Federica Villa is a full professor at the University of Pavia, where she teaches Film History and Criticism and Documentary and Experimental Cinema. Her research interests revolve around postwar Italian cinema, with particular attention to the relationship between cinema and popular culture (Il narratore essenziale della commedia cinematografica degli anni Cinquanta, 1999), the practices of screenwriting (Botteghe di scrittura per il cinema italiano, 2002), and the contribution of certain literary figures to filmmaking (Giorgio Bassani cinematografico, 2010). She currently directs the research centre Self Media Lab: Scritture, Performance e Tecnologie del Sé, which investigates autobiographical and self-portraiture practices across photography, cinema and new media (Vite impersonali. Autoritrattistica e medialità, 2012; Tracciati autobiografici tra cinema arte e media, 2015; L'immagine di sé dal social networking ai big data, 2019).