Laura Popa
- About me
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I am an international doctoral candidate and researcher in History and Cultural Studies at the University of Giessen (JLU). Since December 2023 I have been appointed research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide in the UK. I was a visiting scholar at Sidney Sussex College of the University of Cambridge earlier that year. Before that, I benefited from a fellowship granted by the German Historical Institute in Rome.
The dissertation project I am working on is called Nation-State Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion: Protestant Women Schoolteachers in Italy, 1860-1915. Based on rich archival material, ranging from letters to the press, the project investigates for the first time how and why a group of minority Protestant women tried to build the Italian nation through mobile professional teaching and missionary activities. The Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst Foundation in Germany funded my research. Supervision: Proff. Philipp David (University of Giessen), Eugenio F. Biagini (University of Cambridge)
Kindly watch the presentation of my project here: L'attivismo religioso e professionale delle maestre elementari valdesi per lo Stato nazionale (1860-1915)
During my master's and bachelor's years, I gained a historian formation but with an interdisciplinary outlook. I studied History, History of Religions, and Philosophy at the University of Turin & Perugia in Italy, initially enrolled as an Erasmus student, then as a full-time student, and at the University of Iaşi in Romania, where I had a merit-based scholarship.
In my master thesis, I researched the religious arguments of the Declaration of Sentiments (1848), the first American feminist document written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and other Protestant women, as well as the transatlantic impact it had on the development of Italian feminism (first and second waves) and Women's Studies as an academic discipline ("La dichiarazione dei sentimenti": storia e circolazione italiana, Prof. Natale Spineto/University of Turin).
In my bachelor thesis, I dealt with the topic of European cultural transfer through a case study of Johann Gottfried Herder's theory of the nation and philosophy of history and that of Mihail Kogălniceanu, a prolific cultural and political figure in nineteenth-century Romania ("Europa intelectualilor" în prima jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea. Motive herdiene în discursul cultural și politic al lui Mihail Kogălniceanu, Prof. Gh. Cliveti/University of Iaşi).
This highly international profile is due to my Christian perspective on life, which is to learn about the world, people, and cultures as much as possible. As a result, I consider myself a global citizen.
- Presentations
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04.06.2024. The Complex Landscape of Protestant School Education as Professional Service for the Country in Italy, 1860-1915, Conference Nation, State and Religion - Shifting Relations and Changing Loyalties in the Political Modernity, Ludovika University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary (online)
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20-23.05.2024. Religious Minority Women's Experiences of the Italian Nation-State Building, 1860-1915, Panel "Religious Minorities as Drivers of Change: The Case of Protestantism" for the European Academy of Religion 2024 Conference "Paradigm Shifts", Palermo, Italy (co-organizer)
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06.03.2024. Nation-State Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion: Protestant Women Schoolteachers in Italy, 1860-1915, Arbeitsgruppe Erweckungsbewegungen, Historische Kommission zur Erforschung des Pietismus, Germany (online, upon invitation)
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28.02.2024. Nation-State Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion: Protestant Women Schoolteachers in Italy, 1860-1915, Lent Research Meeting of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, UK (online, upon invitation)
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15.09.2023. Meaning(s) of the Bible in Protestant Women's Evangelization, 1860-1915, International and Interdisciplinary Conference Bible Revolution: Empowering People, Subverting Identities. New Study Directions in 21st-Century Academic Research, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (organizer)
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14-15.07.2023. "You will either be missionaries, or you will be nothing": Transformative Evangelical Christianity in the Italian Unification and Beyond, Conference "The 1860s in History and Memory - Revolution, Reconstruction and Reorganisation", University of Cambridge & University of Notre Dame, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, UK (upon invitation)
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22-24.06.2023. "Basta studiare la Bibbia": Revived Protestantism and (Self-)Empowerment of Laywomen in Italy, 1860-1915, International Conference "Revival Movements as conflict agendas of the popular", University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany
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17-19.11.2022. Educating the Nation as Protestant Faith-Based Mission: Waldensian Women Teachers in Rome, International Conference "Roma (a)cattolica. Pluralisation of Religion in Rome between the End of the Papal State and the Beginning of Fascism (1870‐1922)", German Historical Institute Rome & Centro Melantone & Anglican Centre in Rome & Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome & University of Munich, Rome, Italy (upon invitation)
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28-29.10.2022. Outside the Waldensian Valleys: The Evangelization Project, Systematisch-Theologisches Forschungscolloquium, University of Giessen & University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany (upon invitation)
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05.10.2022. "L'Italia ora è fatta, resta di fare gli italiani, se essi non abbracciano l'evangelo non saranno mai liberi, ma servi e schiavi del prete." L’attivismo religioso e professionale delle maestre elementari valdesi per lo Stato nazionale (1860-1915), Seminario transnazionale "Reti e forme dell’attivismo femminile italiano nel lungo Ottocento (1820-1922)", Museo del Risorgimento di Bologna, Bologna, Italy (online, upon invitation)
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30.09.2021. Women's Professions and the Private-Public Spheres: Protestant Teachers in Italian Nation-State Building (1860-1915), "International Graduate Summer School in Gender History FREEDOM(S)", University of Naples, Italy
