University of Turin's Research Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies, Italy
University of Turin is one of the largest universities in Italy. The university carries out research and courses in almost all disciplines and it is an integral part of the community, acting to revive urban and suburban areas, promoting cultural interaction, social integration and development, encouraging dialogue and insight into current realities.
Within the university, there is a research centre for gender studies. The Research Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies (CIRSDe) at University of Turin was established in 1991 when a group of female teachers and researchers from the University of Turin decided to start a meeting centre for research, advanced and experimental didactics, training, and cultural comparison between female and male scholars interested in gender studies and adopt gender differences as a perspective. Since 2002, it has been one of Italy's University Centres of interest.
Besides the courses offered to University of Turin students, CIRSDe provides advice and training for external organisations. The centre has contributed intensely to integrating the gender perspective in research at the University of Turin.
University of Turin's role in MINDtheGEPs
University of Turin's CIRSDe is the coordinating organisation of MINDtheGEPs. Under the wings of coordinator Cristina Solera, they will ensure the management and ethical requirements are fulfilled and that the project can meet its objectives. In addition, the University of Turin and CIRSDe team will assess gender imbalances at partner institutions. Benefiting from close collaboration with PRING GEA, another gender equality project coordinated from University of Turin.
Want to know more about how University of Turin is working with gender equality? The University of Turin Gender Equality Plan is available in Italian.
People at University of Turin
Cristina Solera
Cristina Solera is the coordinator of MINDtheGEPs. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society at the University of Turin and an affiliate at Collegio Carlo Alberto. She is also a member of the Research Center for Women's and Gender studies (CIRSDe). She has been part of many international projects, such as Barriers Towards Eu Citizenship or Transition to parenthood. She is currently engaged in the Italian National Relevant Project GEA-Gendering Academia, which is about assessing multiple dimensions of gender inequalities in academia, connected to MINDtheGEPs’ work on assessing gender imbalances. Her research interests include women's labour-market participation, work-family reconciliation, new models of motherhood and fatherhood, comparative social policies, gender, and class inequalities.
Contact: cristina.solera[at]unito.it
Federica Turco
Federica Turco successfully completed a PhD in Semiotics at University of Turin, where she currently teaches Semiotics of Gender. Her research focuses on women’s representation across contemporary media, semiotics of body and culture, cultural models, and stereotypes. She is responsible for Communication and Research at the Research Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Turin, where she has managed many research projects funded within different EU framework programmes (e.g. FP7, Erasmus +, REC, H2020), all related to gender issues. She also manages national and local training projects. Federica Turco is the MINDtheGEPs Project Manager and, in particular, she contributes to the general management of the project and the supervision of ethical aspects.
Contact: federica.turco[at]unito.it
Angela Balzano
Angela Balzano is a researcher at the Department of Culture Politics and Society at the University of Turin and coordinator and Professor at the science module of the Master in Gender Studies and Policies at Roma Tre University. She has been Adjunct Professor of the course in Diversity Management and tutor in Women and Law for the GEMMA Master in Gender Studies at University of Bologna, where she was also involved in the H2020 project Plotina: Promoting Gender Balance and Inclusion in Research, Innovation and Training. Angela Balzano has worked as a translator for DeriveApprodi, translating authors Rosi Braidotti (The Posthuman), Donna Haraway (The Promises of Monsters) and Cooper and Waldby (Clinical Labor). In 2021 she published her first monographic work for Meltemi, Per farla finita con la famiglia. Dall'aborto alle parentele postumane. Angela Balzano’s role in MINDtheGEPs includes assisting the Coordinator Professor Cristina Solera. She is also one of the trainers in MINDtheGEPs’ series of Train the Trainers workshops.
