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2025-110961. 
2025. w/ C Finotelli. Head or heart? Unpacking the subjective dimension of citizenship acquisition: insights from migrants’ narratives in Spain, Citizenship Studies, 29(1–2), 94–115, https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2025.2475817.
2025. w/ C Finotelli and S Yapo. The citizenship-integration nexus from below: migrants’ understanding of citizenship acquisition as a pathway to integration in Italy and Spain, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2473619.
2024. w/ L Cassain & P Caravantes. The discursive construction of intersectionality in public policy implementation, Critical Discourse Studies, 21(5), 555–572, https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2023.2228937.
2023. w/ R Tildesley & E Lombardo. ‘What use is the legislation to me?’ Contestations around the meanings of gender equality legislation and its strategic use to drive structural change in university organizations, Gender, Work and Organization, 30(6): 1996–2013, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13039.
2023. w/ J Espinosa-Fajardo & P Caravantes. Implementing Intersectionality in Public Policies, Spain. Politics & Gender, 19(3): 675–702, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X22000241.
2022. w/ S Boulos. Obstacles to and opportunities for protecting human rights at the city level: The case of Madrid City Council Human Rights Plan (2017–2019), The International Journal of Human Rights, https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2022.2142213.
2019. w/ M Cruells López. Towards the Implementation of Intersectionality in the European Multilevel Legal Praxis: B. S. v Spain. Law & Society Review, 53(4): 1167-1201, https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12435.
2019. w/ E Lombardo. Towards equal sharing of care? Judicial implementation of EU equal employment and work–life balance policies in Spain. Policy & Society, 38(4): 626-642, https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12435.
2017. Ban without Prosecution, Conviction without Punishment, and Circumcision without Cutting: A Critical Appraisal of Anti-FGM Laws in Europe, Global Jurist, 17(2), https://doi.org/10.1515/gj-2016-0012.

Principal Investigator of competitive research projects
REsearching Legal Implementation of an Intersectional Framework: a feminist sociolegal analysis of opportunities and obstacles (RELIEF); Ref. 101208100; Principal Investigator; European Commission; Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship; 209.914,56 €; 01/02/2026-31/01/2028; Recipient: Giulia Arena, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101208100.
Integration and belonging in the institutional praxis: critical discourse analysis from a gender and intersectionality perspective (INTERSEGRA); Ref. CNS2022-135492; Principal Investigator; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Ayudas para Incentivar la Consolidación Investigadora 2022; 178.715 €; 01/07/2023-31/12/2025, https://www.intersegra.csic.es/.
The subjective dimension of citizenship: conceptions, legal praxis and individual strategies in Italy and Spain (CIVITES); Ref. PID2019-104706GB-I00; co-Principal Investigator with C. Finotelli; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Proyectos de I+D de generación de conocimiento; 31.823 €; 01/06/2020-31/12/2024, https://civitesproject.com/.
Human Rights at the intersection of gender and migration; Ref. RYC-2017-23010; Principal Investigator; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Program Ramón y Cajal; 40.000 €; 01/02/2019-20/12/2023, https://mclb-hhrr-intersectionality.csic.es/. 
Equality in Universities: employment, education, R&D; Ref. 4/1ACT/19; Principal Investigator; Instituto de las Mujeres; 9.472,50 €; 21/10/2019-30/06/2021, https://interuniguales.com/. 
Towards the implementation of the human rights, gender and intersectionality approach in Madrid municipal policies (IMPLEMAD); Ref. 2018-548-0421; Principal Investigator; Ayuntamiento de Madrid (Research Program Ciudadanía Global y Cooperación Internacional 2018); 49.161,60 €; 01/02/2019- 30/11/2020, https://implemad.es/.
Women “in transit” and transformation of gender identity in migratory processes (WOMINTRA); Ref. 6/10; Principal Investigator; Instituto de la Mujer; 23.977,51 €; 17/01/2011-31/10/2014.
Negociaciones de la identidad en los procesos migratorios; Ref. FFI2010-11091-E; Principal Investigator; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; 5.000 €; 01/01/2011-31/12/2011, https://illa.csic.es/es/event/international-conference-negotiating-identity-migration-processes-jornadas-internacionales.

Supervision of PhD candidates
1. Mental Frames and Conceptual Metaphor of Hijab and hijab-wearing women in British and Spanish Press; G. KhirAllah; Supervision w/ M. el-Madkouri; Univ. Autónoma de Madrid; 04/09/2017, https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/tesis?codigo=182848. 
2. Análisis crítico de las estrategias de seguridad nacional y las estrategias contra el terrorismo de España; J. de la Uz López; Supervision w/ A. Serranó; Univ. Antonio de Nebrija; 23/09/2025, https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/dctes?codigo=394441.
3. The Labour Rights of Chinese Immigrants Workers in Southern Europe; C. Wu (China Scholarship Council Fellowship 2024); Supervision w/ A. Sitzia; Univ. Padova (Italy); in progress, https://unipd-centrodirittiumani.it/en/activities/cycle-40-20242025-1.
4. Healing is Political: An Intersectional Exploration of Healing and Social Justice; D. Rojda Koldas (FPI-UAM Fellowship 2025); Supervision w/ A. Serranó; Univ. Autónoma de Madrid; in progress.
5. Propuesta análitica interseccional de los Sistemas Agroalimentarios Sostenibles e Inclusivos desde el diálogo entre territorios SIPAM; X. Pardo Fuentes (FPU Fellowship 2023); Supervision w/ G. Palau Salvador; Univ. Politécnica de Valencia; in progress.
6. Las políticas públicas desde la perspectiva de la interseccionalidad; A. Cifuentes Matanza (FPU Fellowship 2024); Supervision w/ E. Lombardo; Univ. Complutense de Madrid; in progress.

Area of expertise 
Human Rights, Legal and Social Philosophy, Law & Society, Gender Studies, Interseccionality Studies, Migration Studies and Citizenship Studies.