Members
Founder: Massimo Rosati Director: Alessandro Ferrara Members: Emilio Baccarini Francesco Scorza Barcellona Matteo Bortolini Rino Caputo Stefano Cavallotto Lucia Ceci Pietro de Vitiis Gianni Dessì Luca Diotallevi Valeria Fabretti Tonino Griffero Claudia Hassan Chiara Letizia Frank Madsen Giovanni Salmeri Stefano Semplici Myriam Silvera Kristina Stoeckl Irene Strazzeri Piero Vereni Alessandra Vitullo
Massimo Rosati (1969-2014) was the founding director of CSPS. He grew up and did his schooling and undergraduate studies in Rome. In 1993 he took his degree in Sociology at the University “La Sapienza” of Rome, with a thesis on Habermas’ “Theory of Communicative Action”, that in 1994 became, under the title Consenso e razionalità (Armando editore), the first Italian monograph on Habermas’ book. In 1998 he took a Doctorate in Political Sociology, University of Florence. He was based first at University of Perugia and then at the University of Salerno, until 2008. Until 2014 he was Associate Professor at University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he taught Sociology. In Italian he also published Il patriottismo italiano. Culture politiche e identità nazionale (Laterza 2000), and Solidarietà e sacro (Laterza 2002), a theoretical investigation on the role of the concept of the sacred in classical and contemporary social theory. In English he published articles on Durkheim and contemporary social theory in The Journal of Classical Sociology, Durkheimian Studies, Philosophy and Social Criticism. He edited the new Italian edition of Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Meltemi 2005). With Alessandro Ferrara he wrote Affreschi della modernità. Crocevia della teoria sociale (Carocci 2005), and with W.S.F. Pickering he co-edited Suffering and Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy (Berghan Books 2008). Recent publications were Ritual and the Sacred. A Neo-Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self (Ashgate 2009); and, coedited with Kristina Stoeckl, the volume entitled Multiple Modernities and Postsecular Societies (Ashgate 2012). See http://csps.uniroma2.it/massimo-rosati/. Alessandro Ferrara, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and former President of the Italian Association for Political Philosophy, has received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1984). Since 1991 he has been a Director of the Yearly Conference on Philosophy and Social Science, initially part of the regular activities of the Interuniversity Centre of Dubrovnik, but since 1993 relocated in Prague, under the auspices of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Science and later of Charles University. Since 1990 he has been a founder and a Co-Director of the Seminario di Teoria Critica, which meets in Cortona, Italy. And since 2007 he is on the Executive Committee of the Istanbul Seminars on religion and politics, held at Bilgi University in Istanbul under the auspices of the Association Reset – Dialogues of Civilizations. He has taught and lectured in various capacities in several universities and institutions, in Europe and in the US. He is the author of: The Democratic Horizon. Hyperpluralism and the Renewal of Political Liberalism, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014; The Force of the Example. Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment, New York, Columbia University Press, 2008; Justice and Judgment. The Rise and the Prospect of the Judgment Model in Contemporary Political Philosophy, London, Sage, 1999; Reflective Authenticity. Rethinking the Project of Modernity, London and New York, Routledge, 1998; Modernity and Authenticity. A Study of the Social and Ethical Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1993.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Alessandro Ferrara, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and former President of the Italian Association for Political Philosophy, has received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1984). Since 1991 he has been a Director of the Yearly Conference on Philosophy and Social Science, initially part of the regular activities of the Interuniversity Centre of Dubrovnik, but since 1993 relocated in Prague, under the auspices of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Science and later of Charles University. Since 1990 he has been a founder and a Co-Director of the Seminario di Teoria Critica, which meets in Cortona, Italy. And since 2007 he is on the Executive Committee of the Istanbul Seminars on religion and politics, held at Bilgi University in Istanbul under the auspices of the Association Reset – Dialogues of Civilizations. He has taught and lectured in various capacities in several universities and institutions, in Europe and in the US. He is the author of: The Democratic Horizon. Hyperpluralism and the Renewal of Political Liberalism, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014; The Force of the Example. Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment, New York, Columbia University Press, 2008; Justice and Judgment. The Rise and the Prospect of the Judgment Model in Contemporary Political Philosophy, London, Sage, 1999; Reflective Authenticity. Rethinking the Project of Modernity, London and New York, Routledge, 1998; Modernity and Authenticity. A Study of the Social and Ethical Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1993. ^^top
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Francesco Scorza Barcellona is professor of church history, history of ancient Christendom and hagiography at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and coordinator of the doctoral program in “Storia del Cristianesimo e delle chiese” (Church History). Since November 2009 he is the president of the “Associazione per lo Studio della Santità, dei Culti e dell’Agiografia” (AISSCA); and he is furthermore a member of the following academic bodies: management committee of the review Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni (Università di Roma La Sapienza); executive committee of Sanctorum (review of the AISSCA); scientific committee of Nea Rome (Università di Roma Tor Vergata); scientific committee of the book series sacro/santo (first published by Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino, and now by Viella, Roma). His main research interests are ancient church history, latin Christian Africa, donatism, late antique and early medieval hagiography, martyrial hagiography, the origins of Christmas and Epiphany, and the earliest legends on the Three Kings. Main publications: L’edizione critica delle fonti agiografiche, a cura di F. Scorza Barcellona, in «Sanctorum» 1 (2004), pp.9-112; A.Benvenuti, S. Boesch Gajano, S. Ditchfield, R. Rusconi, F. Scorza Barcellona, G. Zarri, Storia della santità nel cristianesimo occidentale, Viella, Roma 2005; Lo spazio del santuario. Un osservatorio per la storia di Roma e del Lazio, a cura di S. Boesch Gajano e F. Scorza Barcellona, Viella, Roma 2008; Il corpo e il sacro. Confronti culturali, a cura di F. Scorza Barcellona, in «Sanctorum», 6 (2009), pp. 129-175; Santuari d’Italia. Lazio, a cura di S. Boesch Gajano, M. T. Caciorgna, V. Fiocchi Nicolai, F, Scorza Barcellona, Roma, 2010.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Matteo Bortolini is an assistant professor in Sociology at the School of Education of the University of Padua. He sits in the editorial boards of Comparative Sociology, Sociologica and Quaderni di teoria sociale. He is also a member of the board of the History of Sociology section of the American Sociological Association. He has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University (2009), the University of California, Berkeley (2007), Yale University (2006) and Boston University (as a Fulbright grantee in 2000). His main interests are in the sociology of knowledge, religions in the public sphere, and the history of sociology and sociological theory. His work on religions and post-secular societies includes some essays on Catholic discourse and teaching about Europe, the relationship between the State and the Churches, and “civil religion” in Italy and America. He is now working on an intellectual biography of the famed sociologist of religion, Robert N. Bellah, and on the relationship between the churches and religious intellectuals in Italy and America.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Lazzaro Rino Caputo (born in Ischitella nel Gargano, Foggia, Puglia, in 1947) is full professor of Italian Literature at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” – first level degree in DAMS (performing arts) and second level degree in Italian Studies, Linguistics and Modern Philology. He has published essays and volumes on Dante, Petrarch, Manzoni and Italian early Romanticism, as well as on Pirandello and Italian and North-American contemporary literary criticism. He is a member of Arcadia and of the Dante Society of America. He has delivered lectures and given seminars at various Italian universities as well as at the University of Cambridge (UK), Zurich University, Luxemburg University, Al Alson University (Cairo), Krakow University, Warsaw University, Minsk University, Russian State Humanities University (Moscow), Tirana University, the University of Elbasan, the University of Stuttgart, Heidelberg University, the University of Tubingen, Harvard University and UCLA (USA), Ottawa University, Kingston University, the University of Toronto and McGill University (Montreal, Canada). He has also been visiting professor of Italian literature and international literary criticism at McGill University on several occasions. Prof. Caputo is “Assessor” for SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada). He has taught courses on “History of Literature” at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema (National School of Cinema), at Cinecittà, and “Analysis of Italian Literary Texts” as well as “Teaching Methodology of Italian Literature” at SISS-Latium. He teaches “Italian Linguistics” and “Written and Oral Italian” in a postgraduate course of journalism (Master di Giornalismo) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He collaborates with the most prominent journals of Italian literature and he is co-director of Dante. International Journal of Dante Studies. He is director of Pirandelliana, an international journal. From February 2003 to September 2007 he was National President of ADI-SD, the teaching methodology department of ADI (the association of university professors of Italian Literature). He is also on the ADI board of directors. Since November 2007 he has been the dean of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and since October 2010 he has been the President of the Deans of the Italian Faculties of Humanities.