Thomas Pfirsch holds the Agrégation (the highest teaching qualification in France) and a PhD in geography, is a lecturer at the Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France, in Valenciennes in northern France, and is a member of the mixed research unit Géographie-cités (UMR 8504). Following a doctoral thesis on the geography of family networks among the Neapolitan upper classes, his research now focuses on the mobility and urban practices of elites, particularly in Italy and Southern Europe.