Sean Wyer

I currently live in London, when I'm not doing research in Italy. Outside academia, I occasionally write for broader audiences, particularly for food publications like Vittles. 

Most of my writing is about food, culture, and heritage, like my article for Eater London on the campaign to save the Strand's historic India Club, or my essay for Vittles about a multinational Italian market giant: Eataly the Invention of Italian Cuisine. 

I have an occasional newsletter, which you can read here; if you subscribe, you can receive it straight to your inbox.

More of my articles can be found here; send me an email if you would like to discuss commissions.

I am an anthropologist specialising in cultural heritage, and most of my work focusses on Italy. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, working on a collaboration with the University of Pavia. In spring 2024, I received my PhD in Italian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, where I held a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship during my last academic year.

My forthcoming book, A Cosmopolitan Inheritance, focuses on Palermo, and investigates contemporary perceptions of Sicily's Islamic and Jewish heritage. I am also interested in food and identity formation, and have a separate long-term project on hyper-local culinary traditions in Italy.

Recent publications:

"Signposting the Meschita: Palermo's medieval Jewish quarter as a site of memory", published in Modern Italy (2025). 

"'Palermo is a Mosaic': Cosmopolitan Rhetoric in the Capital of Sicily", published in Modern Italy (2024).

"Peeling Back the Artichoke Leaves: Symbolism and Origin Stories in Jewish-Roman Cuisine", published in Food, Culture & Society (2024).

"'Sicily Can Be Very Seductive': The White Lotus and the Transnational 'Making' of the Mediterranean", co-authored with Maggie Neil, published in The Italianist (2023).

"Gourmet and the Ghetto: The Foodification of Rome's Historic Jewish Quarter", published in issue 23.3 of Gastronomica (2023).