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Stefano Cavallotto, Doctor of Divinity and Master of Philosophy, was fellow at the Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz and of the Istituto per le Scienze Religiose di Bologna. Since 1987 he is researcher in History of the Churches at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and teaches history of Christianity in the modern and contemporary period (LT and LS/LM) at the same university. His research concerns three main historical areas: Humanism/Reformation/Counter-Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment and the Twentieth Century. He edited Italian editions of “The praise of Folly” of Erasmus, of various pastoral and devotional writings of Luther and of sermons of Melanchthon. He also conducts research on hagiographic questions and has analyzed the wars of religion in the 17th century and the relationship religion/natural revelation, religion/supernatural revelation in the Age of Enlightenment. With regard to the contemporary period he studied the situation of Christian Churches in Germany under Nationalsocialism, the Second Vatican Council and the problems of its reception in the Catholic Church. Main publications: S. Cavallotto, “Cristiano e società, chiesa e stato nel dibattito della teologia evangelica alla vigilia del ‘Kirchenkampf’ (1918/19-1930/31)”, in Humanitas 37 (1982) 255-273; 389-411; M. Lutero, Scritti pastorali minori, a cura di S. Cavallotto, Napoli 1987; S. Cavallotto, “La guerra dei Trent’anni e il consolidamento delle confessioni fino alla pace di Westfalia”, in La Chiesa nell’età dell’assolutismo confessionale. Dal Concilio di Trento alla pace di Westfalia (1563- 1648), a cura di L. Mezzadri, vol. XVIII/2 di “Storia della chiesa già diretta da A. Fliche e V. Martin, Milano 1989, 171-220; ID., “Sulla dimensione ‘conciliare’ della santità di Escrivá de Balaguer: annotazioni critiche” in Santi del Novecento: storia, agiografia, canonizzazioni, a cura di F. Scorza Barcellona, Torino 1998, 153-172; F. Melantone, Predicazione evangelica. Sermoni per le domeniche dell’anno, a cura e con introduzione di S. Cavallotto, Casale Monferrato 2001; Erasmo, Elogio della Follia. Corrispondenza Dorp-Erasmo-Moro, , introduzione e note di S. Cavallotto, Milano 2004; S. Cavallotto – L. Mezzadri (a cura di), Dizionario dell’età delle riforme. 1492-1622, Roma 2006; S. Cavallotto, Santi nella Riforma. Da Erasmo a Lutero, Roma 2009.
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Lucia Ceci (Ph.d) is Assistant professor in Contemporary History at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Her research interests mainly concern the issue of the relationships between Church, politics, political ideology and religious dimension in the mass society, that she studied in reference to the Italian, Latin America and Africa contexts. In the last years she studied the position of the Catholic Church on the fascism and war in the Thirties, focusing especially on some crucial elements: the sacralisation of politics and political religion, the myths and the languages of the nation, the intermingling between the political phenomena (especially nationalism, racism, pacifism) and religious dimension, the application of «Just War» doctrine to Mussolini’s foreign policy. She was visiting professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul of Porto Alegre (2009) and is a member of the editorial board of the journal “Italia contemporanea”. She is author of the volumes La teologia della liberazione in America Latina (Franco Angeli 1999); Il vessillo e la croce. Colonialismo, missioni cattoliche e islam in Somalia (Carocci 2006); Il papa non deve parlare. Chiesa, fascismo e guerra d’Etiopia (Laterza 2010), prize “Desiderio Pirovano” for the development of the studies of Church history, ed. 2010. Editor of the volumes Chiesa, laicità e vita civile (Carocci 2005), La Resistenza dei militari (Biblink 2006); Guglielmo Massaja 1809-2009 (Società Geografica Italiana 2011), since 1997, she has published several essays on journals and on many collective volumes. Among her most recent are Els catòlics italians davant la Guerra Civil, in Catalunya i Itàlia. Memòries creuades, experiències comunes (Barcelona 2012); The First Steps of «Parallel Diplomacy»: The Vatican and the US in the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936), in Pius XI and America (Lit Verlag 2012); Der Papst darf nicht sprechen, in Die Katholische Kirche und Gewalt. Europa und Lateinamerika im 20. Jahrhundert (Böhlau Verlag 2013). Her last book is L’interesse superiore. Il Vaticano e l’Italia di Mussolini (Laterza 2013).