Paolo Volonté, PhD in Sociology (Milan, 2003) and Philosophy (Freiburg i.Br., 1997), teaches Sociology of Fashion and Social Studies on Technology and Society.

He is co-founder of META – Unit for Humanities and Social Studies on Science and Technology, of which he is currently a member of the Steering Board, having been its Coordinator from 2016 to 2025. He is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Observatory on Scientific Heritage of the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology and of the International Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Fashion and Cultural Production at the Catholic University of Milan. From 2013 to 2015, he was President of the Italian Association for Science and Technology Studies (STS Italia).

From 2014 to 2023, he was co-editor of the International Journal of Fashion Studies, and he currently sits on the advisory board of the journal Tecnoscienza. His main research interests are in the sociology of culture, fashion studies, the sociology of design, and science and technology studies. His most recent monograph is entitled Fat Fashion: The Thin Ideal and the Segregation of Plus-Size Bodies (Bloomsbury, London).