CASADEI Thomas

Biography: https://www.thomascasadei.it/prof20/biografia/
Publications: https://www.thomascasadei.it/prof20/pubblicazioni/
Seminars and Conferences: https://www.thomascasadei.it/prof20/2016/03/20/seminari-e-convegni-2/

Current and previous positions:
Full Professor of Philosophy of Law (12/GIUR-17) at the Department of Law, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore), since December 2021.
Since December 2022 he has been Director of CRID – Interdepartmental Research Centre on Discrimination and Vulnerability, which brings together scholars from the Departments of Law, Engineering and Economics. He is also a member of the Executive Board of CRIS – Interdepartmental Research Centre on Safety and Risk Prevention, where he has been part of the Operational Unit on Legal and Social Aspects of Safety since 2004.
From November 2019 to November 2025 he served as Delegate for Communication and Spokesperson to the Rector of Unimore. In this capacity he advised the Rector on institutional communication and artificial intelligence strategy, and was Editor-in-Chief of FocusUnimore, the University's monthly online magazine.
Previously, he was Deputy Head of the Department of Law, Unimore (2018–2019), Adjunct Professor at the University of Bologna (2009–2014), and held several post-doctoral research positions at Unimore (2004–2010).
He holds a PhD in Political Philosophy from the University of Pisa (2003).

Prizes and awards:
Thomas Casadei has received several national and international recognitions attesting to the quality and impact of his scientific and editorial work. He was appointed member of the Committee for the Celebrations of the 850th Anniversary of the University of Modena; of the National Committee for the Centenary of the Death of Anna Kuliscioff (1854–1925), established by the A. Kuliscioff Foundation; and of the National Committee for the Centenary of the Birth of Alberto Manzi (1924–1996), established by the “Centro A. Manzi” (Legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna). He was also appointed Honorary Member, together with R. Levi Montalcini, of the Association “Voce donna” (Castrocaro Terme, FC), which promotes equality between women and men.
Further distinctions include selected-paper recognitions for Springer volumes in the “Gender Perspectives in Law” series and the “Ius Gentium” collection.

Visiting academic positions:
International Visiting Professor at the Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Sevilla (Jan.–Feb. 2024; Jan.–Feb. 2025). The 2025 visit took place within the SAFELY – Social Media Awareness for Education And Legal Youth project: besides several lectures and two round tables on the project, he coordinated the joint Doctoral Seminar “New technologies, ethics, culture and society”.
During the same period he lectured at the seminar “Ethics and the right to healthcare: the challenges posed by new technologies in Southern Europe”, Faculdade de Direito, Universidade de Coimbra (31 Jan. 2025).
On behalf of CRID and the Department of Law of Unimore, he is responsible for implementing the cooperation agreement between the Centro de Direito Biomédico and the Universidad de Sevilla.
Teaching activities and PhD supervision (822 / 1,000 characters)
Full Professor of Philosophy of Law at the Department of Law, Unimore, where he also teaches Theory and Practice of Human Rights. Since 2017–18 his Philosophy of Law course has also been offered in the inter-university Philosophy programme (University of Parma). In a.y. 2025–26 he taught Philosophy at the Military Academy of Modena.
He has also taught Techniques of Communication and Argumentation (School of Specialisation for Legal Professions, Unimore, 2016–19), Legal Informatics (2017–20; Big Data, algorithms, digital divide), Didactics of Law and Media Education (2018–25) and Applied Bioethics (Dept. of Life Sciences, 2023–24), including interdisciplinary laboratories.
Member of the doctoral boards in “Humanities, Technology and Society” and “Legal Sciences” (Unimore), he has supervised 30 PhD dissertations.

