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Team

A team of researchers addressing the challenges of contemporary sociotechnical life โ€“ committed to imagining better futures.

Our multidisciplinary group investigates the social, cultural, and technological forces that define todayโ€™s complex sociotechnical landscape. Through collaborative inquiry and innovative methodologies, we work to understand emerging online harms and to design evidence-based pathways that contribute to more just, inclusive, and equitable environments.

Principal Investigator

Principal Investigator

Anita Lavorgna

University of Bologna

Social scientist focusing on digital criminology and online harms. Her scholarship explores how harmful behaviours, criminal opportunities, and regulatory gaps emerge within contemporary sociotechnical systems, mapping the cultural, technological, and institutional forces that shape their development and evolution.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Postdoctoral Researcher

Selenia Anastasi

University of Bologna

An interdisciplinary researcher whose work combines methods from computer science, digital sociology, and digital humanities to analyse internet culture. She investigates platformed toxicity, polarisation dynamics, and gendered participation through the lens of Feminist theories.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Lorenzo Picarella

University of Bologna

Qualitative sociologist with mixed-methods expertise in the sociology of deviance and cybercrime research. His scholarship examines how digital environments shape forms of antisocial behaviour and social regulation, analysing the interplay between institutional norms, platform affordances, and communicative practices.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Federico Pilati

University of Bologna

Computational sociologist and data scientist analysing digital deviance and platform ecosystems. His work integrates large-scale data analysis with cultural inquiry to explore how antisocial behaviour develops online and how platform structures influence its evolution.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Luca Sterchele

University of Bologna

Qualitative sociologist with expertise in ethnographic methods applied to the sociology of deviance and health. His work focuses on the intersection of knowledge, power, and social regulation, examining how institutional and sociotechnical environments shape everyday practices.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Gabriele Suffia

University of Bologna

Legal scholar specialising in legal informatics, documentality, and the philosophy of law. His research examines platform governance, social media self-regulation, and judicial cases involving antisocial behaviours.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Gianluca Tatarelli

University of Bologna

Quantitative researcher with specific expertise in the study of political participation and social power. His research integrates theoretical and empirical analysis to examine how structural inequalities and socio-psychological factors operate across physical and digital environments, drawing on a critically informed approach rooted in heterodox social theory.

Research Collaborator

Country Experts

Country Expert

Jessica Hill

The Netherlands

Advisory Board

Advisory Board Member

Wojciech Filipowski

University of Biaล‚ystok

Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Law

Advisory Board Member

Stefano Caneppele

University of Lausanne

Full Professor in Criminology at the Faculty of Law, Criminal Justice and Public Administration

Advisory Board Member

Benjamin Farrand

Newcastle University Law School

Professor in Law and Emerging Technologies

Advisory Board Member

Alice Hutchings

University of Cambridge

Professor of Emergent Harms in the Security Group at the Computer Laboratory

Advisory Board Member

Anne Lauscher

University of Hamburg

Professor of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

Advisory Board Member

Dimitri Ognibene

University of Milan-Bicocca

Associate Professor of Human Technology Interaction

Advisory Board Member

Lisa Sugiura

University of Portsmouth

Professor of Cybercrime and Gender in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice