Postdoctoral Researcher in Narratives of Illness and Celebrity in Italian Media

The Department of the Arts at the University of Bologna invites applications for a postdoctoral research contract to investigate the narratives of illness produced by celebrities in Italian audiovisual and digital media. The project, titled 'Mediating Illness: Narratives of Illness and Vulnerable Celebrities in Italian Audiovisual and Digital Media,' examines how celebrities reactivate and negotiate established narrative and visual tropes in their self-representation, particularly in relation to diagnosis, therapeutic journeys, and the aestheticization of the fragile body. The research aims to explore how traditional media, digital platforms, and fandom transform the celebrity’s body into a public archive of suffering, care, and transformation.