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

I am an assistant research professor in human geography at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS-Lisboa) since 2019. Among my visitings and appointments are: Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Memphis (2016); Benjamin Hooks Institute for Social Change Policy Fellow (Fall 2016 to Spring 2017); Visiting Scholar at the Polytechnic of Turin (2019) and the University of Naples Federico II (2021); Senior Expert Evaluator for Regiostars Awards 2019 (DG-REGIO, European Commission; 2019); coordinator of the thematic section 'Political economy of territory' of the Portuguese Association of Political Economy (2020-2022).

At ICS, I am member of the Scientific Board of the ULisboa PhD in Development Studies (since 2018), elected member of the Scientific Commitee of the institute (since 2021) and president of the Ethical Commission (since 2021).

My research, at the intersection between human geography, planning research and critical urban studies, develops among four main axes:

• security, violence and urban policies and politics;
• housing policy and housing struggles;
• urban imaginaries;
• neoliberalization, crisis and (permanent) austerity.

I privilege comparative and global urban studies, with geographic focus on Southern Europe and the South of United States; and qualitative, inter-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 adjunct editor-in-chief of Análise Social, journal of ICS-ULisboa. Previously, I have been co-founder and editor 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 national and international journals. I am currently working, with Andrea Pavoni. on my second monograph on Urban Violence: Ontologies, Materialities, Epistemologies (under contract with Lexington Books). 

I welcome PhD candidates for the ULisboa PhD in Development Studies on:

• critical urban studies, human geography and spatial planning;
• urbanisation and urban policy;
• urban violence and security policies;
• housing policies and systems;
• uneven spatial development and urban change in semi-peripheral regions.

Ongoing research projects:

• (PI) Urbanoscenes – Post-colonial imaginaries of urbanisation: A future-oriented investigation from Portugal and Angola (FCT; PTDC/GES-URB/1053/2021), 2022-2025;
• (deputy PI) HOPES - HOusing PErspectives and Struggles. Futures of housing movements, policies and dynamics in Lisbon and beyond (FCT; PTDC/GES-URB/28826/2017), 2018-2022;
• (collaborator) CONTESTED TERRITORIES. From Contested Territories to alternatives of development: Learning from Latin America” (www.contested-territories.net/) (EC; H2020 MSCA RISE), 2020-2024;
• (individual project) housin3G: Understanding housing policy change through its Governmentalities, Government and Governance (FCT; CEEC Individual), 2021-2026.

Past projects:

• (PI) Financialization of housing in Southern Europe: Policy analysis and recommendations (research contracted by The Left in the European Parliament, office of José Gusmão), 2020-2021;
• (core CV of prooposal and task coordinator) exPERts - Making sense of planning expertise: housing policy and the role of experts in the Programa Especial de Realojamento (PER) (https://expertsproject.org/) (FCT; PTDC/ATP-EUR/4309/2014), 2016-2019;
• (collaborator researcher) CILM - City and Insecurity in Literature and Media (http://cilm.letras.ulisboa.pt/) (FCT; PTDC/CLE-LLI/110694/2009), 2014-2018;
• (post-doc project) Which Secure Cities? A critical approach to security and feelings of fear in urban planning in Southern Europe (FCT; SFRH/BPD/86394/2012), 2013-2018;
• (Fulbright Research Scholar Grant) SECURE – Security Examined Critically: URban planning Explorations (From Southern Europe to Southern United States) (US-Italy Fulbright Commission), 2016;
• (researcher) Forward Looking Analysis of Grand Societal cHallenges and Innovative Policies (FLAGSHIP) (Comissão Europeia, FP7; ID 320330), 2014-2015;
• (collaborator researcher) Post-metropolitan territories as emergent forms of urban space: Coping with sustainability, livability, and governmentality (PRIN; Departamento Italiano de Educação e Investigação), 2014-2017.