I am an Associate Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the University of Catania (Italy), and prior to that, I was an Assistant Professor at the same university from 2018 to 2021.
In 2022, I obtained the National Scientific Qualification for Full Professor in Geography. I am currently the Scientific Coordinator of the local research unit for the project funded by the Italian Ministry of Research PRIN 2022, PULP - Place-based Unfolding, Localities and Participation in NRRPs (Principal Investigator from 3 June 2024 to 3 January 2025); Principal Investigator of the project “RISE - Urban Regeneration, Infrastructure Reconversion, and Social Equity” funded by the PIA.CE.RI research program of the University of Catania; and co-coordinator of the GEOURBAN - Geographies of the Urban working group of the Italian Geographers Association.
Since May 2025, I am Associate Visiting Researcher at CURDS - Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University.
I graduated magna cum laude in European Languages and Cultures from the University of Catania with a master's thesis in Geography on the relationship between urban evolution and migrant settlement dynamics in France. The fieldwork and archival research for this thesis were conducted at Université Paris VII Denis Diderot within a Socrates-Erasmus grant (2003).
I earned a PhD in Geography from the University of Catania (Italy) in 2009 and a PhD in Territory and Landscape Science (MGGR/02) from the University of Sassari (Italy) in 2017.
In 2005 I was an intern at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Italian Permanent Delegation to NATO in Brussels. From 2005 to 2008, I was a associate researcher at the Mediterranean Observatory of the University of Catania, and as an Observatory member I obtained a grant to carry out field and archival research in Tunis at the Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain.
I was a research fellow in Economic-Political Geography from 2010 to 2012 in the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning and from 2017 to 2018 at the Department of Economics and Business of the University of Catania.
I was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London (2010), and in the TIC&Migrations research group at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris to collaborate with E-Diaspora Atlas (2011), an innovative transdisciplinary research project aimed at exploring global diasporas online. From June to December 2019, I was a Visiting Academic at the Department of Geography of the Universitat de Barcelona within the “Leonardo da Vinci” international mobility program promoted by the Italian Ministry of Research and Education. In 2021, as a Dirécteur d'études Associé of the Fondation Maison Sciences de l'Homme of Paris, I was Inviting Researcher to coordinate a project on participatory platforms, urban green spaces, and territorial governance.
Between 2012 and 2017, I had research contracts and consultancies within national and international projects funded by EU, the Sicilian Region’s Department of Territory and Environment; the Italian Geographical Society; ISMEA – Institute of Services for the Agri-Food Market; and the Center for Migration Studies of the Fondazione Mediterraneo Sicilia Europa/C.U.M.O. (Noto, Italy).
In 2016, I was awarded with Italian Geographical Society Award for Geographic Sciences, dedicated to Italian scholars under 40, distinguished for originality and innovation in research.
In 2022, I received the Costantino Caldo Award from the University of Palermo (Italy), supported by the Italian Geographers Association.
From 2018 to 2020, I served on the steering committee of IGU-YECG – Young & Early Career Geographers, a task force within the International Geographical Union.
Since 2020, I have been the Regional Trustee for Sicily of the Italian Geographical Society for which I am co-editor of the XVI Annual Report (2024) focused on Italian marginal areas. In 2021, I co-founded a collaborative platform to promote gender equity in social sciences, We-WISER Women in Social Sciences for Equity in Research
For the full CV, please visit my profile on the official website of the University of Catania.
