Giusy Pappalardo graduated cum laude at the University of Catania in 2010 in Architectural Engineering with a Master Thesis concerned with the concept and operationalization of community mapping processes, developed with the approach of action research. In 2014, Giusy gained a Ph.D. in Regional and Environmental Planning and Design, still from the University of Catania, defending a Dissertation focused on collaborative watershed planning. Her Dissertation has blended the action-research approach with in-depth case-study research, conducted in the United States of America as a Fulbright Fellow.

Giusy is currently Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture in her Alma Mater, where she is developing a trans-disciplinary project concerned with Cultural Heritage (funded by the EU Italian PON AIM program). After visiting several universities abroad, she is now “giving back” what she has learned internationally, to the context where she has long worked as an engaged scholar: the Simeto River Valley in Sicily. In the same context, she is currently serving as the coordinator of an ongoing experimental Ecomuseum, still developed with the approach of action research.