Titolo della tesi: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Alias Career: Perspectives on School Policies for Trans Youths in Italy
In the last years, growing attention has been directed to the adoption of the alias career and the experiences of transgender students in Italian schools across all levels of education.
As of January 2025, 421 schools have adopted the alias career, a confidentiality agreement that allows trans students to use their chosen name in unofficial school documentation, such as the digital register and school e-mail. Some schools also provide access to gender segregated facilities, staff training, and education for students on the alias career and LGBTQIA+ issues. However, the absence of national guidelines on the alias career has led to significant variability in access requirements and implementation practices, with each school independently determining its criteria and scope of support.
This thesis aims to critically examine how the alias career is implemented in upper secondary education de jure and de facto and understand whether this confidentiality agreement can be considered sufficient to support trans students. Additionally, it describes how the alias career functions as a normalisation device to regulate and discipline trans identities, often reinforcing cisnormativity, binarism, adultism, and the pathologisation of diverse gender identities.
The research questions are answered through a mixed-method approach by analysing the alias career regulations and interviewing students who have obtained or sought to implement the alias profile. Through a Foucauldian lens on biopower, biopolitics and normalisation, it explores how school policies shape the lived experiences of trans students, setting specific standards of “worthiness” and regulating access to recognition based on medical and legal norms. Additionally, interviews with teachers, principals, parents, and activists provide further insights into the complexities of implementing the alias career because of the lack of staff training and student education and the attacks from anti-trans associations. This work highlights how the alias career, while intended as a supportive measure, is often used as a tool to exclude and control trans students and that positive school experiences are based on fortuity.