Curriculum (ENG)

Updated CV (May 2025)

Since February 2021, I have been Associate Professor at the University of Ferrara, Department of Humanities, in the disciplinary field SPS/08 (Sociology of cultural and communicative processes), where I teach Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Digital Media, and Journalism and Digital Media. I currently serve as Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and am a member of the University’s Oversight Committee.

I am the founder and director of D/Cult – Critical Observatory on Digital Cultures, a research centre focused on digital media, platformisation processes, artificial intelligence, and influence culture.

I earned my PhD in Sociology and Social Research Methods (2009) from Università Cattolica of Milan, with a dissertation on coolhunters as cultural intermediaries, supervised by Laura Bovone (UCSC Milan) and Louis Pinto (EHESS, Paris).

Throughout the 2010s, I navigated the precarious field of Italian academia: I held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Bergamo (PRIN-funded) and at Università Cattolica of Milan; I taught as adjunct professor at these universities and at Politecnico di Milano; and later became a tenure-track researcher (RTD-a) at eCampus University, where I was subsequently appointed Associate Professor. There, I also served as coordinator of the Communication Studies programme, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law, and member of the Internal Evaluation Board.

I have carried out teaching and research activities abroad at several institutions, including the London College of Fashion, Winchester School of Art, Northumbria University, and Southampton Solent University (UK); Aalto University (Finland); Universidad de Sevilla (Spain); Izmir University of Economics (Turkey); and the Jagiellonian University (Poland). I was also a visiting post-graduate student at the Manchester Institute for Popular Culture (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK).

I am a faculty member of the doctoral programmes in Regulation, Management and Law of Public Sector Organisations (a national programme coordinated by the University of Salento) and in Human Sciences (University of Ferrara). I have also taught in the doctoral programme Sociology, Organisations and Cultures at Università Cattolica of Milan.

I have taught in postgraduate and executive education programmes, particularly in the field of fashion (Università Cattolica, Istituto Marangoni, ISAD, and Milano Fashion Institute).

From 2020 to 2025, I was principal editor of the International Journal of Fashion Studies (Intellect Books). I am currently a member of the editorial board of FataMorganaWeb, the editorial board of Sociologia della Comunicazione (2019–2021 term), the scientific committee of the Open Sociology book series (FrancoAngeli), and the editorial board of JEA: Journal of Extreme Anthropology.

My research and publications focus on media, fashion, and cultural industries. I have published two monographs: Coolhunting. Genesi di una pratica professionale eretica (FrancoAngeli, 2010) and Fenomenologia dei social network (Guerini, 2017; co-authored with G. Boccia Artieri, L. Gemini, F. Pasquali, M. Farci, and S. Carlo). I have edited the volumes I media e la moda: Dal cinema ai social network (Carocci, 2022, with A. D’Aloia); Moda e arte (FrancoAngeli, 2012, with P. Volonté), From Production to Consumption: The Cultural Industry of Fashion (Interdisciplinary, 2013); and Fashion Tales: Feeding the Imaginary (Peter Lang, 2017, with E. Mora). My articles have been published in journals such as Poetics, Fashion Theory, Film, Fashion and Consumption, Journal of Public Policy, OBS-Observatorio, Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, Studi Culturali, Comunicazioni Sociali, Studi di Sociologia, Polis, Journal of Consumer Culture, Partecipazione e Conflitto, Sociologia della comunicazione, and Culture and Organization.

I am Chair of the Joint Teaching and Student Committee of the Department of Humanities at the University of Ferrara.

I maintain the blog Homo Academicus.

Excerpts from my publications are available on my Academia page.