I earned a PhD in Global Histories, Cultures, and Politics from the University of Bologna in 2021, and I hold an MA in Cultural Anthropology. Currently, I am a Research Fellow at the Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna, and a Research Affiliate at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State, South Africa, where I served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2021 to 2024. I am currently writing a monograph on the monetary history of Eritrea and the Red Sea during the Italian colonial period. My work focuses on the social, economic, and monetary history of East Africa and the Indian Ocean in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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My most recent publications examine the role of money in the regularization of African soldiers in the Italian army and the impact of colonial monetary regulations in Eritrea during the First World War. De Cola A. (2023), “Money and the Regularisation of African Soldiers in the Early Phase of Italian Colonialism in Eritrea”, War & Society, 42, 2, pp. 140-156 De Cola A. (2022), “The Maria Theresa thaler in Italian Eritrea: The Impact of Colonial Monetary Policies during the First World War”, in K. Pallaver (ed.) Monetary Transitions. Currencies, Colonial Rule and African Societies, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham