Italy and Asia connections: Linetto Basilone wins Royal Society award

Based in the University of Auckland's Faculty of Arts and Education, Dr Linetto Basilone  has been awarded the 2026 Royal Society Te Apārangi Early-Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities.

The cultural, political and diplomatic relationships between Italy and Asia, mostly China, is the focus of Basilone’s work; looked at through the lens of media, history and literature.

“I’m interested in how those sources are used to send political messages and indoctrinate readers, and also how they also contribute to shaping identities or producing racialised representations,” he says.

Basilone is delighted to win this award for what he feels is “playing his part” to produce innovative research, alongside a growing international community of Italy-Asia experts, and sharing it with students.

“I feel humbled and seen. It's hard sometimes when you work on topics that can be perceived as peripheral in this Aotearoa New Zealand context, but in fact, they can tell you a lot about the current socio-political and cultural dynamics affecting New Zealand and the Pacific.”

He’s currently working on a new book analysing how different understandings of Maoism inspired social activism and artistic works – but also violent political struggle – in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s, as part of a global phenomenon connected to the 1968 student protest movements.

This work is destined to end up in the course he teaches in Global Studies within the Faculty of Arts and Education.

Originally from Italy, Basilone says he came to New Zealand “to be supervised by a fantastic team” here at Auckland.

“Our institution and academic community cared for me from day one and have been providing financial and emotional support to me and my family ever since.”

He is very grateful to his son and partner, and wider Italian-Filipino family, who he says are his “happiness and pride”.

“I owe this award, and my work here in Auckland, to my partner and son who have always been super supportive. It has been a big step moving away from our loved ones in the Philippines and Italy.”