u/whatever_zoccl

I’m writing this anonymously because I’d genuinely like to hear from people who have experienced more than one academic system, rather than simply being told that I’m either romanticising foreign countries or unfairly attacking my own.
I’m an Italian humanities student, currently studying Modern Literature at the University of Bologna. I’m almost 21 and have one year left. I’ve also spent time abroad through Erasmus, and I’m seriously considering doing a Master’s abroad and potentially a PhD afterwards, possibly in Comparative Literature, Literary Studies, English Studies, or something adjacent.
The problem is that I’m increasingly unsure whether I actually want an academic career, because of the kind of environment I have experienced around academia and intellectual life in Italy.
I want to be clear that I’m not saying that every Italian academic is awful, or that every foreign university is a utopia. I know that would be ridiculous. I’m talking about a pattern I have personally perceived over several years, especially in Bologna and in some academic/intellectual environments I have encountered.
What has disturbed me most is a combination of what feels like classism, nepotism, hierarchy, personalisation of disagreement, unnecessary hostility, humiliation, status anxiety, and a strange amount of resentment. Sometimes it feels as though intellectual environments that should be based on curiosity, discussion and mutual interest instead become competitive environments where people are constantly measuring themselves against one another.
I have also experienced, on the occasions when I have made myself publicly visible through writing or social media, an amount of hostility and personalisation that I found disproportionate. I have written for newspapers and have some social-media visibility, but much of the backlash I have experienced has come from fellow Italians rather than from foreigners. That has made me wonder whether there is something cultural about the way disagreement and intellectual competition are handled here.
Again, I don’t want this to become an “Italians bad, foreigners good” post. I am Italian myself, and this is actually why it makes me sad to write this. I feel increasingly alienated from aspects of my own country’s intellectual culture: what I perceive as provincialism, populism, status-consciousness, personal conflict, and sometimes a lack of basic generosity towards younger people who are trying to learn and write.
There is also something that genuinely confuses me.
Why does intellectual culture sometimes seem to produce the opposite of what I would expect?
If someone studies literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, art, etc., I would expect them to become more curious, more sensitive to complexity, more capable of disagreement without humiliation, and perhaps more generous towards people who are still learning. Instead, I have sometimes encountered environments where people seem to become increasingly cynical, competitive, defensive and even cruel. I recently read an article in The Atlantic discussing elite academic leadership, hypocrisy and institutional culture, and it made me wonder whether what I have experienced is actually much more universal than I imagine:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/elite-academia-leadership-hypocrisy/687969/
So I would really like to ask people who have actually experienced different systems:
How is academia in the UK and the broader Anglophone world in reality?
Is it genuinely more collegial and civil than what I am describing, or does the same behaviour simply take different forms? Is there still extensive classism, nepotism, bullying, academic “feuds”, gatekeeping and personal competition in British universities? What about the US? And what about Northern Europe — Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, etc.? I have repeatedly heard that some of these systems can be more egalitarian, less hierarchical and more work-life-balance-oriented, but I don’t know how much of that is actually true once you enter academia.
I am particularly interested in hearing from people who have studied or worked in both Italy and another country, especially in the humanities.
I’m also wondering about something more existential. I love literature and writing. I would genuinely like to spend my life reading, thinking and writing. I could imagine doing a Master’s, a PhD and eventually becoming an academic. But I also want a life that is peaceful, intellectually stimulating and psychologically sustainable.
I don’t want to spend my twenties and thirties in a permanent state of competition, publication anxiety, departmental politics, precarious contracts, grant applications, networking and trying to prove that I deserve to exist in the room. At the same time, I don’t want to give up intellectual life simply because I don’t want to participate in that kind of environment.
Is there a way of having both? For example, could someone realistically build a life where they have a relatively stable academic/cultural/international job, write books or essays independently, and maintain enough financial and psychological stability to actually enjoy writing?
Or is serious intellectual production inevitably connected to some degree of suffering, precarity, competition and self-sacrifice?
I know the romantic image of the isolated writer who reads all day and produces great literature is probably nonsense. But I also don’t believe that constant misery is a prerequisite for producing good work.
In fact, one of the things I increasingly value is the idea that peace, time and psychological safety might actually make better writing possible.
I’m therefore trying to figure out whether I should pursue academia abroad, pursue a different kind of cultural/intellectual career, or perhaps find a stable job that gives me enough time and mental space to write independently.
I am not looking for “Italy sucks, move to London” answers. I’m genuinely asking people with experience:What is academic culture actually like in Italy, particularly Bologna? How does it compare with the UK? What about the US? Germany?
The Netherlands? Scandinavia?
Where have you found the healthiest academic environments?
Where have you found the worst?
Are there countries or university systems where intellectual disagreement tends to remain impersonal and constructive?
Can someone realistically have an academic career without having their entire identity and mental health consumed by it?
And if academia is not the answer, what kinds of intellectually serious careers allow you to write and think while still having a reasonably peaceful life?
I may simply have encountered some particularly bad environments, and I’m genuinely open to being told that my perception is distorted. I would much rather hear uncomfortable but nuanced answers than have people simply confirm what I already believe.
I’m almost 21, I still have one year of university left, and I’m trying to figure out whether there is actually an intellectually serious, international and humane life somewhere out there or whether I am simply romanticising the idea of leaving Italy.
Any experiences, especially from people who have lived/studied/worked in more than one country, would be enormously appreciated.