Paola Melchiori (1948) – is a feminist theorist, activist and writer, author of books/videos/articles on feminist issues. She has created nationally and internationally, free spaces of critical thinking, based on the model of the Free Universities.

Their main idea is to develop and make visible new paradigms of knowledge based on women’s ways of thinking and knowing, working in an interdisciplinary way across cultures, classes and specializations. She is the founder and past president of the Libera Università delle Donne in Milan, of Crinali, a research and intercultural education association in Milan, of the Libera Università Internazionale Femminista, an international think-tank for women’s critical thinking and education.

From the mid-eighties she has worked in different African and Latin American countries in women’s education, participatory research and popular education with a Freirian and feminist perspective. During the years of the UN Conferences of the 90ties she has formed a solid international network of feminists working together on these issues.

Her main interest is the intercultural collaboration among feminists of different cultures and disciplines.