About us

Associate Professor

Massimiliano Coviello is a film and media studies Associate Professor at the Link Campus University. His research agenda includes media languages, with a focus on narrative analysis and representation forms, particularly in film and TV series. He is currently the Unit leader of the WokeIt project. He is also member of the projects Gender Equality through Media Investigation and New training Insights (Cerv European Programme) and Ciak-EU! EU-rope Through Films: History, Identity, and Policies (Ciak-EU!), funded by Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Chair. Among his publications are the books: La rivincita dei falliti. Maschere e antieroi in Better Call Saul (Edizioni Estemporanee 2023), Comunità seriali. Mondi narrati ed esperienze mediali nelle serie televisive (Meltemi 2022), Sensibilità e potere. Il cinema di Pablo Larraín (with F. Zucconi, Pellegrini 2017).

Full Professor

Valentina Re is Full Professor at Link Campus University. She is currently the PI of the research project The Atlas of Italian ’Giallo’: Media History and Popular Culture (1954-2020), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. Her research agenda includes film and literary theory, production and distribution studies, and Italian and European film and television industry. Her most recent books are Peripheral Locations in European TV Crime Series, Palgrave Macmillan 2023 (with K. T. Hansen) and Le belle donne ci piacciono. E come! «Cinema nuovo», cultura comunista e modelli di mascolinità (1952-1958), Diabasis 2021 (with E. Mandelli).

Research Fellow

Arianna Vergari is a Research Fellow at Link Campus University of Rome, where she teaches Film History and Experimental Cinema. As a member of the research project PRIN 2020 The Atlas of Italian Giallo: Media History and Popular Culture (1954-2020) and the research project PRIN 2022 PNRR WokeIt. Investigating Representation, Inclusivity and Social Responsibility in Rai’s Fiction Audiovisual Productions (2015-2022) she is working on the representation of female characters in crime narratives within television and cinema. Her other research areas include documentary cinema with a focus on experimental and avant-garde forms, film theory, and analysis. She has published articles in academic journals including Imago, SigMa, and Fata Morgana, and has participated in various national and international conferences. She is about to publish her first monograph Caleidoscopi urbani. Metamorfosi del city symphony film tra modernità e postmodernità (Mimesis 2024). She also works as a filmmaker and visual education operator in schools.

Assistant Professor

Associate Professor, Principal Investigator

Paola Brembilla is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, where she teaches Television and Digital Media. Her research interests concern the intersection of business models, narrative forms and socio-cultural contexts in serial narratives. She is the author of numerous publications, including articles, chapters and books, among which La televisione italiana. Storie, generi e linguaggi (with L. Barra and V. Innocenti, Pearson 2024), Franchise Mediali. Industrie, narrazioni, pubblici (Pàtron, 2023) and It’s All Connected. L’evoluzione delle serie TV statunitensi (Franco Angeli, 2018). With Ilaria A. De Pascalis, she edited the volume Reading Contemporary Serial Television Universes (Routledge, 2018). She is Principal Investigator of the project WokeIt. Investigating Representation, Inclusivity and Social Responsibility in Rai’s Fiction Audiovisual Productions (PRIN 2022 PNRR) and Associated Investigator of the project Circulating Populist Sentiments in 21st Century Film and TV Fiction in Italy (PRIN 2022).

Full Professor

Veronica Innocenti is Full Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of the Arts, where she teaches courses on television history, film and media marketing, fashion and audiovisual media. Her research is focused on the historical development of television formats, with specific reference to serial narratives. She is also interested in the relationship between media industries and audience reception, with a particular emphasis on gender dynamics. She has extensively written on television series, reality TV, and Italian media adopting an ecosystemic approach. Her most recent publications are La televisione italiana. Storie, generi e linguaggi (with Luca Barra and Paola Brembilla, Pearson 2024) and Moda e televisione (Carocci, 2025). She is Editor in Chief of SERIES. International Journal of Serial Narratives and Editor of Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal and she has been a speaker and organizer for many national and international conferences.

Associate Professor

Marco Cucco is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna and Head of the postgraduate Master in Film and Audiovisual Management. He received his PhD in Communication at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland), and he has been visiting scholar at several universities: City University of New York (USA), Université de Lorraine (France), University of Leeds (UK), and Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium). His research interests concern mainly film industry and cultural policy. He wrote papers published by international journals like Studies in European Cinema, Film Studies, European Journal of Communication, Journal of Transcultural Communication, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Stduies and Media, Culture & Society and three books. He is currently vice-chair of the Film Studies Section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association), and he is used to serve as member of regional committees for granting public film financing.

Research Fellow

Stefano Guerini Rocco is a Research Fellow at the University of Bologna, where he collaborates on the project WokeIt. Investigating Representation, Inclusivity and Social Responsibility in Rai’s Fiction Audiovisual Productions (PRIN 2022 PNRR). He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of Milan and a lecturer at the SAE Institute of Milan. His research interests include the production of media content for teen audiences across both cinema and television, with a focus on examining teen audiences and exploring inclusive narratives within these platforms. He took part to the research project CinCit – International Circulation of Italian Cinema (PRIN 2015) as a visiting researcher at the Università della Svizzera Italiana. He has participated in several international conferences and published in academic journals like L’Avventura, Imago, Comunicazioni Sociali. He is member of the editorial team of Series – International Journal of TV Serial Narratives.

PhD Student

Greta Delpanno is a Doctoral Candidate in a joint supervision program in études cinématographiques at the Université de Montréal, supervised by Professor Marta Boni, and in Arts, History, and Society at the Università di Bologna, supervised by Professor Paola Brembilla. The research, focusing on seriality and gender studies, explores LGBTQIA+ representation in recent Italian TV series on streaming platforms. Specializing in cinema and new media, Delpanno has earned multiple scholarships for international exchanges and was a visiting scholar at California State University, Chico in 2021. Delpanno has also been an active speaker at several international conferences. Delpanno contributes actively to the Labo Télé research group, led by Marta Boni at the Université de Montréal, and is involved in the PRIN 2022 PNRR program WokeIt. Investigating Representation, Inclusivity, and Social Responsibility in Rai’s Productions (2015-2022), directed by Paola Brembilla at the University of Bologna.

Associate Professor

Dom Holdaway is an Associate Professor in film, television and media studies at the University of Urbino, where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in film history, distribution and media industries. His main research interests are in the politics of moving images, especially in relation to the distribution and circulation of film and TV. Within the WokeIt project, he is working on the ways that identity politics, representation and inclusivity are tied to the cultures of film distribution, concentrating in particular on the films that are co-produced by Italian public service broadcaster, via Rai Cinema and 01 Distribution.

Research Fellow

Pierandrea Villa received his doctorate in Film and Media Studies at the IULM University of Milan in 2023. In 2022 he participated in the research project Mediamorfosi: transmedialità e traduzione intersemiotica nell’era della convergenza. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo and participates in the project WokeIt. Investigating representation, inclusivity and social responsibility in RAI’s fictional audiovisual productions (2015-2022). His main research interests are platform studies, media franchise studies, and critical Internet studies with a focus on user-generated content. His recent publications include the following: Matrix Resurrection, dalle origini alla parodia del racconto transmediale e delle logiche di produzione dei media franchise, in “Poli-femo”, n. 27, 2024; Netflix e il fantasma della standardizzazione, in “Ottoemezzo”, n. 69, 2023; Supereroi, saghe e universi narrativi. L’industria culturale contemporanea tra media franchise e autorialità, in A. Chiurato (a cura di), Transmedialità e crossmedialità. Nuove prospettive, Milano: Mimesis, 2022.