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Claudia Padovani (Ph.D. in International Relations, 1997) is Associate Professor in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Padova (Italy) where she teaches courses in Global Communication Governance and Diversity and Inclusion in Communication Practices.

At the University of Padova Padovani is vice-director of the University Center Elena Cornaro for Gender Studies, and reference person for the international network Scholars at Risk, which she co-coordinates at the Italian level. Padovani actively contributes to internationalisation activities at the University of Padova: she is reference person for a number of Erasmus exchange flows with European institutions, and has organized several international high level scientific events, mostly focused on the nexus between global transformations and communication, media and mediations, governance and networks, democracy and knowledge (since 2013 with the Next Generation Global Studies research group).

Her main areas of interest concern the transformation of political processes in the global context and their connection to the evolution of communication dynamics and technologies. These include global governance, multi-stakeholderism, network approaches to the study of global politics; global communication policy and Internet Governance: issues, actors, networks; trans-national social mobilizations around media reform, media democratization and communication rights; global civil society as a global actor, the transformative role of norms and power in world politics, trans-national advocacy networks. Most recently her areas of investigation have moved towards a better understanding of the connections and disconnection between communication and women and gender-related issues with a focus on related governing arrangements and social practices, both at the European level and transnationally.

Padovani is co-chair of the UNESCO UNITWIN Network on Gender, Media and ICT and member of the Coordinating Committee of the European section of the Global Alliance for Media and Gender; she has also coordinated the Global Media Monitoring Project for the Italy since 2000. On these topics she has been involved as senior researcher in European projects like the EIGE-funded project Advancing Gender Equality in Decision media in Media Organizations (2012-2013) and the EU DG Justice-funded project Advancing Gender Equality in Media Industries (2017-2019).

Current research activities

• Mapping Global Media

Policy: The project is an initiative currently supported by Media@McGill, McGill University’s media research hub, and the Department of Historical and Political Studies at the University of Padova, in cooperation with the Global Media Policy Working Group that operates within the IAMCR as an open space for scientific interaction to examine global media policy as an emerging field of research and practice. The GMP mapping project aims at addressing the many issues faced by researchers and practitioners, as well as policy-makers and advocates operating in this domain, by channelling fundamental information as well as research outcomes on the economic and political, social and cultural dimensions of media and communication policy. The final goal is to build capacity for policy intervention.

See http://iamcr.org/s-wg/mcpl/gmp. 

• Global Media Monitoring

Project (national coordinator, Italy):
The GMMP project is the largest longitudinal study on the representation of women in the world’s media. It is also the largest advocacy initiative in the world on changing the representation of women in the media. It is unique in involving participants ranging from grassroots community organizations to university students and researchers to media practitioners, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis. The project is promoted by WACC with sport of several organizations and participation from 127 countries (2009 edition).

See: http://www.whomakesthenews.org/.

• Networks and power in gender-oriented

Ccommunication governance: Funded by the University of Padova (March 2011-February 2013) and carried on by a research team coordinated by Claudia Padovani, the project aims at empirically analyzing the area of trans-national communication governance that focuses on the nexus between women, media and communication.

The project understands Gender-Oriented Communication Governance (GOC Gov) as the multiplicity of networks of interdependent, but operationally autonomous actors, that produce relevant knowledge and cultural practices; develop frames that imbue public discourse and orientate policy agendas; articulate principles, norms and rules; engage in political negotiation with a view to orientate policy-relevant outcomes around issues pertaining to the nexus between women, communication and mediating technologies. Its The final aim is to provide an articulated overview of Gender-Oriented Communication Governance as it evolved over the past 15 or so years, contributing, at the same time, to shed new light on the conduct and mechanisms of international politics, with a specific focus on how normative frameworks evolve in the supra-national context, through the intervention of a plurality of interacting actors.

• International UNESCO UNITWIN Network on Gender, Media and ICTs

The International UNESCO UNITWIN Network on Gender, Media and ICTs is a network that aim to advance research training and program development in UNESCO’s fields of competence by building university networks and encouraging co-operation between gender, media and ICT scholars. Supporting education and research on media, information and communication technologies, the Network specifically aims to promote gender equality and women’s participation in and through media on a global scale through research, education and advocacy.
Members of the network are drawn from all regions: Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America and also Latin America and the Caribbean. The Network is co-chaired by RMIT, UNAM and Padova Universities. Other key beneficiaries involved in outreach activities are policy makers, NGOs, gender and media activists, experts, media corporations/practitioners.

(Ver. 08-2022)