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03-05.06.2021. La vita e le attività di Giuseppina Pusterla, la prima maestra elementare del progetto nazionale valdese di evangelizzazione dell’Italia (1863-1871), Conference "Perspektiven der italienischen Religionsgeschichte vom 18. bis ins 21. Jahrhundert", Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Neueste Geschichte Italiens & University of Saarbrücken, Germany (online)
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13.04.2021. Protestant Women Teachers in Nineteenth-Century Italy: Nation-Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion (1860–1915), Verastaltung Villigster Promotionsprojekte 2021 (online)
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19-20.10.2020. Protestant Women Teachers in Nineteenth-Century Italy: Nation-Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion (1860–1915), Doktorand*innen-Workshop, University of Giesen, Germany (online, upon invitation)
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12.02.2020. Protestant Women Teachers in Nineteenth-Century Italy: Nation-Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion (1860–1915), Cornelia Goethe Center for Women's and Gender Studies & GRADE Center of University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany (upon invitation)
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18-19.10.2019. The Dilemma of the Italian Protestant Feminist Discourse: Religious or Secular Belonging?, Conference "Marginality and Centrality in Contradictory Discourses of Religious and National Belonging", Bremen-Turku-Warsaw-Stockholm Series on Studies in Discourse and Contradiction, University of Åbo Akademi, Turku, Finland
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13-14.09.2019. Inner Beliefs and Practice: Italian Protestant Teachers in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century, Conference "Gender-Religion-Race. Deconstructing Regimes of In/Visibility", European Society for Women in Theological Research & Faculty of Theological and Religious Studies of the KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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24-25.06.2019. The Protestant Perspective on Femininity between the Bible and Feminism from Modernity to Post-Modernity: A Conceptual History, Conference "On the Crossroads of Modernity. New perspectives on religion, culture and society since 1750", KADOC Leuven & University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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11.2018. A History of the Feminist Culture Identity in the Italian Evangelical Waldensian Church from 1848 to Nowadays, GCSC Postgraduate Colloquium of Faculty 04 History and Cultural Studies, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany (upon invitation)
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- Research activities
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06-20.01.2025. Research stay at the University of Turin, Italy/Prof. Marta Margotti, Department of Historical Studies (ITSERR TNA fellowship) [forthcoming]
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30.06-05.07.2024. World Christianity Summer Institute Poverty and the Church, co-organized by the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide & Tearfund (CCCW grant, online)
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20-23.05.2024. The Open Panel Call Religious Minorities as Drivers of Change: The Case of Protestantism organized by the research group Protestantism as a Minority Religion. The panel was part of the European Academy of Religion 2024 Conference "Paradigm Shifts". (EuARe Travel Grant - declined & Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grant)
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08.12.2023-01.01.2025. Research Associateship at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide of the Cambridge Theological Federation, Cambridge, UK (CCCW grant)
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02-07.07.2023. World Christianity Summer Institute & Catalysing Leaders Conference The Bible: Everywhere in Everyday Life, co-organized by the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide & International Bible Advocacy Centre of the British and Foreign Bible Society (CCCW grant)
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17-18.04.2023. Cultural Heritage Data School 2023, organized by Cambridge Digital Humanities of the University of Cambridge (CDH grant)
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15.01.2023-15.03.2023. Traineeship at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Eugenio Biagini (Erasmus+ Staff Mobility for Training grant)
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01.01.2023-31.08.2023. Visiting Scholarship with Dining Rights and Senior Combination Room membership at Sidney Sussex College of the University of Cambridge, UK (Sidney Sussex College/Sponsoring Fellow Prof. Eugenio Biagini & Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grants)
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15-19.08.2022. Villigst Sommeruniversität 2022, seminar A4 »Gehet hin und machet zu Jüngern alle Völker« – christliche Mission im 21. Jahrhundert? (Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grant)
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21-22.07.2022. Note-taker in the workshop The Pursuit of Science in Conservative Religious Settings since 1945, co-organized by JLU & a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne & German Historical Institute in Washington, Cologne, Germany (Gerda Henkel Stiftung grant)
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January 2021-April 2022. Archival research at the Waldensian Church Archives & Library of the Society for Waldensian Studies in Torre Pellice, Italy (Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture & Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grants)
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October-December 2020. Research stay at the German Historical Institute Rome, Italy (Max Weber Foundation Fellowship)
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December 2020. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (American Academy of Religion travel grant)
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October 2019-September 2021. Co-Speaker of Research Area 6: Cultural Identities of the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. In this capacity, I co-organized the online workshop "Cultural Hybridity Revisited" held by Dr. Doris Bachmann-Medick (GCSC) on June 23, 2020; the lecture "National and Religious Identity in the Low Countries during the Grand Siècle" by Dr. Roeland Goorts (GCSC) on April 7, 2021; and the conference "Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Hybridity" on 23-25 June 2021.
