Nerea VIANA ALZOLA is a PhD candidate at the University of Geneva, specializing in the field of urban sociology. She is affiliated with the Institute of Sociological Research (IRS) and Urban Hub, a center of competence for the study of cities and urban societies.

She holds a multidisciplinary Master's degree in Asian Studies from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Naples "L'Orientale" (focus: East Asia). After an internship at Gaea21, where she focused on the analysis of sociological indicators and the practices related to sustainable development goals in cities, she decided to further explore these issues by pursuing a PhD in urban sociology. For her thesis, she focused on the cities of Geneva, Switzerland, and Hamamatsu, Japan, both members of the intercultural cities network. Through on-site and digital ethnography (archival research, interviews, participant observations and visual methods) she examined how online and offline practices have facilitated the inclusion of newcomers at the macro, meso, and micro levels.