Biography

My main research interest is the history of the family and its regulation in relation to social, political and cultural transformations in post-war Europe. My doctoral dissertation looked at the relationship between the conceptualisation of the family as an agency of care and state intervention in Italy and Britain since 1945. A monograph based on that research is due to be published by Palgrave/Macmillan later in the year, with the title Family Life and Individual Welfare in Post-War Europe. Britain and Italy Compared.
I am currently working on a project exploring the relationship between family politics and the construction of gendered notions of citizenship in post-war Italy, Spain and Poland.
Since the completion of my Ph.D., which was awarded in 2002 by Royal Holloway College, University of London, I have held research fellowships at the Open University and St Antony’s College, Oxford. My recent publications include 'Natural Mothers: Teaching Morality and Parentcraft in Post-War Italy', Modern Italy, (May 2004), 9, 21-33; 'Interventions sur l'enfance en Angleterre et in Italie dans le second après-guerre', Histoire & Sociétés, Revue Européenne d'Histoire Sociale,(Avril 2003), 6, 41-58; 'Protezione e controllo. Maternità e ideologia della famiglia nell'Inghilterra del secondo dopoguerra', Passato e Presente, (settembre-dicembre 2002), 57, 157-166.