Manuela Caiani  is Associate Professor in Political Science at the Scuola Normale Superiore, where she is part of the COSMOS (Centre on Social Movement Studies) research team. She has received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florence, Italy, in 2006 and is the past recipient of various post doctoral fellowships (Doctoral TRA Fellowship, START Center, 2009, University of Maryland, USA), among which the Marie Curie (Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid) grant. She has received her national Italian Abilitazione for full professorship in Political Science and in Political Sociology, in 2017.

Her research focuses on Social Movements and Europeanization/transnationalization; Far Right Politics; Extremism online; Populism; Movement-parties; Qualitative methods of social research. She is Convenor of the Standing Group ‘Political Participation and Social Movements’ of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP) and Coordinator of the Master in Political Science and Sociology of the Scuola Normale Superiore. She is Co-director of the International Observatory on Social Cohesion and Inclusion-OCIS, https://osservatoriocoesionesociale.eu/.

Prof. Caiani has directed and collaborated in various international projects (Horizon projects; Volkswagen Foundation; Europe for Citizens Programme; FP4, FP5, FP7; PRIN; Jean Monnet; Research Grant Jubilaumsfonds, ONB).

She has published in, among others, the following peer-reviewed journals: Social Movement Studies, EJPR, Mobilization, Acta Politica, West European Politics, Government and Opposition, European Union Politics, South European Society and Politics, RISP; & for the following publishers: Oxford University Press, Ashgate, Palgrave, Routledge.

Her main research agenda for the coming years is to investigate the transnationalisation and diffusion of reactionary contention (radical right movements, anti-gender, etc.). In doing so, she will seek to develop an analytical framework based on the notion of transnationalism and mechanisms that integrates social movement studies and party politics.

Most recent publications:

• Caiani, M, Susasnzky, P. & Saridakis, N. (2024), “Radical Right and Anti-Vax Protests Between Movements and Parties: a Comparative Study”, Acta Politica, DOI:10.1057/s41269-024-00339-5.
• Caiani M., Carlotti, B., Lovec, M., Wincławska, M., Kočan, F. and Balcer, A. (2024) “Narratives and Euroscepticism in the Western Balkans and the EU”, Routledge
• Caiani, M & Eren, B. (2023), “A European Antipopulist Movement? The emergence and diffusion of the Italian Sardines and Finnish Herrings”, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 28 (3): 375–395.
• Manuela Caiani & Balša Lubarda (2023) “Conditional environmentalism of right-wing populism in power: ideology and/or opportunities?”, Environmental Politics, DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2023.2242749
• Caiani, M. (2023). “Framing and social movements”. Discourse Studies, 25(2), 195–209.
• Caiani, M. & Padoan, E. (2023), “Populism and (Pop) Music”, Palgrave.
• Caiani, M. & Weisskircher, M. (2022), “Anti-Nationalist Europeans and Pro-European Nativists on the Streets: Visions of Europe from the Left to the Far Right”, Social Movement Studies, 21:1-2, 216-233
• Caiani, M. (2022) “Movements and Parties: An introduction”, PACO Participation and Conflict, Vol.15, no 3,  http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/26475
• Manuela Caiani and L. Parenti, (2013) European and American Extreme Right Groups and the Internet, Ashgate.
• Manuela Caiani, D. della Porta and C. Wagemann (2012), Mobilizing on the Extreme Right, Oxford University Press.

Funded Projects:

• 2025-2028 TRANS4DEMO ‘Contentious Politics and Democratic Renewal in Sustainability Transitions’, HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-01, Principal investigator.
• 2023-2026 CIDAPE  ‘Climate, Inequality, and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions’,   HORIZON-CL2-2023-DEMOCRACY-01-04, Principal investigator.
• 2022-2025 AUTHLIB ‘Neo –Authoritarianisms in Europe and the liberal democratic response’,   Horizon 2021 (HORIZON-CL2-2021-DEMOCRACY-01-01), Principal investigator.
• 2022-2025 GOLDSTEIN – Debunking Political Uses of Denialisms and Conspiracy Theories in EU, Jean Monnet Programme/Module, partner
• 2022-2024 ‘Democratic Challenges, Social sustainability and Gender inequalities’, Programma congiunto PRO3 (DM n. 289/2021), Principal investigator/project coordinator.
• 2021-2022 ‘Tackling illiberal narratives and Euroscepticism from below’, Europe for Citizens Program (number: 625696-CITIZ-1-2020-1-MK-CITIZ-CIV), Principal investigator.
• 2019-2021 ‘Populism and Popular Music in Europe’, Volkswagen Stiftung (n. No A126160), PI.
• 2018-2020 ‘The consequences of Populism in Power’, SNS Research Grant, Project Coordinator
• 2016-2019, PRIN (Italian Research Ministry Funds) Project on “Politics e Policy in Europa in tempo di crisi: Cause e Conseguenze”, PI.
• 2016 – 2018 SNS Research Grant, SNS, “Right-Wing Political Radicalization Using the Internet in Eastern and Central Europe”, PI.
• 8. 2010 – 2012 Research Grant Jubilaumsfonds, Oesterreichische National Bank,  “The Dark Side of the Web European and American Extreme Right Groups and online Politics” (n. 14035), Project Coordinator, IHS, Wien.

Research interests and Phd Supervision:

Prof. Caiani  is open to supervising empirically-oriented research in areas related to:

• Social Movements and Europeanization/Transnationalization
• Regressive social movements (including anti gender)
• Far Right Politics
• Extremism online
• Movement-parties
• Populism
• Comparative politics
• Qualitative Methods of social research (focus groups, visual and frame analysis, qualitative interviews, social network analysis, protest event analysis, etc.).

Current (phd) Supervisees:

• Alexsandr Shishov (European Identities of the radical right)
• Nathasha Aidoo (Urban Feminism)
• Beatrice Carella (Left wing populism in power)
• Nicolò Pennucci (Anti populist social movements)
• Damiano Kerma (with Unipi) (Music and grassroots populist mobilization)
• Ivan Tranfic (Anti-gender social movements)
• Aida Kapetanovic (Collective identity in divided societies)
• Bathuan Eren (Diffusion of mobilization)
• Damla.Keskekci (The transnationalization of radical right social movements)
• Saridakis Nikolaos (with Panteion Univ.) (Radical right protest and Corona)
• Bucci Gianmarco (Movement-parties)
• Deniz Aktan (Sport and political participation)
•  Maximilian Weckermann (with WZB) (Imagined future of the far right)
• Masika Vaninetti (East African Community and Social networks)
• Lorenzo Fruganti (counter terrorism policies, coalitions and networks)
• Eduardo GONCALVES (left behind and collective re-mobilizations)
• Ghadir Abumiddain (gender and nation in divided societies)

Research interests: europeanization, extreme right politics, radical internet politics, and qualitative research methods