Dr Giulia Rossetti
PhD, FHEA, MA, BA, Cert TEFL
Senior Lecturer in Events Management
Oxford Brookes Business School
Role
Dr Giulia Rossetti is a Senior Lecturer in Events Management in the Business School, Oxford Brookes University. She is the Subject Coordinator of the Undergraduate programmes Events Management and Marketing & Events Management. Giulia is also the Co-Lead of the Sustainable and Resilient Futures Research Network and the Assurance of Learning Champion for the Hospitality, Tourism and Events Programmes.
Giulia teaches modules related to events, festivals and tourism at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels. She is also a PhD supervisor and an Academic Advisor.
Her PhD studies at the Technological University Dublin explored cultural capital development at literary festivals. With a background in languages, tourism and events, she is interested in understanding the transformational value of events and festivals, especially the edutainment element. Her current research interests include:
- in academia: experiential learning, and serious games in higher education.
- in events and festivals settings: the role of events and festivals in generating well-being and health; storytelling and cultural sustainability at events and festivals; and edutainment in events and cultural tourism.
Giulia is a UK Regional Editor for the Event Management journal and sits at the editorial board of the Leisure Studies journal. She is a member of the Leisure Studies Association, the Oxford Sociology Network, the World Leisure Organisation, the Association for Events Management Education Well-being Interest Group, and OMERO (Research group on urban studies - University of Turin, Italy). She is also a reviewer for several academic journals and publishers.
Teaching and supervision
Courses
Modules taught
- Contemporary Issues in Responsible Leadership
- Professional Practice for Event Managers
- Planning and Delivering the Sustainable Event
Supervision
Giulia supervises students at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels in the areas of tourism, events and festivals. She is also supervising a PhD candidate at the Business School: Hue Hoang – Second Supervisor. Research topic: The Influence of Vietnamese Spiritual Values on Festival Attendees’ Environmental Behaviour: The Case of Hue Festival.
Research
Giulia's areas of expertise are: understanding festival and event experiences using cultural sociology and serious leisure theories; festival socio-cultural impacts; and the educational value of festivals and events. Her PhD at the Technological University Dublin explored cultural capital development at literary festivals in Ireland and in Italy. Her current research interests include: edutainament in academia with experiential learning and serious games; events and well-being / health; events and cultural sustainability.
Research impact
Giulia holds a PhD that explored literary festivals and cultural capital development. Giulia has published on socio-cultural impacts of events, the cultural and transformative values of festivals, learning at festivals, serious leisure and cultural capital at festivals, festivals and well-being, and experiential learning in higher education. She is currently involved in the following projects:
- Project Lead of the "Event Troubleshooter educational board game for higher education" project (funded by the Leisure Studies Association and Oxford Brookes University)
- Project Co-Lead of the "food events and socio-cultural sustainability in the UK, Italy and Sweden" project (funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Sweden).
Previously, Giulia was involved in the following projects:
- Project Lead of the "Food Festivals, Place and Wellbeing" project (funded by Oxford Brookes University)
- Project Co-Leadof the "Representations of Colonial Landscapes in Irish Tourist Attractions" project (funded by the Italian Geographical Society and University of Insubria)
- Co-editor of the book "Festivals and Edutainment" - A Routledge critical event studies research series.
- Co-editor of the Special Issue "Festivals and Storytelling" in the Event Management Journal.
Projects
- Representations of Colonial Landscapes in Irish Tourist Attractions
- The Event Troubleshooter
Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution
- The Events Management Game (EMG) project (01/03/2025 - 30/06/2025), funded by: Leisure Studies Association
Publications
Professional information
Memberships of professional bodies
- Higher Educations Academy Fellow
- Member of the Association for Events management Education (AEME)
- Member of the Leisure Studies Association
- Member of the Oxford Sociology Network
- Member of the World Leisure Organisation and the WLO Special Interest Group on Critical Event Studies
- Member of the Association for Events Management Education Well-being Interest Group
- Associated Researcher of OMERO (Research group on urban studies - University of Turin, Italy).
Conferences
- Rossetti, G & Macaveiu, C (2025) The Event Troubleshooter: the new educational board game for Event Management students, AEME Forum, Chester.
- Rossetti, G., Jepson, A. & Albanese, V. (2023) Exploring research methods at food festivals: questionnaires, participant observations, and interviews. Spring School ‘Taste the Place’ in Turin (Italy) & online, 12-14 April 2023. Organised by the Department of Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition – Università del Piemonte Orientale.
- Albanese, V., Rossetti, G. & Jepson, A. (2023) ‘Relationships between Place and Wellbeing at food festivals’. Spring School ‘Taste the Place’ in Turin (Italy) & online, 12-14 April 2023. Organised by the Department of Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition – Università del Piemonte Orientale.
- Albanese, V., Ryan, T. & Rossetti, G. (2022) Representations of colonial landscapes in Irish tourist attractions, Societa’ Geografica Italiana conference, Rome (and online), November 2022.
- Chaired the online conference session titled ‘Leisure and events as recovery tools for personal, family, and community wellbeing at the Royal Geographical Society-IBG 2022 Conference ("Geographies Beyond Recovery", Newcastle University).
- van der Veen, R., Ehrlich, C., Rossetti, G. & Zwiegelaar, J. (2022). Can music festival attendance improve wellbeing? Royal Geographical Society-IBG Conference ("Geographies Beyond Recovery", Newcastle University, UK) - Leisure and events as recovery tools for personal, family, and community wellbeing (Online, September 2022).
- Wyatt, B, Rossetti, G & McBlane, A. (2021) Delivering live student events virtually in the wake of COVID-19, ATHE 2021 Conference Hybrid and Virtual Experiences: Opportunity or Threat for Tourism Education and Industry? (Online, November 2021).
- Rossetti, G., Gorchakova, V., Antchak, V. & Lamb, M. (2021) ATLAS Annual Conference 2021 Tourism 21: Re-building Tourism – Continuities and Changes, 7-10 September 2021.
- Rossetti, G. (2021) The cultural value of literary festivals, The value of literary festivals Online Webinar 2021 (Online, March 2021).
- Rossetti, G. (2020) Reflecting on Literary Festivals, Global Festival Culture Symposium 2020 organised by the Festival Culture - Research & Education, 7 November 2020, UK. Online.
- Rossetti, G. & Quinn, B. (2018). Cultural Capital and Distinction in Literary Festivals, BSA Bourdieu Study Group 2nd Biennial International Conference 2018, July 2018, Lancaster University, UK.
- Rossetti, G. & Quinn, B. (2018). Literary Festival Tourism and Cultural Heritage, ATLAS Cultural Tourism Research Group Expert Meeting, April 2018, Ostelea School of Tourism and Hospitality, Barcelona, Spain.
- Rossetti, G. & Quinn, B. (2017). Serious Leisure and Personal Rewards: A Study of Literary Festivals, Leisure Studies Association (LSA) Conference July 2017, Leeds Beckett University, UK.
- Rossetti, G. & Quinn, B. (2016). Adult Individual Cultural Capital Acquisition in Relation to Taste and Participation: A Study of Literary Festivals, Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI) Annual Postgraduate Conference November 2016, Maynooth University, Ireland.