Valeria Graziano is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at the Centre for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe, University of Rijeka, and Visiting Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London (2026). Her work engages with labour politics, care and the organisation of social reproduction. Grounded in collaborative research processes, often in dialogue with social movements as well as with artistic and cultural contexts, it explores how collective practices generate ways of living beyond institutionalized constraints. She is co-author of Pirate Care: Insurgent Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity (Pluto Press, 2025), and is currently completing a monograph on militant conviviality (Bristol University Press, forthcoming).

Education

Graziano holds a PhD in Business and Management (Critical Organization Theory) from Queen Mary University of London (2015), undertaken within a collaborative doctoral programme with the Drama Department and supported by a full scholarship. She also holds an MA from the Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London, supported by an AHRC scholarship. She completed a postgraduate course in Cultural Project Management at the Fitzcarraldo Foundation (Turin). She obtained the Italian National Habilitation in Sociology of Culture and Communication (2021).

Areas of Expertise

• Labour politics and post-work studies
• Care and social reproduction
• Institutional analysis and deinstitutionalisation
• Sociology of social movements
• Informal practices, piracy and illegalisms
• Repair and maintenance studies
• Performance and organization theory

Courses Taught

• Cultural Studies and Contemporary Theory
• Politics of Care and Social Reproduction
• Post-Work Scenarios and Anti-Work Politics
• Institutional Analysis and Critique
• Interdisciplinary and Practice-Based Research Methods

Courses Taught at UniRi

• Post-Work Scenarios and Anti-Work Politics
• Discourses of Work and Wellbeing
• Cultural Studies (elective course, Kino Ucionica programme)
• Feminism and the Body
• Socialism and Feminism

Current Projects

• Management Committee Member and Working Group 3 “Analysis, Politics and Theory of Care” Coordinator, COST Action Toolkit of Care (CA21102)
• Kino Ucionica, screening and public talks programme on antimilitarisation (Rijeka, 2025–2026), funded by the City of Rijeka and the Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb
• Research collaborator, Islands of Conviviality Summer School (Erste Foundation / Stiftung Convivial, 2026)
• Research collaborator, Choreographing Anti-Fascism (Oslo National Academy of the Arts)
• Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility, University of Bolzano (April 2026)

Publications

Books / Textbooks

• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. Pirate Care: Insurgent Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity. London: Pluto Press, 2025
• Ferreri, M., Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T., Miškovic, D. (eds.) Figure It Out: The Art of Living Through System Failures. Rijeka: Drugo More, 2024
• Cangiano, S., Fragnito, M., Graziano, V., Romano, Z. Rebelling with Care: Exploring Open Technologies for Commoning Healthcare / Cure Ribelli. Milano: WeMake, 2019
• Precarious Workers Brigade. Training for Exploitation? Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Education. London: JOAP Publishing, 2011

Edited Volumes / Special Issues

• Graziano, V., Trogal, K. (eds.) Repair Matters. Special issue of ephemera: theory & politics in organization, vol. 19, no. 2, London: Mayfly Books, 2019
• Bojanic, S., Graziano, V. (eds.) Contours of Change. A Decade of Transformative Inquiry at CAS SEE. Rijeka: University of Rijeka, 2024

Journal Articles (selected)

