Caterina Di Giovanni holds a PhD in Urban Studies from ISCTE-IUL/FCSH-UNL. She is an architect from the University of Palermo, having also completed a postgraduate degree in Urban Planning in Public Administration, at the Sapienza University of Rome.

Her doctoral research was funded through a Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) grant and focused on the theme of public housing in Portugal and Italy through an interdisciplinary approach between architecture and social sciences. This research had a dual purpose: on the one hand, to develop a comparative analysis of the meaning of housing terms and frame the main aspects of public, social and accessible housing in both countries; on the other, analyze two case studies of integrated interventions of rehousing, demolition, and new construction in social housing neighborhoods in both countries.

During her PhD period, in 2019 she was a visiting student at the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Camerino. In the same year, she won the AESOP Young Investigator Training Program research award, with a period as a visiting student at the Department of Architecture at the University of Roma Tre. In 2021 she won a scientific research award from ISCTE. In 2022 she joined the Erasmus + CliCCHE-Climate Change, Cities, Communities and Equity in Health project team (www.clicche.org).

In 2023 she was hired as junior researcher for the LOGO project – The LOcal GOvernance of housing policy. A study of municipal housing strategies (funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology; reference 2022.03719.PTDC).

During the last few years, she has been invited to review scientific papers, as a lecturer in doctoral courses and international seminars, to organize and to moderate conference panels, and as an arguer of master's theses. Finally, she won architecture awards as a team, and she had experience supporting teaching in Italy and Portugal, having been co-supervisor of 3 master's theses and 8 final architectural works.

Activity’s area: Urban studies

Keywords: Urban studies, housing, housing policies, comparative analysis, social architecture