I am an Associate Professor and Serra Húnter Fellow in Media Studies and Popular Culture in the Department of Communication at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Since 2006, I have held various positions as a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Communication at UPF. Currently, I am the Director of the BA programme in Audiovisual Communication, Coordinator of the UNIC Research Group, recognised and funded as a Consolidated Research Group by AGAUR – Generalitat de Catalunya (ref: 2021 SGR 00921), and a member of the MEDIUM Reserach Group.

I hold a PhD in Social Communication (UPF, 2010) and a BA in Audiovisual Communication (UPF, 2002). My research focuses on media studies, cultural studies and popular culture. My work explores the connections between popular culture (specifically reality TV, celebrity culture and video games), neoliberalism and austerity culture, as well as class and gender stereotypes (how working-class women are stigmatised and delegitimised on reality television and celebrity culture). I have also analysed the celebritisation of politics, as well as the construction of authorship in video games and its ideological implications. I am currently interested in labour imaginaries, redistributive imaginaries and dystopian narratives. Methodologically, I am an expert in qualitative textual analysis methods (semiotics and social semiotics, framing analysis) and qualitative audience analysis (focus groups). I am proficient in the use of NVivo software.

My research experience has been recognized with two six-year research term [‘Tram’] favourably assessed by AQU (Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency, Generalitat de Catalunya, 2008-2015, 2016-2021). I am a member of IAMCR and ECREA.

I am Principal Investigator of the European research project Redistributive Imaginaries: Digitization, Culture, and Prosocial
Contribution (REDIGIM), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/NextGenerationEU/PRTR (Ref.: PCI2022-135059-2, 2022-2025), under the CHANSE Cofund 2021 programme. Previously, I was Principal Investigator of the research project Heroes of the crisis: Narrative and social discourses in contemporary popular culture (HEDECRI), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness  (Grant Ref.: CSO2014-56830-P, 2015-2019). I have also taken part in several research projects funded by national and regional public agencies as a researcher. 

I have authored a book (Telerealidad, disciplina e identidad: Los makeover shows en España [Reality TV, discipline and identity: Makeover shows in Spain], Ed. UOC) and several articles; published in academic journals such as European Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Communication, Convergence; Celebrity Studies; Games and Culture; Social Semiotics and Communications; and written several book chapters and other reports. I am the member of the Advisory Board of the academic journals Celebrity Studies and International Journal of Marketing Semiotics & Discourse Studies. I have extensive experience as a reviewer: I have reviewed more than 40 articles for journals such as New Media & Society, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, and Feminist Media Studies. I also have experience as proposal evaluator for the State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación - AEI) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Social Sciences – Communication panel), as external reviewer from 2016 to 2019, and as a member of the panel of experts in 2020.

I have extensive experience teaching both undergraduate (BA in Audiovisual Communication, BA in Advertising and Public Relations) and graduate courses (MA in Media Power and Difference, MA in Social Communication). Throughout my career, I have taught a broad range of courses on semiotics and narrative analysis, political communication and media policy and structure. I have been awarded three five-year teaching terms [‘Trams’] positively assessed by AQU: 2006-2011, 2011-2016 (with a mention of excellence from UPF) and 2017-2021.