Bio

2001 Graduate in Psychology with a specialization in Applied Psychology at the faculty of Psychology at the University of Padova. Dissertation title: “Progettazione Sviluppo e Studio di una Rete di apprendimento asincrono in sussidio ai corsi universitari”. Training in Social Psychology at the Department of General Psychology of Padova. Research focuses on social aspects of cooperation and communication in collaborative virtual environments. 2001- 2003 junior researcher in European project VEPSY “Telemedicine and Portable Virtual Environments for Clinical Psychology”. The aim of the project was to develop methodologies and virtual environments to use in clinical treatments. 2002- 2004 researcher in European Project EMMA “Engaging Media For Mental Health Applications” the aim of the project is to study, using virtual environments and portable technologies, methods to enhance emotional states in clinical patients. From Genuary 2005 researcher at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova, SSD M-PSI/05. 2006 PhD in Social and Personality Psychology. At the University of Padova, tutor Prof Giuseppe Mantovani. Member of the Virtual Laboratory and of the "Interaction & Culture" Lab of the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova. Member of the AIP (Associazione Italiana Psicologi) and of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). Research interests are mostly in the field of Cultural Psychology and are focused on cooperation and communication, as social processes, with a special attention on intercultural aspects. The main characteristics of these studies are the application and studying of new technologies as social artefacts able to modify the interactions modalities and able to define new action contest for communication and cooperation processes. The methodologies used in the research are taken from ethnographic studies and are mostly qualitative such as discourse analysis and gesture analysis. From this point of view it is possible to configure three main research fields: - Computer mediated communication: linguistic, social and cultural perspective; - Cultural Psychology: ethnic minorities and new media; - Distance learning system: theoretical aspects and modelling.