Sofia Graziani is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and the School of International Studies at the University of Trento, where she teaches courses of Chinese history and culture, History of modern and contemporary China and Chinese politics: past and present. Prior to joining the University of Trento in 2016, she was a recipient of the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation's postdoctoral fellowship (Taiwan, 2012-2013), held a three-year research position at the University of Bologna (2013-2016) and taught courses of History and Institutions of Modern China/East Asia at various Italian universities as well as at Peking University (Beijing). From 2019 to 2023 she has been a member of the Board of the Italian Association of Chinese Studies.
Her research focuses on the history of modern and contemporary China, with a specific interest in the history of the Chinese communist party and its affiliated youth organizations at both the national and international level, including within the post-WWII transnational soviet-sponsored peace movement. Her historical research has also looked at the discourses surrounding youth in the Mao and early post-Mao era and at the nexus between historical narratives and the construction of youth collective identity in the CCP practice. Other research interests include China-Italy relations during the Cold War years as well as Beijing’s people diplomacy and soft power strategies in the context of China-Africa relations.
She has recently co-edited (together with Laura De Giorgi and Yang Weijian) a special issue of the European Journal of East Asian Studies (Brill), Issue 1, 23 (2024) titled “Chinese Youth and Socialism, from the Soviet Republic to the Early Post-Mao Years: Historical and Cultural Perspectives”. Her works have appeared in various international academic journals dedicated to East Asia/China, such as Modern Asian Studies, Twentieth- Century China, European Journal of East Asian Studies and The Journal of the European Association of Chinese Studies.