Degree in Letters: 1982; PhD in Religious Studies : 1988; Researcher at The National Research Council (CNR), Centr. Libr.: 1988-1994. At Sapienza. University of Rome: 1994-2005 Researcher in History of Christianity (M-STO/07); 2005-2021 Associated Professor of History of Christianity; since 2021 Full professor in History of Christianity. Starting from 2018 she is also an invited Professor at Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Univ. Lateranense.
From 2013 to today Member of the Board of the PhD in Religious Studies ; until 2016President of the LT SAR;
For editorial initiatives, she is a member of: Advisory Board of the Journal Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni ; "Cahiers d'Étude du Religieux", and International Association of Patristic Studies(AIEP/IAPS); Consulta Universitaria per la Storia del Cristianesimo e delle Chiese(CUSCC); Associazione Italiana per lo Studio della Santità, dei Culti e dell'Agiografia(AISSCA); Gruppo Italiano di Ricerca su Origene e la Tradizione Alessandrina (GIROTA); G.R.A.A. Groupe de Recherche sur l'Afrique Antique.
Her research interests include: Ancient Christianity, history of Roman Africa, Augustinian studies, history of exegesis, history of dogma, and above all, hagiography. On the latter subject he published the monographs: "Dai 'santi' al Santo: un percorso storico- linguistico intorno all'idea di santità: Africa romana, secc. II-V", Roma, Studium, 2003; "Possidio, Vita di Agostino. Catalogo di tutti i libri, sermoni e lettere del vescovo Sant'Agostino", Milano, Paoline, 2009, "Infanzia e santità", Roma, Viella, 2020.
In recent years, moreover, she was P.I. of a group of research on childhood in ancient cultures, and she has published with A.M.G. Capomacchia the proceedings of three international conferences: "Il Corpo del Bambino", Morcelliana 2017; "Liminalità infantili", Henoch 2019 and "antiche infanzie" Morcelliana 2020.
Since 2021 she coordinates the research group on "Heroic maidens, holy girls, bad girls. A transdisciplinary and diachronic approach to the construction of female identity and to its representation".