Born in 1982 in Palermo, Italy. PhD in Urban and Regional Planning (2012, University of Palermo). 

I am a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences since 2019 - previously post-doc researcher, since 2013. In 2016, I have been Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Memphis and the Benjamin Hooks Institute for Social Change Policy Fellow for Fall 2016 and Spring 2017.

My research, at the intersection between human geography, planning research and critical urban studies, and with geographic focus on Southern Europe and the South of the United States, develops among three main axes:

• The policies and politics of security and safety - and the relations between urban fear, security policymaking, and urban and planning policy (see post-doc and Fulbright project);
• Housing policy and housing struggles (see projects exPERts and HOPES);
• Neoliberal urban policy, crisis and (permanent) austerity. 

I privilege qualitative, multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar and genealogical perspecitves, as well as action reserch (I am member of Habita, Association for the Right to Housing and the City).

I am co-founder and member of the editorial board of plaNext - next generation planning and of the blogue ATS, blog of the research team Environment, Territory, Society of ICS-ULisboa.

I am author of Fear, Space and Urban Planning (2017, Springer) and various articles in international journals such as Progress in Human Geography, Urban Geography, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Planning Education and Research, International Planning Studies, Planning Practice and Research, Space and Culture, Cadernos Metrópole, Finisterra, Archivio di Studi Urbani e Regionali.

Ongoing research projects:

• HOPES - HOusing PErspectives and Struggles. Futures of housing movements, policies and dynamics in Lisbon and beyond (funded by FCT; PTDC/GES-URB/28826/2017); deputy principal researcher. 2018-2021. 
• exPERts - Making sense of planning expertise: housing policy and the role of experts in the Programa Especial de Realojamento (PER) (https://expertsproject.org/) (funded by FCT; PTDC/ATP-EUR/4309/2014FCT); core CV of proposal and task coordinator. 2016-2019.
• (Collaborator) CILM - City and Insecurity in Literature and Media (http://cilm.comparatistas.edu.pt/) (FCT; PTDC/CLE-LLI/110694/2009). 2014.2018.

Completed projects:

• Which Secure Cities? A critical approach to security and feelings of fear in urban planning in Southern Europe (Post doc project, FCT; SFRH/BPD/86394/2012). 2013-2018.
• SECURE – Security Examined Critically: URban planning Explorations (From Southern Europe to Southern United States) (Fulbright Research Scholar Grant; US-Italy Fulbright Commission). 2016.
• Forward Looking Analysis of Grand Societal cHallenges and Innovative Policies (FLAGSHIP) (FP7; European Commission); 2014-2015.
• (Collaborator) Post-metropolitan territories as emergent forms of urban space: Coping with sustainability, livability, and governmentality (PRIN, Italian Department for Education and Research); research team of the University of Palermo. 2014-2016.