Marta Gravela teaches Medieval History at the University of Turin, Italy. After receiving her PhD from the State University of Milan, she held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Milan, Turin and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. She was a visiting fellow at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure and the CIHAM UMR 5648 (Histoire, Archéologie, Littératures des mondes chrétiens et musulmans médiévaux). Her main research interests focus on the social and political history of the late Middle Ages, both in urban and rural contexts, with special reference to citizenship, family and kinship, fiscal systems, rural lordships, and communities. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant DEMALPS. Democracies of the Alps. Issues, practices and ideals of politics in mountain communities, 1300-1500, which investigates forms of political participation in the communities of the Western Alps.