Curriculum Vitae

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Current Appointments

  • Dec 2025–Present
    Research Fellow / Researcher (Contratto di ricerca ex art. 22 L. 240/2010), Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan
    Research programme funded by the Progetto di Eccellenza “CMDHub – Computational Models and Designs Hub” (U-GOV DECC23_025_AC). Scientific supervisor: Prof. Luigi Curini.

Past Appointments

  • Mar 2023–Sep 2025
    Post-doctoral researcher in the project VIPoP at University of Milan
    Development of the project “The Visual Politics of Populism” — Call: PRIN-Research Projects of National Relevance — Funded by Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR): Sept 2023–Sept 2025. PI: Prof. Mattia Zulianello.
  • Oct 2022–Mar 2023
    Post-doctoral researcher in the project DAPS&CO at University of Milan
    Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan within the research program Data analytics for politics, society and complex organizations (DAPS&CO).
  • 2015–2019
    Research Associate at REScEU / EuVisions
    External research associate at REScEU / EuVisions (ERC-funded, University of Milan; PI: Prof. Maurizio Ferrera), Centro di Ricerca e Documentazione L. Einaudi.
  • 2012–2015
    Research Assistant at T.Wai — Torino World Affairs Institute
    Research assistant and project area manager at the IR think-tank T.Wai, Turin, Italy.

Education

  • October 2022
    PhD in Political Studies, University of Milan (NASP — Network for the Advancement of Social and Political Studies)
    Thesis: “The 2019 European Parliament election campaign as seen from Twitter”. Main advisor: Luigi Curini. Committee: Lorenzo De Sio, Airo Hino, Fabio Franchino.
  • July 2012
    M.A. in Political Studies and International Relations, University of Turin, Italy (110/110 cum laude)

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  1. A Supranational Alliance: The Empowerment of the European Commission from 1958 to 2019
    F. Franchino, M. Migliorati, G. Pagano (2026)
    West European Politics
  2. Identifying delegation and constraints in legislative texts: A computational method applied to the European Union
    F. Franchino, M. Migliorati, G. Pagano, V. Vignoli (2026)
    European Union Politics
  3. Assessing public sphere influence on political attitudes across generations: a mixed-methods study of generational political structuring in Italy
    L. De Sio, G. Legnante, D. Tuorto, C. Vezzoni, M. Boldrini, et al. (2026)
    Frontiers in Political Science, 8, 1720542
  4. The gender gap in language emotionality: A focus on the Italian parliament (1948–2020)
    S. Decadri, G. Pagano (2026)
    Quality & Quantity
  5. Concepts and measures of bureaucratic constraints in European Union laws from hand-coding to machine-learning
    F. Franchino, M. Migliorati, G. Pagano, V. Vignoli (2024)
    Regulation & Governance, (3), 688–703
  6. Facebook as a media digest: user engagement and party references to hostile and friendly media during an election campaign
    A. Ceron, G. Pagano, M. Bordignon (2023)
    Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 20(4), 454–468
  7. Generational gap and post-ideological politics in Italy (POSTGEN). A generation-aware analysis of ideological destructuring and political change in the Italian case
    L. De Sio, G. Legnante, D. Tuorto, C. Vezzoni, D. Angelucci, M. Boldrini, et al. (2023)
    Italian Political Science, 18(2), 163–176

Book Chapters

  1. Disinformation
    M. Bordignon, G. Pagano (2022)
    In: Elgar Encyclopedia of Technology and Politics, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing
  2. Misinformation
    M. Bordignon, G. Pagano (2022)
    In: Elgar Encyclopedia of Technology and Politics, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing
  3. The 2019 EP Election in Italy: A ‘Titanic’ Victory for Salvini’s League
    A. Ceron, M. Bordignon, G. Pagano (2021)
    In: Campaigning on Facebook in the 2019 European Parliament Election, ed. by J. Haßler, M. Magin, U. Russmann, V. Fenoll; Cham: Palgrave Macmillan

Working Papers

  1. More than words? Understanding Multimodal Political Communication: a Computational Analysis of Textual and Visual Elements in the EP 2024 Campaign
    G. Pagano, L. Curini (2026)
    Under Review
  2. The sources of national obligations and flexibility in European Union laws, from 1958 to 2019
    F. Franchino, M. Migliorati, G. Pagano (2025)
    Under Review

