Gianfranco Ferraro is a researcher, born in Messina, Italy, and naturalised Portuguese. His current research focuses on forms of conversion, approached from several perspectives (philosophical, literary, theological, and political), in particular through the work of Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot. On this topic, he has published several essays, notably on Foucault, Nietzsche, and the history of utopian thought, and is currently preparing a theoretical volume.

He is currently an invited assistant professor at the University of Beira Interior and, at Universidade Aberta (Lisbon, Portugal), a PhD candidate in Global Studies, with a research project devoted to the ancient roots and modern influence of Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. Previously, he studied Philosophy in Italy (Pisa) and in France (EPHE, Paris), where he obtained a PhD in Philosophy with a thesis on the notion of asceticism in Nietzsche, Weber, and Foucault, and subsequently held an FCT postdoctoral fellowship in Portugal.

He is the founder and editorial director of the international journal Thomas Project: A Border Journal for Utopian Thoughts. He co-edited (with Marta Faustino) The Late Foucault: Ethical and Political Questions (Bloomsbury, 2020) and (with António Caeiro) Formas de conversão. Filosofia, política, espiritualidade (Abysmo, 2024). He also co-edited the monographic issue of the journal e-Letras com Vida, As conversões de Sto. Inácio. He currently coordinates the Portuguese branch of the Italian Thought Network and is co-coordinator (with José Eduardo Franco) of the project Global History of Utopias. He has also translated into Italian modern and contemporary works of the utopian tradition.