Rossella Merlino is Researcher in Contemporary History at the University of Messina’s Department of Political and Judicial Sciences, where she teaches 'Contemporary History' and 'History of European Integration' in the undergraduate programme in Political Science and International Relations. She holds a MA in Contemporary History and Culture from University College London (2008) and a PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (2013). She has been Lecturer in Italian Studies at several UK universities, including Bath, Exeter, and Bangor, and has also been a Visiting Research Fellow at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and University College Dublin. Her research interests centre on the political and transnational dimension of criminal phenomena, focusing on the dynamic interactions between mafia-type organised crime, wider political and social processes of change, and public discourse. She has collaborated in a number of research networks and coordinated a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship funded by the European Commission at the University of Messina from 2018 to 2021. Rossella is a board member of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) and serves as Associate Editor for the quarterly journal Modern Italy, published by Cambridge University Press. Her recent publications include La mafia prima della mafia. Il caso di Messina (Carocci, 2023) and the volume Le mafie tra continuità e mutamento. Analisi, esperienze, narrazioni (Carocci, 2024), co-
edited with Luigi Chiara.