• Graziano, V., Graham, J., Kelly, S. (2026). “All Talk: A Workshop on Public Programming as Discourse Production.” Open Research Europe, 6:37
• Chis, I. et al. (2026). “Book Review Symposium for Pirate Care.” Postdigital Science and Education (Q1, Scopus/SJR)
• Graziano, V. (2025). “Deciphering Harm: Naming the Issue in Italian Healthcare Struggles During the ’60s and ’70s.” Filozofija i Društvo, 36 (Q2–Q3, Scopus/SJR)
• Graziano, V. (2024). “Zivotna Vještina Raje: Institucionalno Krparenje i Pucki Ilegalizmi.” Kritika
• Graziano, V., Trogal, K. (2022). “Labour Power in the Repair Shop: Circuits of Repair Between Solidarity and Poor Economy.” Capitalism, Nature and Society (Q1, Scopus/SJR)
• Graziano, V. (2021). “Figures of Unwork and Ethics of Care.” Cultural Politics (Q1–Q2, Scopus/SJR)
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2021). “When Care Needs Piracy.” Soundings
• Graziano, V., Trogal, K. (2021). “On Domestic Fantasies and Anti-Work Politics.” Theory & Event (Q2, Scopus/SJR; AHCI)
• Cozza, M. et al. (2021). “Covid-19 as a Breakdown in the Texture of Social Practices.” Gender, Work & Organization (Q1, WoS/Scopus)
• Graziano, V., Fragnito, M. (2021). “The Medicalisation of Politics or the Politicisation of Medicine.” DAT Journal
• Graziano, V., Ferreri, M. (2014). “The Breaking of the Spell.” Sociologia del lavoro
• Graziano, V., Ferreri, M. (2014). “Passions without Objects.” Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques (Q2–Q3, Scopus/SJR)

Book Chapters (selected)

• Graziano, V. (2025). “The Rabble’s LifeCraft: Institutional Tinkering and Popular Illegalisms.” In Zubcic, M.-L. (ed.), Intelligence of Errors: Foundations and Fieldnotes. Publication of the Croatian Pavillion at the 2026 Venice Architecture Biennale. Zagreb: Institute of Philosophy / Croatian Architects’ Association
• Graham, J., Graziano, V., Kelly, S. (2025). “La svolta educativa nell’arte.” In Bernasconi, R. et al. (eds.), Performance+Pedagogia. Rome: Luca Sossella Editore
• Graziano, V., Palladini, G. (2024). “We in the Plural: Performance Gestures of Antifascism.” In Bottiroli, S. & Melgares, M. (eds.), What Can Theatre Do?. Venice: Bruno
• Graziano, V. (2023). “Das Kollektive komponieren.” In Brunner, C. et al. (eds.), Technopolitiken der Sorge. Vienna: Transversal Texts
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2022). “Local Maximum.” In Martínez, P. et al. (eds.), Artistic Ecologies. London/Cambridge: Sternberg Press
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2021). “Politicising Piracy.” In De Wit, D. et al. (eds.), Reshape: A Workbook to Reimagine the Art World. Flanders Arts Institute
• Graziano, V. (2020). “Rivoluzioni domestiche contro domesticazioni tecnologiche.” In Giardini, F. et al. (eds.), La natura dell’economia. Rome: DeriveApprodi
• Graziano, V. (2019). “Recreation at Stake.” In Piazza, L.A. & Vujanovic, A. (eds.), A Live Gathering. Berlin: b_books
• Graziano, V., Trogal, K. (2019). “Handling Replacement.” In Fitz, A. & Krasny, E. (eds.), Critical Care. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Other Writings (selected)

• Graziano, V., Pupovac, T. (2023). “Refractions, Borderlines and Unbureaucratic Politics.” In Burtscher, A. & Lupo, D. (eds.), Sixteen Dialogues on the Cultural and Artistic Production of Contemporaneity. Leipzig: Spector Books
• Graziano, V., Le Roy, X. (2025). “Practices: Strategies and Tactics.” In Casartelli, G. et al. (eds.), Lives Shaping Works Making Life. Venice: Bruno Editore
• Graziano, V. (2024). “Pravo da budemo lijene i pritom uzivamo.” Kulturpunkt
• Graziano, V. (2022). “The Right to Be Lazy and to Enjoy It Too.” GSG Magazine
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2022). “Pirate Care.” In LaBelle, B. (ed.), Radical Sympathy. Berlin: Errant Bodies Press
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2020). “Pirate Care.” Artforum
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2020). “Care in a Techno-Capitalist World.” Ding!
• Graziano, V., Mars, M., Medak, T. (2020). “Against the Crisis.” Kunsthalle Wien

Translations

• Pirate Care — Italian (Ombre Corte, 2026)
• Pirate Care — Macedonian (Kontrapunkt, 2026)
• Pirate Care — Brazilian Portuguese (Autonomia Literária , 2026)
• Pirate Care — Greek (Topovoros, 2026)
• Pirate Care — French (Burn~Août, 2027)