Silvia Aru

Assistant Professor (Unito)
Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST)

Profile

Research interests

Border regimes
Inclusione ed esclusione socio-spaziale
Marginalità urbana
Migration processes and policies
Processi e politiche migratorie
Regimi di confine
Socio-spatial inclusion and exclusion
Urban marginality

Biography

Silvia Aru (PhD) has specialised in human geography since her Master’s degree at the University of Florence (2005). Her training progressed at the University of Trieste (2009), where she obtained a doctorate in Geohistory and Geoeconomics of the Border Regions. She carried out research, in particular empirical, in various Italian contexts (Florence, Cagliari, Turin, Ventimiglia), as well as abroad (Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam), in academic and non-academic fields. During her ten-year post-doc, she has participated in various projects working with numerous Universities and Research centres. In particular, she teamed with the LaGeS (Social Geography Laboratory) of the University of Florence (2009-2011), the EU-POLIS Research Center (University and Polytechnic of Turin) (2012-2013), and the LADEST (Historic Economic Data Laboratory for Territorial Studies - University of Siena) (2017-2018); all research centres dealing with the analysis of European and Mediterranean cities, spatial planning and policy analysis at local and supra-local level. Between 2014 and 2016, she participated in the research project "Space Justice and Mediterranean territorial systems. Stories and narratives of urban space", coordinated by the University of Cagliari. From 2017 to 2018, as a research fellow in the UNSNDN MED-Educational Program (University of Siena), she was involved in the activities of the MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research) Working Group on ‘School, University and Research for Agenda 2030’, coordinated by Prof. Enrico Giovannini. She has recently completed the FI Marie-Curie project “A Place for the Asylum Seekers. European migration policies and their socio-spatial impacts” at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) of the University of Amsterdam (2018-2020). She is also a committee member of the Association of Italian Geographers (AGeI) and part of the editorial committee of the Rivista Geografica Italiana.

Research topics

  • Geographies of inclusion and exclusion: spaces, policies, actors. She conducts research on migration dynamics, socio-spatial justice and inclusion issues. Over the last years, she has joined an interdisciplinary research group, called “Geotelling - Racconto Geografico", that makes use of visual methods to conduct research in participatory ways (link to: http://webdoc.unica.it/).

Skills

ERC sectors

SH3_6 - Diversity and identities, gender, interethnic relations
SH2_11 - Human, economic and social geography
SH2_9 - Urban, regional and rural studies

SDG

Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Awards and Honors

  • Premio “Società Geografica Italiana” ad un giovane studioso nel settore delle scienze geografiche conferred by Società Geografica Italiana, Italy (2016)

Fellowships

Other research or teaching roles outside Politecnico

  • Ricercatore, presso Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) (15/2/2018-15/2/2020)

Teaching

Collegi of the PhD programmes

  • URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 2022/2023 (39. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 2021/2022 (38. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 2020/2021 (37. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO

Teachings

Master of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Bachelor of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Research

Supervised PhD students

  • Angelina Grelle. Programme in Urban And Regional Development (38th cycle, 2022-in progress)
  • Lorenzo Mauloni. Programme in Urban And Regional Development (36th cycle, 2020-in progress)
    Thesis: From the Border to the Street: Migrants¿ Trajectories and Politics of Inhabitance in the surroundings of Tiburtina Station, Rome.

Other activities and projects related to research

Silvia Aru (PhD) has specialised in human geography since her Master’s degree at the University of Florence (2005). Her training progressed at the University of Trieste (2009), where she obtained a doctorate in Geohistory and Geoeconomics of the Border Regions. She conducts research on migration dynamics, socio-spatial justice and inclusion issues analyzing both territorial processes as well as policies and their implementation at different levels (European, national and local ones). She has participated in various projects during my ten-year post-doc (2009-2019) working with numerous Universities and Research centres. In particular, she teamed with the LaGeS (Social Geography Laboratory) of the University of Florence (2009-2011), the EU-POLIS Research Center (University and Polytechnic of Turin) (2012-2013), and the LADEST (Historic Economic Data Laboratory for Territorial Studies - University of Siena) (2017-2018); all research centres dealing with the analysis of European and Mediterranean cities, spatial planning and policy analysis at local and supra-local level. She has recently completed the FI Marie-Curie project “A Place for the Asylum Seekers. European migration policies and their socio-spatial impacts” at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) of the University of Amsterdam (2018-2020), carrying out a comparative study on the Italian and the Dutch asylum systems. During the time spent in Amsterdam, she collaborated with the Amsterdam Center for European Studies (University of Amsterdam). Over the last years, she has joined an interdisciplinary research group, called “Geotelling - Racconto Geografico", that makes use of visual methods to conduct research in participatory ways (link to: http://webdoc.unica.it/). She is also a committee member of the Association of Italian Geographers (AGeI) and part of the editorial committee of the Rivista Geografica Italiana.

Publications

Last years publications

PoliTO co-authors