I am senior lecturer in sociology, co-director of the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis, and currently in the board of directors of INSNA (International network for social network analysis). I teach introductory and advance workshops in social network analysis and egonetworks, and in mixed methods in SNA, and I am the director of the Msc in Social Network Analysis at University of Manchester. I completed my Ph.D in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research in 2006 at Catholic University of Milan.

I study social networks and how they shape and are shaped by our social environment. Substantive topics I have investigated are science, criminal networks, personal relationships, but also consumption and health. Recently, I developed a strong interest in how gender affects and is affected by social networks. I look at how gendered micro-interactions systematically combine in building gendered social networks, which endorse and reinforce gender stereotypes and inequalities. I looked at gender inequalities in networks of scientific collaborations, in supportive networks of victims of domestic abuse, and in network trajectories of human traffickers, and more in general in personal networks, educational networks and organizational networks. I believe that by looking at social networks, at whom we interact with and how these relationship influence us, we can better understand how societies work and cultures emerge. I adopt the stance of relational sociology and I am interested in how it merges with other mainstream sociological theories. I strongly advocate the use of a variety of qualitative and quantitative tools that can be mixed to adjust the lenses through which we observe and explain the social world.