About

Bio

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at The City College of New York.

I also teach at Columbia University where I am part of the European Institute.

My research focuses on social movements, political radicalism, and violence. I am particularly interested in the development of anti-systemic cultures, the logic of collective mobilization, and the mechanisms of radicalization. In my research, I also explore how policing of protest, counterterrorism, and legal militancy evolved historically. While adopting a transnational approach, my empirical focus is on Europe and the United States during the Cold War.

I wrote two books: Up Against the Law: Radical Lawyers and Social Movements, 1960s–1970s (UNC Press, 2022) investigates the engagement of militant attorneys and their extraordinary impact on social struggles in America; The Movement of 1977 in Italy (Carocci, 2015) surveys the most radical, creative, and violent leftist mobilization of postwar Italy. My publications also include several articles and essays on various aspects of contentious politics between the 1960s­ and the 1980s.

At present, I am teaching Contemporary Comparative Politics (at City College), The Politics of Protest (at City College), and European Integration (at Columbia).

Prior to joining The City College of New York, I have been lecturer at Columbia University, Post-doctoral fellow at the Center for the United States and the Cold War, New York University; Research fellow at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy; and Post-doctoral fellow at Yale University’s Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence. I earned a Ph.D. in History at Sciences Po, Paris.

Full CV: falciola_cv_2025