Research Interests

Authoritarianism, Creativity, Complexity, Education, Epistemology, the Future, Human Possibilities, Leadership, Worldviews

Biography

Alfonso Montuori, Ph.D. is an educator, consultant, and musician. With an Italian father and Dutch mother, Alfonso was born in the Netherlands, an Italian citizen, and grew up a “third culture kid” living in Lebanon, Greece, and England. He studied at the University of London before moving to the U.S. in his mid-20s to go to graduate school. In the mid-'80s he taught at the Central South University in Hunan, China and he has been Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Fine Arts Department of Miami University and in the Dynamic and Clinical Psychology Department of Sapienza University of Rome. Alfonso is the author of several books and numerous articles on the future, epistemology, creativity, leadership, transdisciplinarity, complexity, and education. His work has been translated into Italian, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Alfonso is Co-Editor of World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, and on the editorial board of numerous academic journals. Alfonso has consulted with organizations and individuals in the US, Europe, and Asia on creativity, complexity and leadership development. In the 1970s and early 80s he worked as a musician in London performing and recording with several bands, and also started his own indie record label, Banana Records, in 1979. He has performed with or produced artists including Roy Hargrove, Joe Henderson, Joe Louis Walker, Charles Brown, and Aztec Camera. An active musician, he still performs and records playing saxophones, flute, and electronic wind instrument. He collaborates with his wife, award-winning jazz singer Kitty Margolis, playing in her band and co-producing her recordings.

Education

Ph.D. Saybrook Institute 

MIPS Monterey Institute of International Studies 

B.A. University of London

Awards & Distinctions

Distinguished Professor, School of Fine Arts, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

Distinguished Professor, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome 

San Francisco Library Laureate

Courses

Transdisciplinarity

Creativity and Personal Transformation 

Transformative Leadership

Planetary consciousness and the future

Creating the future

Publications

starting from 2018, for the complete list, please refer here

Book

Montuori, A. (In Press). Integrative Transdisciplinarity. Palgrave.

Donnelly, G., & Montuori, A. (eds.). (2022). Routledge Handbook for Creative Futures. Routledge.

Articles & book chapters

Montuori, A. (2024). Integrative Transdisciplinarity: Explorations and experiments in creative scholarship. In Del Cerro Santamaria (Ed.), From complex systems to transdisciplinarity. Exploring resilience, sustainability, and knowledge integration (pp. 223-255). IAP-Information Age Publishing. 

Montuori, A. (2024). Complexity and creativity. In J. Kociatkiewicz & M. Kostera (Eds.), How to do social science that matters (pp. 124-139). Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Montuori, A. (2023). Response to Who Leads, Who Follows? Critical Review of the Field of Leadership Studies. The Beijing International Review of Education.

Montuori, A. (2023). Possibilities in PostNormal times. Journal of Possibility Studies and Society, 1(1).

Montuori, A. (2022). Integrative Transdisciplinarity: Explorations and Experiments in Creative Scholarship. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science, SP-3, 111-128. 

Montuori, A., & Donnelly, G. (2022). Why creative futures? In G. Donnelly & A. Montuori (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook for Creative Futures (pp. 9-18). Routledge.

Donnelly, G., & Montuori, A. (2022). Engaging creative tensions in activist and social movement spaces. In E. Tilley (Ed.), Creative activism research, pedagogy and practice (pp. 33-52). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Montuori, A. (2022). Complexity. In V. Glaveanu (Ed.), Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible (pp. 203-216). Palgrave.

Montuori, A. (2022). Crisis of the future. In V. Glaveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible (pp. 325-333). Palgrave.

Montuori, A. (2022). Nel gioco dell’arte e della vita.[In the play of art and life] In M. Ceruti (Ed). Cento Edgar Morin. [Hundred Edgar Morin.]. Mimesis.

Montuori, A. (2022). Interdependence is the key. Mary Catherine Bateson and the myth of individualism. Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 28(3-4), 49-67.

Donnelly, G. & Montuori, A. (2021). Engaging creative tensions in activist and social movement spaces. In Tilley, E. (Ed.). Creative Activism: Research, Pedagogy and Practice. Cambridge Scholars.

Montuori, A. (2021). Complexity. Encyclopedia of the Possible. V. Glaveanu, (Ed.). New York: Springer.

Montuori, A. (2021). Crisis of the future. Encyclopedia of the Possible. V. Glaveanu, (Ed.). New York: Springer.

Glaveanu, V. P., Hanchett Hanson, M., Baer, J., Barbot, B., Clapp, E. P., Corazza, G. E., Hennessey, B., Kaufman, J. C., Lebuda, I., Lubart, T., Montuori, A., Ness, I. J., Plucker, J., Reiter‐Palmon, R., Sierra, Z., Simonton, D. K., Neves‐Pereira, M. S., & Sternberg, R. J. (2020). Advancing creativity theory and research: A socio‐cultural manifesto. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(3), 741-745. 

Montuori, A. & Donnelly, G. (2020). Creativity and the future. Encyclopedia of creativity, 3d Ed. (pp. 250-257). M. Runco & S. Pritzker, (Eds.). New York: Springer.

Montuori, A. Social Creativity. (2020). Encyclopedia of creativity, 3d Ed. (475-481). M. Runco & S. Pritzker, (Eds.). New York: Springer.

Montuori, A. Diversity. (2020). Encyclopedia of creativity, 3d Ed. (368-376). M. Runco & S. Pritzker, (Eds.). New York: Springer.

Montuori, A. (2019). Authoritarianism and creativity: Else Frenkel-Brunswik and The Authoritarian Personality. In V. Glaveanu (Ed.), The Creativity Reader (pp. 517-530). New York: Oxford University Press.

Montuori, A. & Donnelly, G. (2018). Transformative leadership. In J. Neal, Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation. New York: Springer.

Montuori, A. (2018). Creating social creativity: Integrative transdisciplinarity and the epistemology of complexity. In V. Glaveanu & I. Lebuda (Eds.), Palgrave Handbook of Social Creativity (pp. 743-765). London: Palgrave.

Introductions

Montuori, A. (2023). Introduction. In R. Lawrence (ed). Handbook of Transdisciplinarity: Global perspectives. Edward Elgar.

Donnelly, G., & Montuori, A. (2022). Introduction to the handbook for creative futures. In G. Donnelly & A. Montuori (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook for Creative Futures (pp. 1-6). Routledge. 

Montuori, A. (2022). Introduzione [Introduction]. In Foschi, R. Storia dei razzismi. [The history of racisms]. Mondadori.

Montuori, A. (2022). Introduction—Edgar Morin, at 100: an Intellectual Journey. In Heath-Carpentier, A. (ed). The challenge of complexity. Essays by Edgar Morin. Liverpool University Press.