MARISOLA XHELILI CIACCIO

​

Marisola is co-founder and associate director of the Education Preparedness Program at Marquette University, an initiative that provides college courses and wrap-around support to currently and formerly incarcerated students. She credits education opportunity programs for her own successes as a first-generation immigrant and college student. More broadly, Marisola’s interests lie in the criticism and disruption of social systems with an eye toward justice for underserved populations. She values human connection and fostering meaningful relationships in the process of our collective liberation, and takes a collaborative approach in her research, pedagogy, and activism. Marisola has mentored students and taught courses in a university setting and inside correctional facilities, and published papers on a range of topics, including moral psychology, bioethics, and ethnic conflict. She is currently writing her doctoral dissertation on identity and belonging in the Balkans, her place of origin. Marisola also appreciates art, enjoys writing and reading poetry, spending time in nature, and above all: being a mother to her two-and-a-half year old daughter, Anais.