Elisabetta Di Minico’s research primarily focuses on dystopia, control, otherness, and violence (racial and gendered). She uses novels, comics, movies, and TV series to provocatively analyze the real “bad places” of contemporary society from a historical and sociological point of view. Ph.D. Cum Laude in Contemporary History from the University of Barcelona and member of the HISTOPIA research group, she has recently concluded an UNA4CAREER postdoctoral fellowship at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid, with a project on “The Enemity of Otherness”. She also taught History of Comics at IULM University in Milan.

Stefano Locati is a post-doc research fellow at IULM University in Milan, where he teaches Asian Visual Cultures: Cinema, Comics, TV Series and History of Cinema. His research focuses on Japanese, Chinese and Korean cinemas, film and media studies, adaptation studies, transmedia, and periodical studies. He holds a PhD in Literatures and Media. His latest book is Sistema media mix. Cinema e sottoculture giovanili del Giappone contemporaneo (Mimesis, 2022). He co-edited with Dario Boemia and Elena Gipponi Immagine e testo nei periodici illustrati italiani degli anni trenta e quaranta (Mimesis, 2024) and Immagine e testo nei periodici illustrati dell’Italia in ricostruzione (Mimesis, 2026). He is the director of Electricdreams International Film Festival.