National and international collaborations and networks:
Thomas Casadei is actively involved in a wide range of national and international scientific, institutional and policy-oriented networks that substantially reinforce the scientific quality and feasibility of the proposed project.
Since May 2026 he has been a member of the COST Action “STONE – Steward Ownership Network” (IRIS: PRJ-1316; duration: 4 years), contributing to international strategic reflection on digital transformation in the economic and commercial sphere.
At European level he is a member of three research projects on the protection of rights and the impact of artificial intelligence: “Desafíos teóricos, éticos y normativos de la inteligencia artificial. Oportunidades y límites de su regulación” (PID2023-146621OB-C21 [2024–27], Univ. de Oviedo); “Derechos humanos y desinstitucionalización: apoyos, cuidados y acogimientos inclusivos” (PID2023-149113NB-I00 [2024–27], Univ. Carlos III de Madrid); “El derecho al cuidado en la sociedad digital. Análisis de la efectividad de los derechos relacionados con los cuidados de larga duración, en el contexto de su creciente digitalización” (PID2023-152437NB-I00 [2024–27], Univ. de Sevilla).
Within Erasmus+, he is a member of the digital communications team of UNIgreen (2023–26), an alliance of eight higher education institutions focused on sustainability.
Over the last three years he has been a speaker at the Semana de la Inteligencia Artificial (Univ. de Sevilla), the Semana Internacional sobre el impacto social y normativo de la inteligencia artificial (Univ. de Oviedo) and the Smart Life Festival (Fondazione San Carlo), helping to build a network of “Artificial Intelligence Weeks” between Italy and Spain.
Since 2019 he has been a member of the “Red Iberoamericana de Investigación sobre Formas Contemporáneas de Esclavitud y Derechos Humanos”.

Other work experience:
Alongside his academic career, Thomas Casadei has developed extensive experience in management and coordination, consultancy, monitoring of institutional activities and of social cooperation organisations, and public-sector innovation.
Since 2016 he has been Scientific Coordinator of CRID's activities for the European Researchers' Night at Unimore, where he coordinated the round tables “Excluded: Mapping the Digital Divide among Women and Men over 65 Living in Modena” and “Digital Generations. Minors, the Internet and Global Citizenship” (27 Sept. 2024), and “Generations Online. A Guide to the Conscious Use of Technologies from an Intergenerational Perspective” (26 Sept. 2025).
Since 2020 he has been registered in the Special Register of the Order of Journalists.
He was Director of the Istituto Gramsci Forlì (2003–10) and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna (2012–22).
Administrative roles and positions of responsibility (1,562 / 2,000 characters)
Thomas Casadei has held several high-responsibility administrative and governance roles in academia and public institutions.
From November 2019 to November 2025 he was Delegate for Communication and Spokesperson to the Rector of Unimore, with strategic responsibility for the institutional development of AI-related policies, initiatives and governance frameworks. He was Deputy Head of the Department of Law (2018–19) and has been a member of the Scientific Council of the University Law Library since 2015.
As Director of CRID, he is Scientific Coordinator of the monitoring of the training-action project “Educating about Differences to Promote Gender Citizenship”, coordinated by the Municipality of Modena (editions I–VI).
In September 2024 he was elected to the Scientific Committee of the Italian Society of Philosophy of Law (SIFD).
He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Emilia-Romagna Region (2010–14), where he contributed to initiatives aligning school education, innovation and professional training. He sat on the Regional Commission for the Promotion of Full Equality between Women and Men (Regional Law No. 8 of 15 July 2011) and was among the first signatories of the Framework Law on Gender Equality and against Gender Discrimination (Regional Law No. 6 of 27 June 2014). Since 2021 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Interreligious Museum of Bertinoro (FC).
This combination of academic, institutional and communication experience significantly strengthens the translational and impact potential of the proposal.

