Riccardo Campa

Riccardo Campa (Mantua, May 4th, 1967) is Full Professor of Sociology and Director of the History of Ideas Research Center of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. He obtained two Master degrees from the University of Bologna, in Political Science in 1990 and in Philosophy in 1994, and the title of professional journalist from the Order of Journalists of Rome in 1995. Before embarking on an academic career, he served as an officer of the Financial Police in the two-year period 1991-1992 and as investigative journalist of La Voce di Mantova in the four-year period 1993-1996. Having moved to Poland in 1996 with a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he obtained his PhD in Epistemology at the University of Torun in 1999 and was then hired by the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he worked under the direction of the President of the International Sociological Association, Piotr Sztompka. Here, he also carried out research in the field of the sociology of science thanks to a scholarship offered by NATO. Interested in the topic of new technologies and their impact on human evolution, in 2004, he founded the Italian Transhumanist Association, of which he is currently honorary president. Then, he was elected director of the World Transhumanist Association for the two-year period 2006-2008, and became Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. In 2009, he obtained a qualification in Sociology at the University of Krakow and, in 2010, he began a collaboration with the Military Center for Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defense. In November 2020 he was awarded the prestigious Medal KEN (Komisji Edukacji Narodowej) by the National Education Commission of Poland, an honor established to reward the most outstanding school and university teachers. Two years later, Giulio Tremonti invited him to be part of the Aspen Institute’s Community of Italian Talents Abroad. On July 24, 2023, the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, elevated him to the academic ordinariate. In addition to being the author of numerous books, he regularly publishes his research in international scientific journals. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Scopus-indexed journal ‟Orbis Idearum: European Journal of the History of Ideas,” and scientific coordinator of the journal ‟Futuri”, which belongs to Italian Institute for the Future.