Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna has been full professor in Demography at the University of Padua since January 2005. In the previous six years he was associate professor, first in Messina (1999-2001) and then in Padua. In 1990-99 he was a researcher in Demography and Statistics at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome. In 1985-90 he was a researcher at the IRSEV (Institute for Social and Economic Research of Veneto). In July 1991 he obtained a PhD in Demography at the consortium of Florence-Padua-Rome Universities. He graduated in Statistics and Demographic Sciences in Padua in July 1984.
RESEARCH
Since 1985 he has mainly dealt with demography of the past and present population, using various quantitative methodologies and data from different sources, both at a territorial and individual level, conducting both descriptive and theoretical-interpretative studies. He has collaborated with other demographers, with sociologists, historians, economists, geographers and archaeologists. He has published more than 150 books and articles in national and international journals on various topics of population studies.
His main research lines are:
(1) FAMILY, MARRIED AND REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR. He participated in the PRIN 1995-96 “Second Fertility Survey in Italy INF2” (PI Paolo De Sandre), he was the local coordinator for Messina of PRIN 2001-02 “The low Italian fertility between economic constraints and change of values” (PI Massimo Livi Bacci), local coordinator for Padua of PRIN 2003-04 “Life course, families and reproduction between choices and constraints” (PI Massimo Livi Bacci), local coordinator for Padua of PRIN 2005- 06 “The sexual behavior of Italians” (PI Marzio Barbagli), local coordinator for Padua of PRIN 2010-12 “A new regime of fertility and parenthood?” (PI Francesco Billari). In 2000-04 he was PI of the national and international research “Sexual Behavior of Students”, involving ten Italian universities and coordinating parallel surveys among students from nine other countries. In 2016-20 it promoted the repetition of this survey among a sample of Italian university students, then participating in the coordination group and in all phases of the research, including the editing of the volume “Pleasure and fidelity. Millennials and sex “, published in January 2021 for Il Mulino, with Daniele Vignoli. In 2020-22 he participated in the “Child Zero” Excellence Project funded for the University of Padua by the Cariparo Foundation (PI Maria Letizia Tanturri). Studies on this topic have resulted in publications in prestigious international journals (for example Demographic Research, European Journal of Population, Population) and in publications aimed at a wider audience, including the two volumes “Things not to believe”, written for Laterza in 2011 with Gugliemo Weber and “The family is in crisi, Falso!” written for Laterza in 2017 with Maria Castiglioni. His most cited contributions on these issues focus on the connections between low fertility and strong family ties in Italy and in other rich societies.
(2) THE DEMOGRAPHY OF THE ITALIAN NORTHEST REGIONS BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT. Between 1985 and 1988, in connection with the regional health authorities, he studied mortality and health conditions in the Veneto region, drawing up reports and publications. In 2000-13 and from 2018 onwards he wrote the “Population” chapter for the Annual Report of the Northeast Foundation, of which he directs the Observatory for Population and Welfare. In 2002-04, together with Fiorenzo Rossi and Alessandro Rosina, he coordinates the studies that give rise to the volume “The Veneto. History of the population from the fall of Venice to today”. From 2010 to today, together with Alessandra Minello he directs the CHILD (Collecting Hasburgical Information about Life and Death) project on neonatal and infant mortality in the Veneto region, recording, processing and analyzing the individual nominative data of births and deaths of the Habsburg Civil Status of a sample of parishes (1815-1870). He studies the determinants of the fertility transition in Veneto using both quantitative data – including individual data from the 1971 Census survey on female fertility – and qualitative data, including documents on pastoral visits and moral cases discussed by the congregations of the diocesan clergy of Padua. With Andrea Zannini and Irene Barbiera in 2020-21, for the Vicenza Foundation, he coordinates the drafting of the volume “Social History of the Venezie”, of which he writes the chapters “To be born and (not) grow”, with Fiorenzo Rossi, “Immigrations” , with Irene Barbiera and Andrea Zannini, “Getting sick and dying”, with Irene Barbiera and Francesco Scalone. With Fiorenzo Rossi and Peter McDonald he studies the impact of institutional, economic and welfare differences on fertility in the provinces of Trento and Belluno. These studies are publicated in prestigious international journals (e.g. Population and Development Review, Demographic Research, Popolazione e Storia). His most relevant contributions in this line of research focus on the connections between nutritional conditions, changes in mentality towards infancy and neonatal mortality in Veneto before and during the demographic transition.
(3) DEMOGRAPHIC DYNAMICS AND LIVING CONDITIONS IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL EUROPE. Together with Irene Barbiera, since 2008 he has been studying the dynamics of the Italian and European population between protohistory and the Black Death, using data from the necropolis, also accessing as P.I. to an Excellence grant from the Cariparo Foundation to the University of Padua 2011-13 for the EWDEMA (European Women Discrimination in the Early Middle Age) project. These studies continue thanks to the collaboration with archaeologists / phisical anthropologists engaged in the excavations of necropolis at the Magna Graecia city of Imera (PA), Ancient Rome and the Bronze Age village of Olmo di Nogara (VR). To these studies on the necropolis he combines the demographic analysis deducible from the data of the polyptychs and the high and low medieval cadastres, in particular those of Legnago (early 15th century) and of the peasants of the Marseille monastery (early 9th century). These studies result in publications in prestigious international journals (e.g. Population and Development Review, Demographic Research, Journal of Family History) and in national and international collective volumes. His most important and cited contributions on these issues focus on the long-term evolution of mortality and living conditions in Italy between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
(4) MIGRATIONS AND SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT IN ITALY AND IN THE WORLD. In the first twenty years of the new century he approaches various aspects of the migration problem. The main research activity in this area was P.I. of a survey on the “Children of Italians and foreigners”, carried out in the first half of 2006 among a national sample of Italian lower secondary school students. This research leads to several scientific publications, including the book “New Italians. Will the children of immigrants change our country?”, written for Il Mulino in 2006 together with Patrizia Farina and Salvatore Strozza. He also studies the role of immigration in the global demographic balance in Italy and in Western countries during the 20th and 21st centuries. These studies result in publications in important international journals (for example Population and Development Review and Journal of Modern Italian Studies) and in the volume “Everything they never told you about migration”, written for Laterza in 2016 with Stefano Allievi, now in eighth reprint.