Scientific organisations / Coordination of academic activities:
Thomas Casadei has extensive experience in coordinating scientific activities at national and international level, with proven leadership in interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder settings.
As Director of CRID he coordinates the Centre's research and public-engagement activities and has contributed to its internationalisation, hosting several visiting scholars.
Among the main conferences he has coordinated are the XXXIV National Congress of the Italian Society of Philosophy of Law – SIFD (“Diritto, vulnerabilità ed eguaglianza”, 11–13 Sept. 2025), of which he was scientific coordinator, and the International Conference and Joint Doctoral Seminar “New Technologies, Ethics, Culture and Society”, organised by the PhD programmes in Humanities, Technology and Society (Almo Collegio Borromeo Pavia, Fondazione San Carlo, Unimore) and DocDerDus (Univ. de Sevilla), whose Scientific Coordination Committee he sits on.
He is Scientific Coordinator of the DET – Law, Ethics and Technologies Informatics Workshop (since 2017), a member of the Scientific and Organising Committee of the “Seminar on Legal Theory and Practical Philosophy” (since 2001) and of the Scientific Committee of the “Festival delle migrazioni”.
Within the PhD programme in Humanities, Technology and Society he co-coordinates, with Prof. Gianluigi Fioriglio, the lecture series “Inclusion and digital citizenship: new technologies, rights, and the role of institutions”.
He has also chaired international conferences, AI festivals and workshops, and serves on working groups and programme committees of international conferences.

Editorial activity:
Thomas Casadei has a strong and continuous editorial activity in leading national and international journals in Legal Philosophy, Human Rights, Legal Informatics and AI.
He is Editor-in-Chief of Diritto Artificiale and a member of the Editorial Board of Calumet – Intercultural Law and Humanities Review, and of the Scientific Committees of Rivista di Filosofia and of the international journals Derechos y Libertades, About Gender and Jura Gentium. He is a member of the editorial and review boards of Democrazia e Diritto; Materiali per una storia della cultura giuridica; Ordines; Quaderni di Organizzazione e Trasformazione Digitale della Giustizia; Notizie di Politeia; Filosofia politica; L'Altro diritto; Eunomia. Rivista di Studi su Pace e Diritti umani; Biblioteca della libertà; Crónica Jurídica Hispalense.
He is Editor of the book series Comp.lex. Diritto, computazione, complessità (Wolters Kluwer), Diritto e vulnerabilità (Giappichelli) and AltreFondamenta. Donne e diritto (Pacini), and sits on the editorial boards of the series Inteligencia Artificial Jurídica; Studies on racisms and discriminations; effe. scaffale del femminismo; Tecnica e vita; Dimorare la fragilità.
He has repeatedly been Guest Editor of special issues of international journals on human rights and people in vulnerable situations (older people, migrants and cultural minorities, precarious workers, people with disabilities, children and technology).
Since 2018 he has been a member of the Board of the section “History of Philosophy of Law” of the Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (eds. M. Sellers, S. Kirste, Springer), promoted by the IVR. He is also active as a peer reviewer for top journals.

Membership of scientific societies:
Thomas Casadei is actively involved in national and international scientific societies, professional networks and institutional communities, contributing to research, policy and innovation on the relationship between the protection of human rights and new technologies, artificial intelligence and digital transformation.
He has been a member of the Italian Society of Philosophy of Law – SIFD since 2008 and of its Scientific Committee since 2024.
Since 2022 he has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Collegio San Carlo of Modena, which co-promotes the PhD programme in “Humanities, Technology and Society”.
He is a member of the Scientific Committee of DEM.E.TRA – Association for Studies and Research on Democracy, Public Ethics and Transparency, which focuses on the relationship between communication processes, AI-driven procedures and institutions.
He takes part in ADIR – L'Altro diritto Documentation Centre, Interuniversity Research Centre on prisons, marginality, deviance and migration governance, contributing to policy discussions, funding strategies and national research on people in vulnerable situations, including those arising from the impact of technology.
He was a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Centre for Studies and Documentation on Youth Culture (ISDC), Trieste (2015–22).
He regularly serves as programme committee member, advisory board member and contributor in international conference communities, strengthening international collaboration and knowledge exchange.