Sebastian Carlotti is a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science.

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Sebastian Carlotti holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Pisa (2015) and an MSc in Migration, Mobility and Development from SOAS, University of London (2017). His master’s dissertation examined how border externalisation in the European migration regime operates through the racialised illegalisation of sub-Saharan migrants.

Previously, he worked as a researcher at the UBIQUAL Research Center at the University of Pisa, contributing to studies also on skilled emigration and transnational migrant networks.

He completed a joint PhD in Political and Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Pisa (2026), being awarded the Beyond Borders Fellowship (2023) of the Die Zeit Stiftung Bucerius to support its conclusion. His dissertation ‘Visa Denied: Restrictive Selectiveness within Schengen Visa Practices in West Africa’ examines how EU Schengen visa policy has shaped and transformed legal migration channels for West African citizens through practices of selection, profiling, and exclusion, drawing on a disaggregated dataset on Schengen visa applications and interviews with consular, EU, and civil society actors conducted during fieldwork in Senegal. The dissertation captures how consular discretion and digital risk-profiling technologies filter access to mobility. His research interests revolve around migration governance, EU external migration policy, critical border and security studies, and the digitalisation of border control. Methodologically, his research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative fieldwork interviews with quantitative analysis of visa and mobility data.