Contact: angela.balzano[at]unito.it
Vladimiro Cardenia
Vladimiro Cardenia is Associate Professor in Food Science and Technology at University of Turin, with expertise on lipid chemistry, analysis and innovation in foods, as related to safety, traceability, authentication, gender and stability during processing and preservation. He was member of different national and international research projects such as Meating (FARB 2012-2013); Food Crossing District (POR-FESR 2014-2020); PRIN (2008, 2015); and the H2020 project PLOTINA: promoting gender balance and inclusion in research, innovation and training, where he co-coordinated a case study titled “Analyzing beef sexing and sex-related substances in meat: a problem of authentication”. In MINDtheGEPs, he is involved in work to include gender in research and teaching, aiming to increase gender awareness in STEM research area.
Contact: vladimiro.cardenia[at]unito.it
Norma de Piccoli
Norma de Piccoli is Full Professor at the Turin University, Department of Psychology, where she teaches Social and Community Psychology. In 2020, she was elected President of the Research Center for Women's and Gender Studies (Centro Interdisciplinare di Ricerche e Studi delle Donne e di Genere, CIRSDE), at University of Turin. She collaborates with various public institutions, in particular on issues concerning gender, sexual violence, and health from a gender perspective. In the past, she directed CIRSDE in during the USVreact project (University Supporting Victims of Sexual Violence) developed in early 2015 and closed in 2018, in response to a European Commission Daphne III funding call focused on supporting victims of gender-based violence. Within the MINDtheGEPs project, she guarantees a functional link between the project and the academic institutions to develop action projects. Norma de Piccoli also contributes to the analysis of gender stereotypes from a psychosocial perspective.
Contact: norma.depiccoli[at]unito.it
Marina Della Giusta
Marina Della Giusta is Professor of Economics at the University of Turin, IZA fellow and Visiting Professor at the University of Reading, where she worked from 2000 to 2022 and was Head of Department from 2013 to 2016. Her research experience is in behavioral and labor economics, with a focus on gender, stigma, and social norms. Her main publications concern the role of gender inequalities and social norms in education, paid and unpaid work and in pensions. She currently leads the Work Package on Behaviour Change with a focus on Gender and Diversity in the Horizon2020 Consortium INHABIT and the Pearson Publishing, Contrasting Unconscious Bias in Education (CUBE) project. She is co-investigator in the Nuffield project ‘Maternal wellbeing, infant feeding and return to paid work decisions’ and Advisor in Horizon2020 DivAirCity and in the Gender Parity Project of Pearson Publishing. She is a member of the Royal Economic Society Women Committee, where she has promoted mentoring and other initiatives for the advancement of women in the profession, within and outside academia.
Contact: marina.dellagiusta[at]unito.it
Maria Laura Di Tommaso
Maria Laura Di Tommaso is Full Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis” of the University of Turin. She is also a Fellow of Collegio Carlo Alberto and Associate Researcher at the Frisch Center for Economic Research in Oslo. Her previous positions include College Lecturer in Economics and Fellow at Robinson College, University of Cambridge, and Research Associate in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge. She has published extensively in international journals and her research interests include microeconomics applied to gender and feminist issues. She was Associate Editor of the journal Feminist Economics from 2012 to 2016, and she is a member of the Faculty of the PhD program in Economics Vilfredo Pareto, as well as a member of the National Scientific Qualification committee (ASN 2018-2021) in econometrics. Based on her position and disciplinary expertise, she will be able to contribute to MINDtheGEPs work to design gender equality plans, and particularly to issues concerning gender budgeting.
Contact: marialaura.ditommaso[at]unito.it
Nicolao Fornengo
Nicolao Fornengo is Full Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Turin. He has carried out research at the Johns Hopkins University (USA), IFIC (Spain), LAPTH, CEA-Saclay and UPMC-Paris (France). His activities focus on theoretical astroparticle physics, with emphasis on dark matter, neutrino physics and cosmology. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the INFN and Vice-Director of the Physics Department of the University of Torino, where he also serves as member of the Research Center for Women's and Gender Studies. He participates in the MINDtheGEPs project as a representative of the STEM disciplines, and he will contribute to raising awareness of gender issues at scientific departments through workshops and training.
