Francesca Riccioni is a PhD fellow at the Department of Physics and Astronomy “Augusto Righi” at the University of Bologna, within the disciplinary sector FIS/08: Physics Education and History of Physics. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Pisa and a Master’s degree from the University of Bologna. She also earned a Master’s in Science Communication from SISSA in Trieste, with a thesis on the history of numerical simulations in theoretical physics.
Her research focuses on the intersection of science, education, and language, with a specific emphasis on epistemic emotions in learning processes and scientific practice. Her theoretical approach draws on affect theory and reflections on interdisciplinary practices, with the aim of developing a humble theory of emotions in scientific and educational contexts. In particular, she investigates how these emotions emerge and manifest through scientific work and learning, using mixed-methods approaches inspired by natural language processing (NLP) techniques applied to scientific texts, transcripts, and educational materials.
Alongside her academic research, she has worked for over a decade in educational and academic publishing, collaborating with leading Italian publishing houses. She is also the author and scriptwriter of science-themed graphic novels such as Galileo!, Enigma, Il segreto di Majorana, and Non è mica la fine del mondo, illustrated by Tuono Pettinato and Silvia Rocchi, published by Rizzoli Lizard and translated into several languages. She regularly takes part in public events on science, art, and storytelling.