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Giovanni Dessì is researcher at the Department of Philosophy, Tor Vergata University, Rome, where he teaches History of Contemporary Political Thought. He has been a researcher at this department since 1989 and was, from 2001 to 2006, supervisor of a cycle of seminars on the History of Contemporary Politics held by the “Luigi Sturzo” Institute, Rome. Since 2003 he is coordinator of the Public Communication’s course of the Master-program in Journalism and Public Communication at Tor Vergata University, Rome, and, since 1995, he is supervisor for research projects at the “Ugo Spirito” Foundation, Rome, of which he has become the director in 2005. Giovanni Dessì’s studies were firstly focused on Max Horkheimer and the Frankfurt School, paying special attention to the critique of instrumental reason. In his recent work he has studied the political philosophy of American realism in the works of Niebuhr, Morgenthau and Kennan and has explored the understanding of political realism and the relationship between public opinion and democracy in the works of Walter Lippmann. Selected publications: (1984) Il concetto di ragione in Max Horkheimer, Nuova Cultura, Roma; (1995) Le organizzazioni contadine nell’America degli anni Trenta. Socialismo e cristianesimo in Reinhold Niebuhr, Edizioni Lavoro, Roma; (2004) Walter Lippmann. Informazione/Consenso/Democrazia, Studium, Roma; (2008) L’altro potere. Opinione pubblica e democrazia in America (con G. Cavallari), Donzelli, Roma.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Pietro De Vitiis, born in Rome on 22nd March 1942, graduate in Philosophy at the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1965, teacher in the secondary schools since 1970 and then holder of a scholarship, lecturer, and researcher, since 1981 is full professor, first at the University of Lecce (Philosophy of History), Chieti (Philosophy of Religion), and then Rome Tor Vergata (Moral Philosophy). He studied in Germany at the University of Freiburg with a scholarship of DAAD. He held several academical offices, among which the office of dean at the University of Chieti. He has devoted his researches to Heidegger’s thought, the German speculative theism of the 19th century, and philosophical ermeneutics, while putting a particular stress on the realms of Philosophy of Religion and Moral Philosophy. Main publications: Heidegger e la fine della filosofia, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1974, pp. 256; Immanuel Hermann Fichte. “Aufhebung” del panteismo hegeliano, Benucci, Perugia 1978, pp. 294; Ermeneutica e sapere assoluto, Milella, Lecce 1984, pp. 231; Il problema religioso in Heidegger, Bulzoni, Roma 1995, pp. 161; Prospettive heideggeriane, Morcelliana, Brescia 2006, pp. 246; Filosofia della religione fra ermeneutica e postmodernità, Morcelliana, Brescia 2010, pp. 208.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Luca Diotallevi (Terni, 1959) is associate professor in sociology at the University of Roma TRE. He received his degree in philosophy at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and his PhD in sociology at the University of Parma. He also studied at the Universities of Bielefeld, Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge. He was senior fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions of the Harvard Divinity School (Harvard University). Among his recent works: Il rompicapo della secolarizzazione italiana (Rubbettino), Italian case and American Theories. Refining secularizazion paradigm (“Sociology of Religion”), the entry Church for the Blackwell Sociological Encyclopedy, Una alternativa alla laicità (Rubbettino).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Valeria Fabretti is associate professor of sociology and sociology of education at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. She received her PhD in 2009 from the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Rome La Sapienza, where she is still involved in various academic activities. Her studies and research mainly concern educational policies and governance in EU, the relationships between educational agencies (school, family and communities) and issues relating to school experiences and to social/cultural differences among students. Her PhD thesis and her current interests regard in particular the international debate on religious pluralism in the public sphere of school, the regulation of school-choice in European countries and its implications for the recognition of religious pluralism and for the promotion of civic values. She is the author of A scuola di pluralismo. Identità e differenze nella scuola pubblica (Aracne 2011);
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Maria Chiara Giorda is Associate Professor in Associate Professor in History of Religions (Università di RomaTre, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici). She is an historian of religions and she works on religious pluralism in public spaces, religious places in urban spaces, religious diversity at school. After her Ph.D. at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, V section, Sorbonne Paris (2007), she was temporary Assistant Professor of “History of Religions”, at the University of Torino and Bologna.
