Founders
Andrea Salvini is Full Professor in General Sociology at the Department of Political Science, University of Pisa, where he teaches methodological disciplines. His academic work focuses on the in-depth study and empirical application of Symbolic Interactionism and Social Network Analysis across a wide range of substantive fields, notably including changes in the voluntary sector and the Third Sector in Italy, and inter-organisational networks in social policy.
He is the Coordinator of the PhD programme in Political Science at the Department of Political Science at the University of Pisa. From 2022 to 2025, he served as Coordinator of the Executive Committee of the Methodology Section of the Italian Sociological Association (AIS Met); he is the past-president of the dell’European Board of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interactionism (2013-2021).
In 2024, he was the Recipient of the George Herbert Mead for Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.
email: andrea.salvini@unipi.it
Irene Psaroudakis is Associate Professor in General Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at the Department of Political Science, University of Pisa. She is the director of the Foundation Course in Social Science at the University of Pisa.
Her scientific interests focus primarily on the theoretical and methodological aspects of Symbolic Interactionism, and on data analysis processes, with a particular attention to qualitative methods and Grounded Theory, Social Network Analysis (SNA), and mixed methods. For many years, she has been engaged in the theoretical and empirical study of the Third Sector, including through collaboration with public and private stakeholders. She also works on the processes of identity construction, gender and complex systems.
She is member of the Board of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (since 2019), and of the Publications Committee of the journal Symbolic Interaction (since 2025).
email: irene.psaroudakis@unipi.it
Research Fellows
Alice Levy is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Pisa, Italy, with a background in Sociology and Social Work from the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her research sits at the intersection of migration studies and gender and sexuality studies. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory, her doctoral project explores identity construction processes among LGBTQIA+ refugees in Italy after the asylum procedure has concluded.
e-mail: alice.levy@phd.unipi.it