Background

My research path began with my MA thesis, in which I explored the relationship between young people and smartphones. This interest developed further during my PhD in Social Sciences, completed in 2013 with a dissertation on the then largely unexplored intersections of the internet, adolescence, love and sexuality — awarded the highest distinction by the examining committee.

Public Engagement

My professional activity bridges academia, public engagement, and educational training for both young people and adults. I aim to foster an ongoing exchange between research, teaching, and fieldwork, grounded in the belief that scholarly reflection should remain closely connected to the rapidly changing realities of contemporary society. For this reason, I consider public engagement not as a secondary aspect of academic work, but as an integral dimension of research and teaching practice.

A central aspect of my work consists in translating research findings and theoretical reflections into accessible, concrete, and socially relevant forms of knowledge. I believe that academic research acquires greater value when it contributes to broader public conversations and when it is capable of engaging audiences beyond academia. Alongside teaching and research dissemination, I therefore maintain an active dialogue with the media and contribute to public debate through interviews, podcasts, public talks, and the writing of articles for general audiences. These activities allow me to reflect critically on ongoing social transformations while making sociological perspectives more accessible outside academic contexts.

At the same time, continuous dialogue with young people, educators, professionals, and local communities represents an essential resource for refining the conceptual and methodological tools through which I interpret social phenomena. This reciprocal relationship between academic inquiry and public interaction informs both my research perspective and my pedagogical approach.

In this spirit, I collaborate with associations, public health services (ULSS), schools, and companies in the design and delivery of educational and training activities on topics related to digital media, youth cultures, social change, wellbeing, and relationships. I also regularly contribute to public events, cultural festivals, seminars, and TEDx talks, with the aim of fostering critical reflection and encouraging broader public discussion around the transformations of intimacy, emotional life, and interpersonal relationships in contemporary digital societies.

Teaching

Teaching constitutes a central dimension of my academic work and an essential space for intellectual exchange, critical reflection, and collaborative learning. My approach is grounded in the idea that university education should not only provide students with theoretical knowledge and methodological skills, but also foster the capacity to critically interpret contemporary social transformations and their implications for everyday life, culture, media, and relationships.

I currently serve as Director of the Degree Programme in Communication at the University of Padua, a role that combines academic coordination, institutional responsibility, and the development of educational strategies aimed at strengthening interdisciplinarity, internationalisation, and student participation within the programme.

My teaching activity spans undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education. In the undergraduate programme in Communication, I teach Media, Gender and Sexuality, a course focused on the relationships between media cultures, gender, sexuality and power. In the international master’s programmes in Communication Strategies and in Social Sciences and Digital Data, I teach Digital Intimacies, a course exploring the transformations of intimacy, emotions, relationships in digitally mediated environments. At doctoral level, within the PhD programme in Social Sciences, I teach research and communication skills, supporting early-career researchers in the development of methodological competences, academic writing, and public communication of research.

Across all levels of teaching, I place particular emphasis on creating participatory learning environments that encourage discussion, reflexivity, and the connection between theoretical perspectives and empirical realities. My courses integrate sociological theory, cultural studies, media analysis, and qualitative and digital research methods, often drawing directly on ongoing research projects and current public debates in order to connect academic learning with contemporary social issues.

International

The international dimension of research and academic collaboration plays a central role in my professional trajectory. I consider international exchange essential not only for the advancement of research, but also for the development of comparative perspectives, interdisciplinary dialogue, and collaborative forms of knowledge production capable of addressing global social transformations.

Over the years, this commitment has led me to establish collaborations with scholars and institutions across different national and cultural contexts. My international experience includes both research and teaching activities at universities outside Italy, including Monash University in Australia and the City University of New York, as well as collaborations with colleagues and research networks across several European contexts, including, among others, Barcelona, Dublin, Antwerp, Coimbra, The Hague, and Budapest. These collaborations have involved joint research activities, conference organisation, international teaching initiatives, editorial projects, and participation in transnational academic networks focused on media, gender, digital cultures, and intimacy.

My international engagement is also reflected in my editorial and associational activities. I am an editor of the Journal of Gender Studies and I serve as series editor for Bloomsbury’s Digital Intimacies series, co-edited with K. Albury, J. Hakim, and J. Mercer, which provides an interdisciplinary space for innovative research on intimacy, relationships, emotions, and digital media cultures. I am also a member of the editorial and advisory boards of several international journals, including Sexualities and Porn Studies.

Within the framework of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), I co-founded and currently co-coordinate the working group Media and Intimacy, together with Sander De Ridder (University of Antwerp) and Ines Amaral (University of Coimbra).  Within ECREA, I also served as vice-chair and chair of the Gender, Sexuality and Communication section, contributing to the consolidation and international visibility of research on gender and sexuality within communication and media studies.

Research & Publications

A significant part of my research activity has developed through international collaboration and network-building initiatives. Together with Brady Robards, I co-founded the Digital Intimacies Research Network (DIRN), an interdisciplinary network bringing together scholars working on intimacy, relationships, emotions, and digital cultures across different international contexts. I am also involved in several international research groups and collaborative projects focused on digital media, youth, gender, and social change.

Over the years, I have coordinated and participated in nationally and internationally funded research projects. Among these, I coordinated the project Di.G.I.T. (Digital Practices, Gender, and Intimacy in Teens’ Everyday Life), which explored how young people negotiate intimacy, gender identities, relationships, and media practices within digitally mediated environments.

I regularly participate in national and international conferences and workshops, contributing as a presenter, panel organiser, discussant, and invited keynote speaker. These activities constitute an important part of my academic work, enabling ongoing dialogue with international scholarly communities and contributing to interdisciplinary debates on digital media, gender, sexuality, youth cultures, and intimacy.

Alongside presenting research findings, I am also involved in the organisation of academic events and in activities addressed to doctoral and early-career researchers, including seminars, workshops, and mentoring initiatives.

The outcomes of my research have been published in books, edited volumes, and peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals in the fields of media, communication, and gender studies, including New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, and Journal of Gender Studies. Through these publications, I aim to contribute to contemporary debates on the transformations of intimacy and social life in digitally mediated societies, while also fostering interdisciplinary dialogue across sociology, media studies, cultural studies, and gender and sexuality studies.