Since 2012 she is professor and coordinator of the section Sociology and Media of the Master in Religions and Cultural Mediation, Sapienza University of Rome and coordinator of the Scientific Committee of Benvenuti in Italia Foundation.
Among her last publications:
Giorda 2017, Famiglie monastiche. Il monastero di Prà d’Mill, Aragno: Torino.
Giorda 2017 (con M. Choat), Writing And Communication in Early Egyptian Monasticism. ‘Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity’ Brill: Leuven.
Giorda 2016, Sacred places in urban spaces: a interdisciplinary perspective. In: “Historia Religionum”, 8. ISSN: 2035-5572.
Giorda 2015, I luoghi religiosi a Torino. Le religioni nei contesti urbani contemporanei. In: “Quaderni di Diritto e Politica Ecclesiastica”, 337-356.
Giorda 2015 (with Filoramo), Monastic transmutation. Monks in the crucible of secular modernity, special issue of “Historia Religionum”
Giorda 2015, Secularism and Citizenship in Italian Schools. In: “Diversities”: ISSN ISSN-Print 2199-8108 ▪ ISSN-Internet 2199-8116: http://newdiversities.mmg.mpg.de/?page_id=971.
^^top—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Tonino Griffero (PhD 1992) is full Professor of Aesthetics, University of Rome Tor Vergata. Fellow of the A. von Humboldt Foundation (Heidelberg 1998-1999; Prof. R. Wiehl), he is Director of “Sensibilia” (Colloquium on Perception and Experience; www.sensibilia.it), of Master in “Comunicazione estetica e museale” (http://web.scuolaiad.it/index), of “Oltre lo sguardo. Itinerari di Filosofia” (Armando Editore, Roma; www.armando.it), “Percezioni. Estetica & Fenomenologia” (Christian Marinotti Editore, Milano; www.marinotti.com) and Editor-in-chief of “Leitmotiv. Motivi di estetica e filosofia dell’arte” (http://www.ledonline.it/leitmotiv/). Prof. Griffero published several articles on Hermeneutics, Schelling’s Aesthetics, Philosophy of Symbol and Mythology, German Idealism and Speculative Pietism (F. C. Oetinger), Transitive Imagination, Spiritual Body, Phenomenology of Atmospheres, and is the author of: Interpretare. La teoria di Emilio Betti e il suo contesto (1988; Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino); Spirito e forme di vita. La filosofia della cultura di Eduard Spranger (1990; Angeli, Milano); Senso e immagine. Simbolo e mito nel primo Schelling (1994; Guerini, Milano); Cosmo Arte Natura. Itinerari schellinghiani (1995; Cuem, Milano); L’estetica di Schelling (1996; Laterza, Roma-Bari); Oetinger e Schelling. Teosofia e realismo biblico alle origini dell’idealismo tedesco (2000; Nike, Segrate-Milano); Immagini attive. Breve storia dell’immaginazione transitiva (2003; Le Monnier, Firenze); Il corpo spirituale. Ontologie “sottili” da Paolo di Tarso a Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (2006; Mimesis, Milano). For a full bibliography see http://www.sensibilia.it/Griffero.html
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—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Chiara Letizia is a Researcher in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) at the University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in History of Religions (University of Rome La Sapienza), a Masters in Ethnology and Comparative Sociology (University of Paris X Nanterre) and conducted postdoctoral researches at the CNRS in Paris (2004,”Centre d’Études Himalayennes”) and Oxford University (2009-2011,Newton Fellow at ISCA). Her fieldwork (1997 to present) has focused on the religious anthropology of Nepal: ritual, pilgrimage, conversion, ethnic and religious activism, religion and politics. Her publications include La dea bambina (2003) and a series of articles on religious/political change in Nepal (among them, Buddhist activism, new Sanghas and the politics of belonging among some Tharu and Magar communities of southern Nepal (2011) and Réflexions sur la notion de conversion dans la diffusion du bouddhisme Theravada au Népal (2007). Her current research on the understandings and the implementation of the new secularism in Nepal endeavours to provide an ethnographic perspective to the current debate in social sciences on rethinking secularism.