Elena Oliva is a Tenure-Track Researcher (RTT) in Musicology and History of Music (PEMM-01/C) at Link Campus University in Rome. She earned her PhD in History of the Arts and Performance at the University of Florence with a dissertation on the dissemination of French operetta in post-Unification Italy (awarded the 2020 De Sono Prize for the best dissertation in Musicology). From 2020 to 2024, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of History, Archaeology, Geography, Art and Performing Arts (SAGAS) at the University of Florence, where she also taught Musicology and History of Music in the Primary Education degree programme.
Her main research interests include the history and analysis of musical theatre, the relationship between music and urban space, and the use of digital technologies in musicological research. In addition to her monograph "L’operetta parigina a Milano, Firenze e Napoli (1860–1890). Esordi, sistema produttivo e ricezione" (LIM, 2020), she has published several peer-reviewed articles in academic journals.
She has taken part in the following inter-university projects of national scientific relevance, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research: Raphael (Rhythmic And Proportional Hidden or Actual Elements in Plainchant, 1350–1750) (PRIN 2003 – coordinated by the University of Lecce); BaDaCriM (Banca Dati della Critica Musicale Italiana, 1900–1970) (PRIN 2009 – coordinated by the University of Turin); ArtMus (Articoli musicali nei quotidiani dell’Ottocento in Italia) (PRIN 2012 – coordinated by the University of Florence); MML (Mapping Musical Life: Urban Culture and the Local Press in Post-Unification Italy) (PRIN 2017 – coordinated by the University of Florence).
In 2016, she was awarded a research fellowship by the Ugo and Olga Levi Foundation in Venice, and in 2017 she was Visiting Scholar at the Équipe Littérature et Culture Italiennes (ELCI) at the Université Paris-Sorbonne. In October 2021, she received the Arthur Rubinstein “Una vita nella musica” Prize.
She is currently part of the research unit "WIM – Women in Music: Social Identity, Careers, Practices in Italy between the 17th and the 19th Centuries" (SAGAS Department – University of Florence), and serves on the scientific board of the Percorsi book series published by the Società Italiana di Musicologia.