STEFANIA PARISI

Stefania Parisi, PhD in Communication Studies, is Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Faculty of Political Science, Sociology, and Communication – Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome. She teaches Sociology of Digital Media in the Master’s Degree Programme “Gender Studies, Culture and Politics for Media and Communication” (LM-19), and Digital Media Studies in the Master’s Programme “Media, Digital Communication and Journalism” (LM-19).
She is a member of the Academic Board of the PhD Programme in Communication, Social Research and Marketing at Sapienza University of Rome and coordinates the research unit Urban Space, Creativity and Media.
She currently serves as Delegate of the Department’s Director for Strategic Planning and NRRP Coordination. She is affiliated with two interdepartmental research centres at Sapienza: DigiLab (where she is a member of the Technical-Scientific Committee) and Sapienza Design Research (where she serves on the Executive Committee). She was formerly a member of the Department's Research Committee (2019–2022) and an elected representative on the Faculty Council (Giunta di Facoltà, Faculty of Political Science, Sociology, and Communication) from 2020 to 2023.
Between 2020 and 2021, she contributed to the design and curricular planning of the first Italian Master's Degree Programme (LM-19) in Gender Studies, Culture and Politics for Media and Communication, which was launched in the academic year 2023/2024.
Her research focuses on the relationship between media and social structures. In particular, she investigates the sociocultural transformations associated with the emergence of digital platforms as economic and political models, as well as the intersections between media and urban cultures. Her recent work explores user perceptions and algorithmic experiences on lean platforms and media-sharing environments; the role of digital mediation and platform-specific environments (e.g., Tripadvisor, Airbnb) in urban tourism, heritage communication, and the construction of place-based imaginaries; and the cultural and political practices involved in inhabiting online spaces.
She has supervised PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers working on sociocultural transformations linked to digital media and urban cultures, often incorporating gender-informed approaches. Recent supervisory activities include: a postdoctoral research grant (2024–2025) on representations of gender-based violence in digital environments; a Sapienza-funded early-stage research project (2022–2023) on platform cooperativism and tourism in Italy; and a third mission initiative (2022–2023) dedicated to the prevention and mitigation of online gender-based violence.
She has also supervised postdoctoral research projects on the role of women in the development of computer science in Italy (2021–2022), and on platformization processes in the field of cultural production, with a specific focus on live streaming practices (2021–2022). Within the PhD Programme, she has acted as tutor for several doctoral and early-stage research projects funded by Sapienza University, addressing themes such as digital media and social cooperation within platform-based infrastructures; platform cooperativism in the tourism sector; queer artistic practices on digital platforms; and the networking strategies and social capital of creative freelancers operating at the intersection of digital and urban environments. She is currently scientific coordinator of a fixed-term research position (RTDA) within a PNRR-funded project examining the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and overtourism in three neighbourhoods in Rome (2022–2026).
Professor Parisi is a member of SISCC – Società Scientifica Italiana Sociologia, Cultura, Comunicazione, and of ECREA – European Communication Research and Education Association, where she is affiliated with the thematic section Media, Cities and Space, and past member of the Scientific Board of the AIS - Italian Sociology Association section “Cultural Processes” (PIC-AIS, 2014 – 2017).
She serves on the editorial boards of several academic publications, including DigitCult – Scientific Journal on Digital Cultures and Mediascapes Journal, the latter classified as a Class A journal by
ANVUR; she is also a member of the editorial board of the book series Culture, politiche e democrazia (Castelvecchi Editore), and co-editor of the series Media and Web Communication (Fausto Lupetti Editore).