Our Team

Elena Roversi holds a BA in International Cooperation and Development from the University of Bologna (Italy) and an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Geneva (Switzerland). She also spent six months as an Erasmus student at the Free University of Brussels, and three months at UC Santa Barbara as part of the International Studies Program. Currently, Elena is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration and Public Policy at Auburn University, with a focus on Community Planning and Applied Research. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she worked for several years in child protection and gender programming for international organizations such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization in Geneva (Switzerland), and UNICEF in Senegal. 

Elena’s research interests center on the gendered dimensions of marginalization, particularly in urban contexts across Europe and the Global South. Her dissertation investigates the experiences of newly arrived refugees in the city of Ferrara, Italy, examining how they navigate perceptions of insecurity in urban public spaces and how they build a community in a situation of marginalization and precarity.

Elena’s diverse fieldwork experience spans Italy, Senegal, and Liberia, where she conducted in-depth interviews, facilitated focus groups, collected qualitative data, and co-designed a short course on qualitative research. As part of her dissertation work, Elena is also co-directing a video ethnography project on the refugees’ homemaking experiences in Italy. She has presented her work at leading conferences, including the Urban Affairs Association, the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, the Association of Collegiate Schools in Planning, and the Annual Association for Research on Civil Society in Africa. 

At Auburn, Elena teaches undergraduate courses in Community Planning, including "Urbanization and the City," and is developing a new course on the political, social, and cultural impact of migration on urban spaces. She has extensive experience in gender analysis, nonprofit management, and urban policy, having led international projects focused on child protection, gender inclusion, and community development.

Tracks: Community Planning; Applied Research

Areas of Interest: Forced displacement and urban security; Gender and migration in urban spaces; Feminist political ecology; New Cities and Traditional Communities in Africa.

Education:
Bachelor of Arts in International Cooperation and Development, University of Bologna (Italy) 

Master of Arts in Gender Studies, University of Geneva (Switzerland)