Silvia Matilde De Ascaniis

Silvia is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI - Lugano, Switzerland). She is the Executive Director of the doctoral school Cross-Field (www.cross-field.ch), and coordinator of the doctoral school Argupolis (www.argupolis.net), both founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Silvia got a Phd in Communication Sciences with a thesis about pragmatic and argumentative features of tourism related Online Travel Reviews. She was visiting scholar at the Institute for Innovation in Business and Social Research, University of Wollongong (Australia), under the guidance of prof. Ulrike Gretzel. Silvia is member of IFITT - the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism.
Silvia’s research interests focus on argumentation dynamics in the online environment and the tourism field, religious tourism and pilgrimage, online communication, ICTs for promoting formal and informal learning.