Contact: nicolao.fornengo[at]gmail.com
Chiara Ghislieri
Chiara Ghislieri is Associate Professor in Work and Organisational Psychology and since 2017, she has been the President of the Single Guarantee Committee at the University of Turin. Her research focuses on four main areas: work-life conflict, enrichment, and balance and family-friendly organizations; well-being related to work and remote working; leadership, followership, entrepreneurship; vocational guidance, career counselling and organisational behaviour training. The study of gender differences is a crosscutting approach to the research axes. She has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals about the above-mentioned issues and has participated in several international projects including the Horizon 2020 project Except about job insecurity and well-being. She is currently principal investigator of the public engagement project On Stage, about discrimination related to gender and sexual orientation. Based on her roles and disciplinary expertise, in MINDtheGEPs she will collaborate on the design of the gender equality plans, based on empirical evidence collected in the early stages of the project.
Contact: chiara.ghislieri[at]unito.it
Rosy Musumeci
Rosy Musumeci is Assistant Professor and teaches Sociology of Cultures, Services and Social Policies at the University of Turin. Her main research interests are work-life balance, working careers, job insecurity, and gender imbalances in the university setting. She was the co-coordinator of the FAMnet Equalsoc network “Practices and Policies Around Parenthood: Towards New Models of Fatherhood?”. She has taken part in many international projects, such as the Horizon 2020-funded EXCEPT project and TransParent. She is currently engaged in the GEA-Gendering Academia Research Project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and University. She is also a member of Research Center for Women's and Gender Studies. In MINDtheGEPs, she is the scientific co-coordinator (alongside Manuela Naldini) of the work package performing qualitative assessment of gender imbalances. She will coordinate the work to interview researchers and key informants in partner organisations that are implementing gender equality plans.
Contact: rosy.musumeci[at]unito.it
Manuela Naldini
Manuela Naldini is full Professor of Sociology at University of Turin and Fellow at the Collegio Carlo Alberto. She has coordinated several international and national research projects on topics related to family changes, comparative studies of welfare states, gender studies, work-family reconciliation issues, migrant families and more recently gendering academia. She has been WP coordinator within the FP7 "Barriers towards EUropean CITIZENship” (bEU citizen). Currently she is the Principal Investigator of GEA-Gendering Academia Research Project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and University. She is also involved in the Horizon 2020 project KIDS4ALL. In MINDtheGEPs she is the scientific co-coordinator (alongside Rosy Musumeci) of the work package performing qualitative assessment of gender imbalances. She will coordinate the work to interview researchers and key informants in partner organisations that are implementing gender equality plans.
Contact: manuela.naldini[at]unito.it
Cristina Prandi
Cristina Prandi is Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at Chemistry Department of the University of Torin, where she is also Vice Rector for Research. Her main interests are related to the studies of synthetic transformations, organometallic chemistry, gold catalysis and target-oriented synthesis. She has focused her interest on the study of organometallic transformations in unconventional solvents, more in line with sustainability and green chemistry principles. She has carried out research on the synthesis of bioactive phytohormones analogues focusing on SAR (Structure Activity Relationship) studies and design of active derivatives. Recently, she also carried out research on the use of plant metabolites analogues for their potential anticancer activity. She is the leader of several national projects and chaired the Cost Action FA1206 dedicated to Strigolactones. With her experience, Cristina Prandi guarantees a functional link between the project and academic institutions.
Contact: cristina.prandi[at]unito.it
Domenico Sanseverino
Domenico Sanseverino has a Master’s Degree in Work Psychology and Wellbeing in Organisations and is currently a PhD student in Psychology at the University of Turin. In 2021, he participated in national research concerning the work experience in Italian universities during the pandemic, promoted by the National Conference of Equality Bodies of Italian Universities, while in 2022 he was a research fellow in the H2020 project "Re-UNITA - Research for Unita", where he was involved in the mentoring programme led by the University of Turin. In MINDtheGEPs, he was involved in quantitative research assessing gender imbalances, and the related data collection, analysis and report writing.
Contact: domenico.sanseverino[at]unito.it