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Frank G. Madsen (PhD), Director of Research at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, and Scientific Advisor for Science, Theology, and the Ontological Quest at the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, Rome. Frank Madsen has been Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C. (2005-2006) and Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge (2002-2005). Since 1970, he has been active as security-adviser in different national and international organizations; latest appointment in 2002 as adviser to the Commission of the European Union, External Relations Directorate-General (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade), working on legal countermeasures against the financial crimes involved in the illegal forest logging. Selected publications: Transnational Organized Crime (London and New York: Routledge, 2009); International Organization and Crime, and Corruption, in Robert A. Denemark (ed.), The International Studies Compendium Project (Oxford and New York: Blackwells, forthcoming 2010); Transnational Organized Crime, in Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the United Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Stefania Palmisano is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Turin, Italy, where she teaches the Sociology of Religious Organization and the Sociology of Religion. She is Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion in Lancaster University (UK). She is co-ordinator of the research centre CRAFT (Contemporary Religion and Faiths in Transition) based in the Department of Culture, Politics and Society of Turin University. Her research takes the form of an ethnographic study of contemporary religious experience in mainstream religions and in alternative spiritualities. She is the author of Palmisano, S., Exploring New Monastic Communities. The Re-invention of Tradition, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2015
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Giovanni Salmeri, born in Rome in 1966, obtained the Masters degree and the PhD in Philosophy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (adviser Prof. Armando Rigobello), and the Licenciate in Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University. After teaching Philosophy for several years at Secondary School, from 1996 to 2002 he was Researcher of Moral Philosophy at the Department of Philosophical Researches of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Presently he is Associate Professor of History of Theological Thought. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the journals Oasis (Venice), Ethos (Lublin) and Dilatato Corde (Rome — Ottignies [B]), and member of the Editorial Board of the journals Dialegesthai (Rome) and Reportata (Rome). His main interests are in philosophical anthropology, the relationships between philosophical reason and Christian faith, the birth and encounter of civilisations from a religious perspective.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Stefano Semplici is professor of Social Ethics at Tor Vergata University (Rome). His main topics of research are business ethics, bioethics and philosophy of religion. Currently he is member of the International Bioethics Committee of Unesco, editor of the journal “Archivio di filosofia – Archives of Philosophy”, associate editor of the journal “Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy” and scientific director of the University College “Lamaro Pozzani”. His last books are: Bioetica. Le domande, i conflitti, le leggi (Morcelliana, Brescia 2007), and Undici tesi di bioetica (Morcelliana, Brescia, 2009).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Myriam Silvera, after obtaining her B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Milan La Statale, her PhD in Religious History at the University of Rome La Sapienza and, several years after, a second PhD at Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen, now teaches History and Culture of the Jews in Modern Times at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where she holds the position of a researcher. Since the academic year 2003/04, she also teaches courses in History of Judaism at the Faculty of Philosophy at La Sapienza and of History of Jewish Thought at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Naples Federico II. She is review-editor for the periodical La Rassegna Mensile di Israel and member of the Institut de Recherches pour l’Étude des Religions of Université de Paris IV. She works especially on the history of Portuguese and Spanish converses in the XV century and on intellectual and religious relations between Jews and Christians in Amsterdam, Hamburg and London between XVII and XVIII. She has published the correspondence of the Huguenot minister Jacques Basnage, Corrispondenza da Rotterdam, 1685-1709 (Amsterdam&Maarssen, APA-Holland University Press 2000, pp. LXXXVII-487). Among other articles, she has written: “Contribution à l’examen des sources de ‘L’Histoire des Juifs’ de Jacques Basnage: ‘Las Excelencias de los Hebreos’ de Ysaac Cardoso”, Studia Rosenthaliana 25, 1, 1991 (I part) and Studia Rosenthaliana 25, 2, 1991 (II part); “Le leggi della natura sono così perfette e efficienti, da non potersi ad esse nulla aggiungere e nulla togliere: l’ordine naturale e il problema del miracolo da fonti rabbiniche a Spinoza”, Micrologus IX, 2001, pp. 269-278.