Paola Rivetti is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. She is author of "Political Participation in Iran from Khatami to the Green Movement" (2020), which she presented in numerous universities across Europe, North America and the Middle East; and editor or co-editor of six journal special issues and four volumes: "Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention" (2018), "We've Come A Long Way. Reproductive Rights of Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Ireland" (2018), "Continuity and Change Before and After the Arab Uprisings. Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt" (2015) and "Effetto società civile. Pratiche e retoriche in Iran, Libano, Egitto e Marocco" (2010). She leads the DCU-based unit of the Horizon Europe project "INTERFACED: Interfaces for Democratic Participation", starting in 2025. Dr Rivetti is the vice-director of the Institute for Research in Genders and Sexuality, established at DCU and soon to be launched, and directs the Erasmus+ KA171 Mobility Scheme with Birzeit University, OPT.

As an academic and intellectual, Dr Rivetti contributes to public debates and is involved in a number of cultural and professional initiatives. Dr Rivetti is a Council member of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, and of the Committee for Academic Freedom of the Italian Society for Middle East Studies (SeSaMO). She was a member of the Mentorship Committee of the Association for Iranian Studies, and founding member of the Irish Network for MENA Studies (2020-2022). She was the General Secretary of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies between 2013 and 2016. She is an Associate Editor at the journals "Iranian Studies" and "Partecipazione e conflitto". She co-directs the book series "Kuir voices from the Middle East, North Africa and the diasporas" for the Italian feminist publisher Le Plurali. Dr Rivetti was awarded the 2018 Early-Career Researcher of the Year Prize by the Irish Research Council and received the DCU President's Award for Early-Career Researcher. In 2018, she was a TED talk speaker for Trinity College Dublin, with a talk titled "What's wrong with solidarity". 

Dr Rivetti regularly engages the policy-making community and comments on current affairs for numerous media platforms, such as Sky News, RTE, RAI, Virgin Media TV, Radio popolare, The Journal, il manifesto, and many others. In the past, her research was funded by the Irish Research Council, the European Union, Enterprise Ireland, Gerda Henkel Foundation, Giovanni Goria Foundation, and others. 

Dr Rivetti's work is published in the most important scientific journals. She regularly reviews submissions to academic journals, book publishers and grant donors (EU Parliament's subcommittee of human rights, ERC, National Science Foundation, IRC, Fonds Schappelijk Onderzoek, MUR, and others). She regularly attends professional conferences, both in Area Studies and in the social and political sciences; she is regularly invited to give talks to different audiences, from academics to policy-makers and activists.