SENA Barbara

CURRENT POSITION:
Associate Professor of General Sociology (SSD: SPS/07 – Sector 14/C1) at the University of Bergamo - Department of Literature, Philosophy and Communication.

National scientific qualification as Full Professor in sector 14/C1 - General Sociology.

Member of the Teaching Board of the Doctoral Programme in Health and Longevity (DOT2285XXE) at the University of Bergamo.

Member of the Scientific Council of the Sociology of Health and Medicine Section (SSM) of the Italian Sociological Association (AIS) (term 2023-2025).

CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES:
2023-2025 Head of Local Unit, PRIN-PNRR 2022 call for proposals. Project title: “ETHICS (ElecTronic Health In ContextS). The alliance and cooperation between telemedicine and home therapies towards personalised socio-technical treatments”. Principal Investigator: Prof. Giampietro Gobo, University of Milan (ERC SH3 Sector - D.D. no. 1222 of 31.07.2023). Role in the project: Coordinator and head of project activities for the Local Unit of the University of Bergamo.

2023-2025 Principal investigator of the project ‘Palliative care and end-of-life care in post-Covid healthcare. A sociological analysis of cultural, educational and organisational changes and development prospects for care services in the management of dying patients’ (60SENA23), funded by the Department of Literature, Philosophy and Communication, University of Bergamo.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- Sena B. (with De Luca E., Butcher K., Jane de Wal L.) (2025). Spirituality and palliative care: international models and new perspectives. Frontiers in Sociology, 10, Article 1523685. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1523685. (Class A scientific journal).
- Sena B (with Bandelli D.) (2025). Biological capital and new forms of bodily vulnerability: emerging theoretical frameworks. Sociology. vol. 2. pp. 119-126, ISSN:0038-0156. (Class A scientific journal).
- Sena B. (with Nicoletti R.) (2025). Health inequalities in metropolitan urban contexts. A quantitative analysis of the “neighbourhood effect” in the municipality of Rome. Quarterly Journal of Administrative Science, 1/2025, https://doi.org/10.32049/RTSA.2025.1.05 (Class A scientific journal).
- Sena B. (2024). The silent health social movement of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in political contention with Western evidence-based biomedicine. Italian Review of Sociology, 4/2024, pp. 771-802, DOI: 10.1423/115301 (Class A scientific journal).
- Sena B. (De Luca E.) (2024). The spiritual dimension in end-of-life care practices. Limits to overcome and models to implement, Health and Society, 1/2024, pp. 83-100. DOI: 10.3280/SES2024-001006 (Class A scientific journal).
- Sena B. (2024), The Case Study in Social Research. History, Methods and Applications, London, Routledge. ISBN 9781032331164

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My research interests mainly focus on the sociology of health and social research methodology.
In the field of health sociology, I have mainly dealt with issues related to healthcare professions, interprofessional care, vaccine hesitancy, palliative care and end-of-life care, telemedicine, digital health, and unconventional medicine.
In the field of research methodology, in recent years I have focused in particular on case study approaches, Delphi surveys and mixed methods applied to health research.

For more details on my profile and my academic and research background, please refer to my attached CV.