Marzia Vaccari is an adjunct professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna, where she has taught "Digital Media and Gender" since the 2016/2017 academic year, and since 2023/2024 "Communication and Gender" (Module 2) in the Master's Degree Programme in Journalism, Public and Corporate Communication. A technologist, systems analyst and designer, she has worked since 1993 on the relationship between women and ICT from practical, educational and theoretical perspectives: algorithmic bias and artificial intelligence, gender-based digital violence, and feminist critical theory of technology. From 2005 to 2025 she taught in the University of Bologna's transdisciplinary gender course "Ethics and Politics in the Perspective of Gender Studies".
She has given lectures and seminars at the Politecnico di Torino, the University of Siena, the Master's programme "Gender Studies and Policies" at Roma Tre University, and the "Bianca Pomeranzi" Feminist Political School at the Casa Internazionale delle Donne in Rome.
She was president of the Associazione Orlando in Bologna (2012-2016) and a member of the Scientific Committee for the Digital Agenda of the City of Bologna (2012-2016); she coordinated the "Digital City" area of the Associazione Laboratorio Urbano (2010-2016) and served on the scientific committees of numerous European projects on women and technology.
She conceived and ran Server Donne (1996-2016) for twenty years, the first server managed by women in full autonomy, which gave rise to the projects Portico Donne (Equal, 2001-2004), TechnéDonne (2004-2007) and the publishing platform ebook@women. Since 2024 she has recovered its archive, now available at serverdonne.info. Server Donne received the eContent Award Italy 2006 (eInclusion category) and Portico Donne the DONNAèWEB 2005 award.
For thirty years (1985-2016) she worked at the University of Bologna as a senior technical officer: she directed the Computing Centre of the Faculty of Economics, coordinated the IT services of the "Luigi Heilmann" Interfaculty Centre for Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, and took part in building the university network. As a consultant she worked for, among others, the Emilia-Romagna Region, contributing to its "Guidelines for a Gender Approach to the Design of Public Administration Online Services", the University of Catania and the Vatican Library.
She has published three books, the most recent being "Server Donne. Leccami la password" (Agenzia X, 2025), together with the two volumes of "Appunti di femminismo digitale" [Notes on Digital Feminism] (2019 and 2021, new editions 2023), as well as essays in edited volumes published by Il Mulino, FrancoAngeli and Bononia University Press. Her writing has appeared in, among others, DWF, Biblioteche Oggi, Heavy Metal, Corriere della Sera – Laboratorio Mediterraneo, inGenere and Idea diffusa. Since 2017 she has run the website almagulp.it, where she publishes monthly articles on digital media and gender.
She has presented her work at conferences and events in Italy and abroad, including the 4th European Feminist Research Conference (Bologna, 2000), the IIAV Know How Conference in Amsterdam (1998), the meeting of the E-WIT European partnership in London (2007), the Women's Institute at Birzeit University in Palestine (1994), the Taller de Cartografías Ciberfeministas at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2026), the Prix Italia (2009), the Smart City Exhibition (2012-2014), the Internet Governance Forum Italy (2008), the Stati Generali delle Donne (2015) and the national CGIL trade union confederation (2021 and 2023).
She graduated in Political Science from the University of Bologna in 1987.