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Kristina Stoeckl is currently APART Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Vienna, Dept. Political Sciences. From 2009 until 2012 she was a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophical Research at Tor Vergata University (Rome). She graduated in Comparative Literature and Russian Studies from the University of Innsbruck (2001) and obtained an MA in International Relations and European Studies from the Central European University in Budapest (2003). She obtained her PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence in September 2007. From 2007 until 2009, she worked at the University of Innsbruck as coordinator of a research-initiative on politics and religion and taught courses in political theory. She has published articles in Religion, State & Society, Studies in East European Thought, Sociology Compass and Voprosy Filosofii . Her most recent book is The Russian Orthodox Church and Human Rights (Routledge 2014). She has recentely co-edited with Massimo Rosati Multiple Modernities and Postsecular Societies (Ashgate 2012). For a full list of publications and further information, see: >> personal webpage <<
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Irene Strazzeri is researcher at the Department of Human Sciences, Foggia University, where she teaches sociology of knowledge. She has obtained her PhD from Sapienza University of Rome and has also studied at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Her PhD thesis was entitled: “Struggle for Recognition in the European Integration Process: the Case of Turkey.” Irene Strazzeri’s studies were firstly focused on the analysis of fundamental theories of post-modern thinking in Walter Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, Francois Lyotard and on the correlation of this thought with sociological theory. Her recent work explores the possible implications of the theory of recognition for the question of global justice and human rights, particularly those referred to the institutional and political relationship between the European Union and Turkey. Her current interests regard in particular the role of women’s movements in the secularization of Turkey. She is author of: Teoria e prassi di riconoscimento, Manni, Lecce 2005, Riconoscimento e diritti umani. Grammatica del conflitto nel processo di integrazione europea, Morlacchi, Perugia 2007, Dalla redistribuzione al riconoscimento. Declinazioni paradigmatiche della differenza sessuale, Franco Angeli, Milano 2009, Verità e menzogna. Sociologie del postmoderno, Progedit, Bari 2010.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Pietro (Piero) Vereni is researcher of the section M-DEA/01 (demographical, ethnological and anthropological studies) at the School of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and contract-professor of Urban and Global Rome at the Rome Campus of Trinity College. He has done research in Greek Macedonia and in Ireland, focusing on the formation of collective identities in border regions. Over the last years he has expanded his research to the role of mass communication in the formation of ethno-national belonging and representation of alterity. Most recently his research has concerned the role of cultural diversity in the city of Rome, analyzing the cultural dimension of globalisation in the urban context of the Italian capital. Among his latest publications: Identità catodiche. Rappresentazioni mediatiche di appartenenze collettive (2008); Passato identità politica. La storia e i suoi documenti tra appartenenze e uso pubblico (edited, 2009); “Fieldwork a Pandora. Riflessioni sulle audience globali e la perdita del punto di vista del nativo” (in Antropologia museale, 2009).
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Alessandra Vitullo (1988) is PhD Student at the Department of Philosophical and Social Science at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. She graduated (2013) in Science of Communication and Journalism at University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. In 2013 she obtained her PhD in Sociology with the research project titled: Online Religion and Religion Online, New Forms of Spirituality of the Internet. She is member of the ‘Center for the Study and Documentation of Religions and Political Institutions in Post-Secular Society’ (CSPS), University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata”. Among her publications on her research topic : Religioni e internet: evangelizzazione o reincantamento del mondo?, in ‘Rapporto sull’analfabetismo religioso in Italia’ a cura di A. Melloni, Bologna, Il Mulino, and Fabrizio Vecoli, La religione ai tempi del Web, in Testo e Senso, n.14/2013. She also published the book Tracce di Orientalismo, Le rappresentazioni sociali della rivolta egiziana nella stampa italiana, Tawasul, Roma, 2015