After obtaining his PhD at the University of Florence in 1998, in 2002 Gianfranco became Lecturer at the University of Salerno, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005.
He moved to Bologna in 2008.
From 2010–11, he was Deputy-Director of the Istituto Cattaneo Research Foundation.
He has been visiting Professor at the Universities of Lyon (2012–14), as well as Visiting Fellow at the Crick Centre at the University of Sheffield (2015).
Since 2022, he has been a Research Associate at the University of Surrey.
As of 2023, he is co-editor of the Annual Review of the Journal of Common Market Studies.
Gianfranco has published widely on populism, party politics and representation, mainly with a comparative European focus, in journals such as West European Politics, International Political Science Review, Political Studies Review (forthcoming), and many others.
The Brexit Effect: What Leaving the EU Means for British Politics
with E. Bressanelli, E. Massetti
Routledge, 2022
