Giorgia Aiello is Professor of Culture and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK, and Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna, Italy. After graduating from the communication studies program founded by Umberto Eco in Bologna, she earned her PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. Her research focuses on how identities are formed, how difference and diversity are negotiated, and how inequalities are maintained or overcome through visual communication. She has been a visiting scholar, guest lecturer and keynote speaker at universities, conferences and workshops in twelve different countries. Giorgia is co-author of Visual Communication: Understanding Images in Media Culture (with K. Parry, SAGE, 2020) and editor of Communicating the City: Meanings, Practices, Interactions (with M. Tarantino and K. Oakley, Peter Lang, 2017).