Brigitte Maréchal, director of CISMOC, the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World, and professor at UCLouvain, teaches sociology of religions and socio-anthropology of contemporary Islam. A sociologist with a doctorate in sociology, as well as degrees in political science and Islamic studies, she spent a year at the French Institute for Arabic Studies in Damascus, Syria. Her research focuses on the transformations of European Islam, and she oversees two collections on the subject (Academia and PUL). In addition to her work on Muslim organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood movement, she has analyzed reciprocal perceptions between Muslims and “non-Muslims” in Belgium. She also edited an issue of the journal Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques on the representation of Islam on the internet (2018). Her interests have always included cultural productions, such as literature and music, and their impact. Nowadays she is also working on the relationships between ecology and religion in Belgium and in Senegal.

Hubert Roland is a Research Director at the National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) and an Extraordinary Professor at UCLouvain. Thanks to a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he spent several years teaching and conducting research at the Universities of Marburg and Münster in Germany. A specialist in German and comparative literature, he has focused on the history of Franco-Belgian-German cultural and literary exchanges and the field of comparative poetics, including a recent book on magical realism in German-language literature. This research experience has deepened his longstanding interest in intercultural exchanges in literature, paving the way for the NarraMuse project. 

Costantino Maeder is a Full Professor of Italian literature and linguistics. He directs the Globalit research center and the Center for Italian Studies. Trained in literary theory, semiotics, linguistics, music theory, and musicology, he adopts interdisciplinary approaches influenced by cognitive sciences that also address social and political dimensions. Together with Jean-Yves Heurtebise (Fu Jen Catholic University), he recentlypublished Reflets de soi au miroir de l’autre. Les représentations croisées. Europe/Chine du vingtième siècle à nos jours (Peter Lang, 2022), a collection of essays by Taiwanese, Chinese, French, and Belgian scholars. 

Amaury Dehoux holds a doctorate in comparative literature from UCLouvain. For over a decade, he has studied the international contemporary novel, with a particular focus on Francophone and Anglophone literature.  His research on the novel and world literature adopts an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating insights from anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. His main theme of research explores issues related to postcolonialism, globalization, interculturality, and transculturality. He is the author of Écrits à l’ombre du terrorisme. Romans et romanciers face à l’expérience contemporaine de la terreur (Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2019), a critical examination of literary representations of religious terrorism and the role of fiction in grappling with fanaticism.

After completing her master’s degree with a thesis on intercultural dynamics in the context of German colonization in Southwest Africa as portrayed in Uwe Timm’s novel Morenga (UCLouvain, 2020), Gloria Coscia worked as a literacy trainer for non-French-speaking audiences and as a French as a foreign language instructor in Belgium. She is currently a PhD Candidate at INCAL (Institute of Civilizations, Arts, and Letters) at UCLouvain, under the supervision of Professor Hubert Roland. Her research focuses on the intertwined memories in post-migratory novels of Muslim descent, exploring how these narratives act as factors of confrontation and reconciliation in French, German, and Italian literature.

Letizia Sassi is a PhD candidate in literature and linguistics at UCLouvain, under the supervision of Costantino Maeder. During her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Università degli Studi di Milano – La Statale, and through her Erasmus+ program at the University of Edinburgh, she developed a deep interest in the theme of national identities and their contradictions. Her research explored the complex relationship between Scottishness, Englishness, and Britishness, adopting a diachronic approach to examine the social, political, religious, and linguistic dynamics shaping these identitiesover time. Currently, her work focuses on postmigrant rappers and their self-narratives, investigating how they navigate and express their identities.

Holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Heritage (Università degli Studi di Padova, 2019) and a Master’s degree in Sociology and Social Research (Università degli Studi di Padova, 2021), Serena Finotello is a PhD candidate affiliated with CISMOC (Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World/IACCHOS) at UCLouvain. Following various formative experiences abroad (au pair in Germany, Erasmus program in France), she continues to enhance her international experience in Belgium. Her research areas include the sociology of contemporary Islam, the sociology of literature, cultural and religious plurality in European societies, and changing dynamics in the world of work, particularly related to the environment, gender, and migration. She is currently working on life narratives in French by authors of Muslim descent, studying the processes of constructing a hybrid identity in a context of cultural and religious diversity.