Biography

I am an Assistant Researcher (permanent position) at IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST. In Italy, I also hold the title of Associate Professor in Political philosophy (2018) and Cinema, Television and Audio-visual media (2025). I hold a PhD from the University of Turin (2005) and have worked at the iniversities of Bologna, Technology Sydney, Cambridge, and Coimbra (CES), and collaborated as a research associate and visiting scholar at the universities of Padua, Leeds, London, Fordham, and Venice “Ca’ Foscari”.

My research work aims to deconstruct (post-)colonial intersectional (visual) archives of monstrosity through the analysis of texts coding ‘fears of disasters and crisis’ and their symbolic and material impact on European and Western Modern and Contemporary history and self-representations. On my topics, I have taught and and given keynotes, lectures and seminars in many universities across Portugal, the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, the US, Canada, Australia and India. My work is widely included as required reading in Social Sciences and Humanities courses – e.g. at the universities of Milan Bicocca, Rome Tre, Bergamo, Siena, Bologna, Ca’ Foscari & IUAV Venice, Napoli L’Orientale, Geneva, Kent, NYU, and Princeton.

Finally, I collaborate with many academic journals, being a member of the international advisory board of Studi Culturali and Socioscapes, and a member of the editorial board of From the European South and Revista de História da Arte.

Research fields

• Postcolonial studies
• Critical race theory
• Cultural studies
• Gender studies across contemporary history
• Political philosophy
• Visual studies and cinema

Selected publications

• Giuliani, Gaia. Monsters, Catastrophes and the Anthropocene. A Postcolonial Critique. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022. [link]
• Giuliani, Gaia, “Monstrous Beauties: Bodies in Motion Between Colonial Archives and the Migrant and Refugee Crisis,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Race and Gender, editado por Shirley Anne Tate e Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, 409-428. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. [link]
• Giuliani, Gaia. Race, Nation and Gender in Modern Italy. Intersectional Representations in Visual Culture. Londom: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. [link]
• Giuliani, Gaia & Cristina Lombardi-Diop. Bianco e nero. Storia dell’identità razziale degli italiani. Milan: Mondadori Education, 2013. [link]

Main projects

• Collaborating Researcher of the project ‘UNPOP — UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour‘ — Coordinated by Cristiano Gianolla (CES — University of Coimbra) and Lisete Mónico (CINEICC — University of Coimbra) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPO-CPO/3850/2020). 2021-2025 [link]
• Consultant of the project ‘UrbanoScenes. Post-colonial imaginaries of urbanisation: A future-oriented investigation from Portugal and Angola‘ — Coordinated by Simone Tulumello (ICS — University of Lisbon) and Andrea Pavoni (DINÂMIA’CET- Iscte) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/GES-URB/1053/2021). 2022-2025
• Coordinator (with Sílvia Roque) of the project ‘(DE)OTHERING: Deconstructing Risk and Otherness: hegemonic scripts and counter-narratives on migrants/refugees and ‘internal Others’ in Portuguese and European mediascapes‘ — Hosted by CES — University of Coimbra and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029997). 2018-2021 [link]
• Collaborator of the project ‘DeCode/M — (De)Coding Masculinities: Towards an enhanced understanding of media’s role in shaping perceptions of masculinities in Portugal‘ — Coordinated by Sofia José Santos and Tatiana Moura (CES — University of Coimbra) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/COM-CSS/31740/2017). 2018-2022 [link]