(5) On other socio-demographic research topics he has provided less systematic contributions, including the culture and the condition of youth, the demographic evolution of the elderly population, ecclesiastical populations, birth registration in countries with poor statistics, the sex-ratio at birth, the impact evaluation of pro-natalist policies, the relationship between immigration and landscape, the quality of demographic forecasts, statistics on femicides. On these issues too he has published books and articles in national and international journals, often in collaboration with authors working in disciplines other than demography.
PERIODS SPENT ABROAD
He spent the first quarter of 1994 at the Tokyo Institute for Population Problems. In the quarter June-September 2004 he was visiting researcher at the Australian National University of Canberra. In the spring of 2006 he spent a research period at Brown University in Providence (USA). In June 2018 he spent a month as a visiting researcher at the University of Melbourne (Australia).
CONGRESSES AND CONFERENCES
He has participated – alternating the roles of organizer, discussant and speaker – in numerous national and international conferences, including some World Demography Conferences organized by the IUSSP – International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (Florence 1985, Salvador de Baja 2001, Tours 2005 , Busan 2013, Cape Town 2017), to the conferences organized by the EAPS – European Association for Population Studies (starting from the first, organized in Paris in 1991), to those organized by the AISP – Italian Association for Population Studies (a starting from the first, organized in Bologna in 1993), to Conferences and Workshops organized by SIDES – Italian Association of Historical Demography, by SIS – Italian Statistical Society, by ESHD – European Society of Historical Demography, by PAA – Population Association of America, by the APA – Asian Population Association and by the UAPS – Union for African Population Studies. He has participated with reports in conferences organized by scholars of other disciplines, including “The impact of the Antonine Plague”, held in Rome and Anacapria in 2008 and the world conference of Sociology, in Brisbane in 2002.
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AND ACTIVITIES FOR JOURNALS
He is a member of the Italian Statistical Society since 1987, of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population since 1992 and of the European Association for Population Studies since 1993, of the Italian Society of Historical Demography since 1994. In the decade 2005-14 he was Associate Editor of the “European Journal of Population”. In the period 1994-99 he was Executive Editor of “Genus”. He has been an intense referee for journals of demography and related disciplines.
TEACHING
He has taught Demography and Statistics at the Universities of Rome, Messina, Padua, Trieste and Verona. At the University of Padua he taught students of Statistical Sciences, History, Political Sciences, Sociology, Environmental Engineering, Economics, Geography, and at the Galileian Academy. From 2005 to 2011 he was in the Board of the Doctorate of Statistical Sciences of the University of Padua. Since 2012 he has been in the Board of the Doctorate of History, University of Padua-Venice-Verona. From 2003 to 2007 he was President of the Bachelor’s Degree Course Statistics, Population and Society. From 2009 to 2013 he was Dean of the Faculty of Statistical Sciences of the University of Padua.
ADVICE
He has been a consultant for the Municipalities of Catania, Bologna and Padua and the Marche Region for the analysis of family and work behavior, for the RAI for the certification of the quality of Auditel data, for the Veneto Regional Council for the analysis of data socio-demographic. He collaborated with the Observatories on Childhood and Adolescence and on Immigration of the Veneto Region.
CIVIL ACTIVITY
In 2007-09 and 2011-12 he was a consultant to the Italian Ministry of Family Policies. Since 2020 he has been a consultant to the Italian Ministry of Health. In 2008-10 he was a member of the COMSTAT (Committee for the direction and coordination of statistical information). In this role, he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the National Statistical Conferences of 2008 and 2010. In 2013-18 he was Senator of the Republic.
RESEARCH MANAGEMENT
In 2013-16 he was Commissioner for the ASN – National Scientific Qualification, sectors of Demography and Social Statistics. In 2018-19 he was a member of the Evaluation Committee for PRINs. In 2010 he was a member of the Evaluation Committee of the European Doctorate of Demography. Since 2018 he has been on the Advisory Board of the Gender and Generation Program, at NIDI – National Institute for Demography (The Hague).
DISCLOSURE
To this scientific, didactic and civil servant activity, he combines an intense dissemination activity, collaborating with newspapers, magazines, radio and television. In 2010-13 he was a collaborator of Corriere della Sera. Since 2018 he has been a columnist for the GEDI newspapers in the Veneto region (Mattino di Padova, Tribuna di Treviso, La Nuova di Venezia-Mestre, Il Corriere delle Alpi di Belluno). He is a member of the board of the on-line population magazine “Neodemos”, on which he frequently writes for demographic and social issues. He carries out an intense activity of conferences and informative seminars on socio-demographic issues in Italy and abroad