Hello, world!

I am Serena and I am a PhD student in Urban Planning and Mobility at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). My research examines the intersection of social sustainability, the urban built environment and mobility, exploring how to (re)design equitable and inclusive neighbourhoods and foster community cohesion.

RESEARCH TRAJECTORY

As a research assistant for the MOVACTES project, I helped map the 15-minute city for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, and Granada. The MOVACTIVA website (in Spanish) features the proximity maps and an interactive viewer. I also co-authored a forthcoming paper in Ciudad y Territorio Estudios Territoriales - CyTET and wrote a public report summarising our findings, which was presented at a seminar in June 2024.

In my first year as a PhD student, I studied how urban proximity impacts social cohesion across five Spanish cities. I found that people are more engaged in their community when destinations feel closer, regardless of actual distance. This work was published in Sustainable Cities and Society and presented at the Urban Transition conference in November 2024.

Since June 2024, I have been a visiting researcher in the Urban Data Science group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). During my stay, I led a study on the accessibility of climate shelters for vulnerable populations in Barcelona, which was presented at various events and seminars.

Now in the second year of my PhD, I am working on several projects in collaboration with UAB and BSC, including:

  • Characterising of the temporal dynamics of social segregation in Barcelona and its relationship with the built environment.
  • Analysing newspaper coverage of urban interventions.
  • Exploring the relationship between mobility of care and urban proximity.

A BIT ABOUT ME…

I was born in Italy in the eighties, at the very end. I moved to London in 2011 and have been living in Barcelona since 2015. I share a cosy and plant-overrun flat with my partner Stefano. I excel at being mediocre at far too many hobbies, including baking, running, yoga and, most recently, knitting.