Stella De Luca is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) at Politecnico di Milano. Her research explores the role of water infrastructures in extended urbanization processes, investigating how water management and large-scale projects shape territorial configurations, power relations, and socio-ecological inequalities. Her doctoral project examines water infrastructures as devices of spatial transformation and conflict, combining perspectives from political ecology, urban studies, and historical analysis, with the aim of rethinking technical tools and public policies that integrate political ecology and urban planning. 

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Development and Cooperation Studies and a Master’s degree in Environmental Economics from the University of Turin. After graduating, she worked as a research fellow in Geography at the University of Turin, focusing on the formation of coalitions supporting or opposing hydropower development in the Alps and the Pyrenees. 

Her research interests include hydro-social urbanization, infrastructure policies, territorial planning, and the role of technosciences in spatial transformations. She is involved in teaching activities in urban planning and urban studies courses, with a focus on water governance, resource territorialization, and ecological planning models. 

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