Selected Work in Progress

  1. Transcription and Recognition of Italian Parliamentary Speeches Using Vision-Language Models
    L. Curini, A. Ferrara, G. Pagano, S. Picascia (2026)
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.28103
  2. Bending Bureaucracy: Detecting Political Capture of Administration with Computational Legislative Analysis
    A. Damonte, G. Pagano (2026)
    Work in progress
  3. Democratic rhetoric in autocratizing regimes
    G. Pagano, T. Corda (2026)
    Work in progress
  4. Mobilizing Past and Future: Radical Right Candidates and Citizens
    G. Pagano (2026)
    Work in progress
  5. When democracies bend: Understanding Democratic Backsliding Through Citizens’ Attitudes
    M. Bordignon, G. Pagano, F. Piacentini (2025)
    Work in progress

Teaching

  • 2026
    Large Language Models for Social Science Research
    Instructor, ECPR Methods School — General Conference, Jagiellonian University (Kraków) & online. Summer school. In-person sessions 8–10 September (Kraków); online sessions 14–15 September.
  • 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
    Introduction to R
    Adjunct Professor, University of Milan. MA in Public & Corporate Communication (DAPS&CO).
  • 2025
    Visual Analysis for Political Scientists
    Workshop Instructor, SISP Conference (Naples). 4-hour workshop for Junior & Senior Scholars. Funded by Società Italiana di Scienza Politica.
  • 2025
    Data Science for Organizations
    University of Milan. Undergraduate, TA (Prof. M. Cremonini).
  • 2021–2025
    Political Science
    University of Milan. Undergraduate, TA (Prof. L. Curini).
  • 2024
    Large Language Models (LLMs) for Political Scientists
    Workshop Instructor, SISP Conference (Trieste). 6-hour workshop for Junior & Senior Scholars. Funded by Società Italiana di Scienza Politica.
  • 2023
    Multivariate Analysis for Social and Political Scientists
    Adjunct Professor, University of Milan. MA in Public & Corporate Communication (DAPS&CO).
  • 2023
    Data Management and Database Concepts (Lab)
    University of Milan. MA in Public & Corporate Communication (DAPS&CO).

Professional Conferences

  • Comptext: 2020 (online), 2024
  • European Political Science Association (EPSA): 2024, 2025
  • Italian Political Science Association: 2021 (online), 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
  • Italian Computational Social Science Association: 2025
  • International Association on Regulatory Governance: 2024
  • Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA): 2026
  • European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) — General Conference: 2026
  • European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) — SGEU: 2018

Workshops and Invited Seminars

  • 2026
    ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops — University of Innsbruck (April 7–10)
    “Mobilizing Past and Future: Radical Right Candidates and Citizens”.
  • 2025
    Advancements in Text-as-Data Methods — University of Milan
  • 2025
    METRISP Workshop – Political science in the digital age
    “More Than Words: The Visual Rhetoric of Radical Right Populism on Social Media” (with Curini L.).
  • 2024
    Advancements in Text-as-Data Methods — University of Milan
  • 2023
    Gender & Politics SISP-Standing Group Workshop (Pavia)
    “Style Matters: Unveiling Gendered Communication Patterns of Italian Members of Parliament” (with Curini L., Decadri S., Negri F.).
  • 2023
    METRISP Workshop – Between Explanation and Prediction
    “A machine-learning application to estimating delegation via EU legal language processing” (with Franchino F., Migliorati M., Vignoli V.).
  • 2017
    Social Listening in the Past, Present and Future — Showcase Conference, British Academy (London)
    “Investigating patterns of Europeanization on Twitter” (with Arcostanzo F.).

Service

  • Reviewer for scientific journals: French Politics; Italian Political Science Review; Italian Journal of Public Policy; Journalism & Media.
  • Thesis supervision (Adjunct Professor, University of Milan — Department of Social and Political Sciences): MA in Public & Corporate Communication; 3 students.

Languages

Italian (mother tongue)English (Proficient)French (Advanced)Spanish (Beginner)

Programming Languages

R (Expert)Python (Advanced)Stata (Advanced)LaTeX (Advanced)