I am a multidisciplinary researcher specializing in harmful media, emerging digital societies, and the everyday impacts of artificial intelligence. My doctoral research bridges cultural criminology and the biopolitics of secrecy, with a focus on emerging technologies such as nanny cams and 'trivial surveillance' via smart devices. My current research focus is the cultural criminology of surveillance and the societal harms posed by technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

As Principal Investigator for a Scottish Government-funded project (2022–23), I led a comprehensive review of Public Space CCTV in Scotland. Currently, I serve as a Co-Investigator on the DAARC (Design Against Augmented Reality Crime) project, examining augmented reality's criminal and harmful implications (2024–25).

My first monograph, Onlife Criminology: Virtual Crimes and Real Harms, will be published by Bristol University Press in July 2025.

My doctoral research (2022) investigated the toxic and covert mechanisms of coercion and control facilitated by smart devices, examining their impact on personal spaces and their role in power, surveillance, and control within intimate settings.  Currently, my work explores the broader impact of digital tools on everyday life, focusing on their influence on privacy, agency, and societal harm, as well as the use of and resistance to emerging technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence

Keywords: CCTV; covert surveillance; online toxicity; social harms, Covid-19; obfuscation; onlife; AR LIVE

Research groups

• Criminology

List by: Type | Date

• In July 2022, I successfully obtained funding for a 7-month contract with the Government of Scotland. Our study studied the utilization and effects of Public Space Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) through a comprehensive survey and qualitative walking interviews conducted in collaboration with various Local Authorities and Police Divisions across Scotland. As the Principal Investigator (PI), my team and I compared the findings with those from other regions in the UK and Denmark.
• Along with my colleagues Dr Mark McGill (School of Computing Science, Glasgow) and Dr Richard Jones (University of Edinburgh), we have secured funding from REPHRAIN (National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online) for a project on DAARC (Design Against AR Crime) (2024-2025)

I am particularly keen in supervising dissertations in novel criminological frontiers such as

• hybrid on/off line reality
• obfuscation, surveillance and data-profiling
• sociological and criminological implications of the Sars-Cov-19 pandemic
• AI and crime prevention
• Smart devices and smart environments
• cyber harm and cybersecurity
• Web Toxicity
• Deepfakes, Bots & Weaponization of Media

Covid and cybercrime;

NFT cyberfrauds via online ethnography

Discourse analysis of media moral panicking

Modules that I Teach on:

• 2021/2022: Understanding & Explaining Crime (Convener)
• 2022/2023: Criminological Theory in Context (Convener)
• 2022/2023: MRes Methods Lab (Convener)
• Since 2023: Digital Societies: Theories and Substantive Issues (Convener)

Previous Teaching Experience:

• Sociology of Media
• Anthropology of Social Control
• Law, Crime & Societies

Grant committees & research advisory boards

• 2022 - 2023: Scottish Goverment,
• 2024 - 2025: REPHRAIN,

Selected international presentations

• 2023: SocInfo (University of Glasgow)
• 2024: Lectio Magistralis on Metamorphosis: AI and threat to Democracy (University of Pisa)
• 2023: Digital Society & Economy IRT (University of Glasgow)

Other than academic publications, I have contributed on magazines and newspapers in both English and Italian.