Lingua di carta, lingua di carne: A Translated Interview with Amara Lakhous

Novelist and professor Amara Lakhous lives in the United States, where he has begun his third life—a new phase after his Algerian beginnings and subsequent Italian “adoption,” as he says. After having completed a degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers, Lakhous immigrated to Italy as a political refugee. In Italy, Lakhous would earn a doctorate in anthropology from La Sapienza, Rome. These days, Amara Lakhous lives in New York City and has been a visiting professor at the University of Connecticut. He is often invited by prestigious universities in the United States to discuss social and political issues, his books, Algeria and Italy. Given his complex experience, past and present, as student and professor in the academic spheres of these three countries, we aim to discuss some of the social and cultural roles academic institutions play around the globe