Stellamarina Donato è professoressa associata di Sociologia Generale presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Umane dell’Università LUMSA di Roma. Le sue ricerche riguardano le migrazioni di ritorno, l’agency delle donne e la violenza di genere. Ha svolto ricerca sul campo in Marocco e Tunisia, nell’ambito del progetto PRIN PNRR 2022 "WE-PROPOSE: Processes, policies, and networks in support of women’s returnees to Tunisia and Morocco", e in America Latina: in Costa Rica, con studi sulle mobilità e i percorsi migratori delle donne, e in Messico, dove collabora con il CRIM-UNAM a una ricerca sulle narrazioni delle donne messicane rientrate nel Paese. Dal 2025 è profesora asociada (participante externa) del programma "Migraciones, Cambio Social e Identidades" dell’Instituto de Estudios de Población (IDESPO), Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica.
È Coordinatrice della rete RN33 Women’s and Gender Studies dell’European Sociological Association (ESA) dal 2026, dopo esserne stata Vice-Coordinatrice, e co-leader del WG3 della COST Cross-Cutting Activity "Supporting career development of young researchers". Con la Prof.ssa Marie Ruiz ha co-creato il documentario "In the Shadow. Women on the Move", presentato a decisori politici, al Parlamento Europeo, in diverse università internazionali e presso l’Università per la Pace delle Nazioni Unite in Costa Rica. È stata Vice-chair e co-gender advisor dell’Azione COST CA19112 Women on the Move (WEMov).
Ha pubblicato su riviste nazionali e internazionali, tra cui Journal of International Migration and Integration, Violence Against Women, International Review of Sociology, The International Journal of Press/Politics, The Communication Review, Italian Sociological Review e Cultura Latinoamericana. Tra i suoi libri più recenti: Agency e diritti delle donne tra Europa mediterranea e Nord Africa (Loffredo, 2024) e Laws and Policies to Contrast and Prevent Gender-Based Violence Against Women: A Comparative Analysis between Spain and Italy (1993–2015) (Vernon Press, 2023).
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Stellamarina Donato is Associate Professor of Sociology at LUMSA University in Rome, Department of Human Studies. Her research addresses women’s migration and return migration, women’s agency, and gender-based violence. She has conducted fieldwork in Morocco and Tunisia within the PRIN PNRR 2022 project "WE-PROPOSE: Processes, policies, and networks in support of women’s returnees to Tunisia and Morocco", and in Latin America: in Costa Rica, studying women’s mobilities and migration trajectories, and in Mexico, where she collaborates with CRIM-UNAM on research into the narratives of Mexican women who have returned to the country. Since 2025, she has been profesora asociada (participante externa) in the programme "Migraciones, Cambio Social e Identidades" at the Instituto de Estudios de Población (IDESPO), Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica.
Since 2026 she has been Coordinator of the RN33 Women’s and Gender Studies network of the European Sociological Association (ESA), having previously served as Vice-Coordinator, and she co-leads WG3 of the COST Cross-Cutting Activity "Supporting career development of young researchers". With Prof. Marie Ruiz, she co-created the documentary "In the Shadow. Women on the Move", screened for policymakers, at the European Parliament, at several international universities, and at the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. She was Vice-Chair and co-Gender Advisor of COST Action CA19112 Women on the Move (WEMov).
She is Co-Director of the Observatory on International Cooperation for Sustainable Development (OCISS), a partnership between Centro Studi Internazionali (CSI) and the University of Salerno, an advisor for Open Research Europe (ORE), and a member of the scientific board of the Women on the Move series at Manchester University Press.
Her work appears in journals including the Journal of International Migration and Integration, Violence Against Women, International Review of Sociology, The International Journal of Press/Politics, The Communication Review, Italian Sociological Review, and Cultura Latinoamericana. Her latest books are Agency e diritti delle donne tra Europa mediterranea e Nord Africa [Agency and Women’s Rights between Mediterranean Europe and North Africa] (Loffredo, 2024) and Laws and Policies to Contrast and Prevent Gender-Based Violence Against Women: A Comparative Analysis between Spain and Italy (1993–2015) (Vernon Press, 2023).
Before her current appointment, she was a Researcher (RTDa) at LUMSA. Earlier, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at LUISS University (2023–2024), working on gender inclusion in education, media narratives, and business strategies in Italy and Spain, and at LUMSA (2022–2023), on the project "Italian Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic", a comparison of women’s experiences in Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, and Italy. She received her PhD cum laude with the Doctor Europaeus mention in 2022, with a thesis on the international community’s terms and policies against gender-based violence against women. During her doctorate she was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Zaragoza (2020). Before that, she was a research intern at the University of Ljubljana (2018).
She holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Bologna (2017) and a BA magna cum laude in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Naples L’Orientale (2015). She has also worked with the Consulate of Cape Verde in Naples and with CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado) in Spain. She speaks Italian, English, Spanish, and French, and has basic Arabic.