Biography

Cristiano Gianolla obtained a PhD in Political Science and Sociology in 2017 (cum Laude). His dissertation focused on Gandhi's democratic theory through a comparative study of emerging political parties in Italy and India. He is researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra and coordinates the PhD course on Democratic Theories and Institutions, the MA course on Critical Intercultural Dialogue (both FEUC) and the virtual course on the Challenges to Democracy in the XXI Century (CLACSO). His research interests centre on populism, emotion, narrative, political parties, social movements, memory and heritage processes, and critical intercultural dialogue. Cristiano worked in the NGO sector before becoming a junior researcher in 2011, and has worked as a researcher since 2017. He has experience integrating research teams for large multidisciplinary projects in Europe, such as ECHOES (H2020, 2018-2021) and ALICE (ERC, 2011-2016). He is a coordinating editor of Alice News, editor of Rightsblog and e-cadernos, and acts as referee for other scientific journals. Cristiano participates in research groups on Democracy, Citizenship and Law (DECIDe) and Epistemologies of the South, is a founding member of the Inter-Thematic group on Migrations (ITM) at CES, and an active member in a number of international research networks and is co-coordinator of the Popular University of Social Movements (UPMS) in Europe. He has presented research papers at national and international conferences, authored two books and various articles elaborating on populism, democratic theory, postcolonialism, intercultural dialogue, movement-parties, citizenship, human rights, migrations and cosmopolitanism.