Junior Assistant Professor (fixed-term, RTD-A) at the University of Bologna since 2023, she carries out her research in the fields of urban and regional sociology and migration studies. Her research interests include housing inequalities and discrimination in access to housing among migrant populations, housing policy, international retirement migration and ageing processes, and the regeneration of shrinking and inner areas. Her current work focuses on how access to housing and to mobility stratifies substantive citizenship, drawing on mixed-methods research designs.
Education
She graduated in Sociology (BA, class L-40) in 2012 and in Employment, Markets, Environment, Social Policy and Social Work (MA, class LM-88) in 2014 with full marks and honours (110/110 cum laude) at the School of Political Science of the University of Bologna. In 2020 she obtained her PhD in Sociology and Social Research at the Department of Sociology and Business Law, with the highest assessment (excellent). Her dissertation, supervised by Prof. Maurizio Bergamaschi, addressed discrimination and inequality in access to housing among the foreign population in Bologna.
Academic career
From May 2020 to February 2023 she was a Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology and Business Law, within the Horizon 2020 project "Welcoming Spaces. Revitalising shrinking areas by hosting non-EU migrants" (GA 870952). Since February 2023 she has been a Junior Assistant Professor (fixed-term, RTD-A) at the same Department, in the disciplinary field GSPS-08/B Sociology of the Environment and Territory, funded by the NRRP Extended Partnership "AGE-IT. Ageing Well in an Ageing Society" (PE0000015), Spoke 7; the position was extended in February 2026.
She has held research periods abroad as a Visiting Researcher at CRISES - Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales, Université du Québec à Montréal (2022), and as a Visiting Scholar at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), OsloMet, Oslo (2018) and at the Centre d'Études Européennes, Sciences Po, Paris (2018).
Teaching
Since the 2023/2024 academic year she has been the instructor of record for Inequalities and Marginality (8 ECTS) in the Master's Degree in Criminological Sciences for Investigation and Security, and for the Laboratory on Social Work with Migrant Service Users (3 ECTS) in the Bachelor's Degree in Social Work and the Master's Degree in Sociology and Social Work. Since 2025/2026 she also teaches the Laboratory on the Role of the Social Worker in Palliative Care (3 ECTS). In 2026/2027 she teaches Sociology of the Territory (Module 2) in the Bachelor's Degree in Sociology, Forlì campus.
In 2025/2026 she is a Visiting Lecturer in the Doctoral Program of Social Sciences at Diponegoro University (Semarang, Indonesia), with a series of lectures on housing inequalities, international retirement migration and academic writing. In 2021 she served as Teaching Tutor at the Welcoming Spaces International PhD School on Migration and Socio-Ecological Change (Soria, Spain).
She is a subject expert (cultrice della materia) and member of the examination boards for Sociology of Migration, Sociology of Local Social Services and Methodology and Techniques of Social Research on the Territory. She has supervised 14 Master's theses, 10 Bachelor's theses and 12 curricular internships, and has mentored two Master's theses at Utrecht University.
Research activity
She takes part in the NRRP project AGE-IT (Spoke 7, WP3, Task 3.4 "Mobilities and migrations of Italian seniors") and, as a member of the international team, in the Spanish projects "Vivienda, arraigos y vulnerabilidad en ciudades españolas" (VIARVU, MICINN-AEI, PID2022-137639NB-I00) and "Vivienda, vulnerabilidad, bienestar y cuidados de las personas mayores y adultas jóvenes" (VIVULBIE-CM, Comunidad de Madrid), both coordinated by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
She has participated in the Horizon 2020 projects "Welcoming Spaces" (2020-2023), "MICADO. Migrant Integration Cockpits and Dashboards" (2018-2020) and "OPERANDUM" (2018-2020), in the project "Visualising migration and local development in European non-urban contexts" (Utrecht University, 2021-2022), and, at the Ce.P.Ci.T. research centre, in studies on homelessness, the social impact assessment of social care interventions and the accessibility of local services.
She is the author of the monograph Oltre le mura. Migrazioni e disuguaglianze abitative (FrancoAngeli, 2026) and the editor of the volume Esplorare il territorio. Linee di ricerca socio-spaziali (FrancoAngeli, 2022) and of the special issue of Sociologia Urbana e Rurale on the new emigration of Italians (2023). She has presented her research at international conferences including the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (Chicago, 2025), the ISA Forum of Sociology (Rabat, 2025), the European Sociological Association conferences (Barcelona 2021, Porto 2024, Warsaw 2026) and the IMISCOE annual conferences.
She serves as a reviewer for AG - About Gender, Comparative Migration Studies, Journal of International Migration and Integration, Migraciones, Social Inclusion, Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia and Sociologia Urbana e Rurale. In 2025 she acted as an assessor for the Italian national research assessment exercise (VQR 2020-2024), sociology panel.
Institutional roles
Since 2023 she has been a member of the Quality Assurance Committee and of the Admissions Committee of the Master's Degree in Criminological Sciences for Investigation and Security.
Editorial boards and scientific networks
Since 2024 she has been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Sociologia Urbana e Rurale (FrancoAngeli). Since 2011 she has been part of the editorial office of the journal and of the book series of the same name, which she coordinated from 2015 to 2023.
She is a member of the AGE-IT and Alma-Aging networks (University of Bologna), IMISCOE - International Migration Research Network, the European Sociological Association, the Italian Sociological Association (Environment and Territory Section) and Ce.P.Ci.T. - Centre for Studies on Urban and Territorial Issues.
Awards
2021 - University of Bologna Award for Equal Opportunities, Well-being and Anti-discrimination, granted by the Equal Opportunities Committee (CUG) for her doctoral dissertation.
Third mission and public engagement
With Manuela Maggio, she designed and coordinated "Collaborative Housing: Models, Practices and Prospects for Bologna" (2026), a programme of seven seminars and workshops involving public institutions, third-sector organisations and national and European networks. The initiative won the 2025 internal call of the Department of Sociology and Business Law for third-mission and public-engagement projects, and was accredited by the Bologna Association of Architects and by the Emilia-Romagna Association of Social Workers.
With Marco Alberio, she co-authored the graphic-format science communication volume Geografie della pensione. Storie di pensionati italiani in mobilità internazionale (AGE-IT, 2026, illustrated by Elena Mistrello), which presents in narrative form the findings of 80 biographical interviews conducted in Spain, Portugal, Albania and Tunisia. She took part in the 2021 and 2025 editions of the European Researchers' Night and regularly contributes to institutional roundtables and public initiatives on housing policy.
Methodological skills
Qualitative methods: semi-structured and in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation, document analysis, focus groups. Quantitative and mixed methods: analysis of census data (ISTAT Permanent Census, ADELE Laboratory), INPS longitudinal administrative data, quantitative surveys, integration of statistical and qualitative sources. Software: NVivo, MAXQDA, STATA. Institutional data sources: ISTAT, INPS, ACER, OMI (Italian Property Market Observatory), Osservatorio Casa Comune (Bologna).