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July 2019. XVI CISPEA Summer School Nazione/nazionalismi nella storia statunitense (Nation/Nationalisms in the History of the United States) in Carpineto-Reggio Emilia, Italy (Centro interuniversitario di storia e politica euroamericana & Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture grants)
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March 2019. Archival research at the Waldensian Church Archives & Library of the Society for Waldensian Studies in Torre Pellice, Italy (Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture grant)
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- Contact
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Laura.Popa@geschichte.uni-giessen.de
lp639@cccw.cam.ac.uk
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4520-0928
- Memberships
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- Minority Protestants Network / Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst / Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide / European Academy of Religion / Christianity and History Forum / Society for Waldensian Studies / Cornelia Goethe Center for Women's and Gender Studies / Gießener Graduiertenzentrum Sozial-, Wirtschafts- und Rechtswissenschaften (GGS) / Cambridge Christian Study Centre (2023) / Research Area 6: Cultural Identities of the GCSC (2018-2022) / American Academy of Religion (2020-2021)
- Research interests
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- Women's and Gender History / Concept of Hybridity / Nationalism Studies / Religious Minorities, e.g., Protestant, Jewish / History of Feminism, e.g., First and Second Wave, Religious / Feminist Theory, e.g., Emancipation, Sexual Difference in Italy / Cultural History of Protestant Christianity, in particular, Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism
- Teaching
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11-15.08.2025. The History of Femininity, Villigst Sommeruniversität "Emotion", Odenthal (seminar) [forthcoming]
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25.11.2023. "But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one": Christianity and Nationalism, Villigst Winterpromovierendentreffen "Noch", Schwerte (workshop)
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09.12.2022. The Waldensian Concept of "Opening to". Lessons on Hybridization from a 19th-Century Minority for the 21st-Century Global World, Villigst Winterpromovierendentreffen "Zwischen Räume", Schwerte (workshop)
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06-07.12.2022. How to Successfully Prepare and Write Your Application(s) in a German Context, GGS Assistantship Program, JLU (coaching workshop)
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29-30.11.2021. How to Successfully Apply for Scholarships in a German Context, International Office, JLU (online workshop)
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09.07.2021. Introduction to Feminism in Times of Crisis: Its History, Themes, and Power, GGS Assistantship Programm, JLU (online workshop)
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04-07.2021. Revisiting the Nation. Gender and Nationality in the 19th Century, Historical Institute, JLU (online co-teaching with Prof. Bettina Severin-Barboutie, advanced seminar)
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04-07.2021. Ev. Frauen in Kirche und Gesellschaft, Institut für Evangelische Theologie, GCSC Co-Teaching Assistantship Program, JLU (online co-teaching with Dr. Meike Rieckmann-Berkenbrock, seminar)
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12.11.2020. Hybridity and Nation-State Building. The Entanglement of Gender, Culture, and Religion in "Imagined Communities", GGS Assistantship Program, JLU (online workshop)
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01.07.2020. "Recycling" Concepts or How to Re/Write Your Theoretical Framework, GCSC Assistantship Programm, JLU (online workshop)
- 10.2019-02.2020. Religion in den USA von der Kolonialzeit bis heute, Fachbereich Geschichts-und Kulturwissenschaften, GCSC Co-Teaching Assistantship Program, JLU (co-teaching with Dr. Stefanie Coché, seminar)
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- Publications
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2024. "He teaches me so I can teach”: Revivalism and Laywomen in Nineteenth-Century Italy", in Revival Movements as Conflict Agendas of the Popular in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, edited by Veronika Albrecht-Birkner and Stefanie Siedek-Strunk, Palgrave Macmillan (book chapter) [in press]
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2024. "Hybridity and Protestantism in the Twenty-First-Century Global World", in Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, co-edited by Laura Popa and Roeland Goorts, with a Foreword by Pnina Werbner, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (book chapter)
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2024. "Introduction", in Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, co-edited by Laura Popa and Roeland Goorts, with a Foreword by Pnina Werbner, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (introduction to the edited volume)
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2024. Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, co-edited by Laura Popa and Roeland Goorts, with a Foreword by Pnina Werbner, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (edited volume)
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2023. "Comprendere la storia del dissenso religioso femminile in Italia attraverso la biografia di una nobile del Cinquecento", in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 103 (book review of Susanna Peyronel Rambald, Giulia Gonzaga. A Gentlewoman in the Italian Reformation, Viella 2021)
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2022. "Maestre elementari valdesi nell’Italia dell’Ottocento (1860-1915), ovvero come un gruppo di donne delle minoranze mirarono a costruire la nazione", in Riforma e movimenti religiosi. Rivista della Società di Studi Valdesi, 12 (work in progress article)
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2021. "Conference Report on "Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity", in KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture, 64 (with Clara Verri)
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2021. Call for Papers "Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity", in H-Soz-Kult, 15.01.2021 (with Clara Verri)
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2020. "Womanhood, Female Agency, and Jewish Identities in the Nineteenth-Century Italian and German (Trans)National States", in KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture, 63 (book review of Martin Baumeister/Philipp Lenhard/Ruth Nattermann (eds.), Rethinking the Age of Emancipation. Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Gender, Family, and Religion in Italy and Germany, 1800-1918, Berghahn Books 2020)
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2019. "Difference as Affirmation. The Restoring of Motherhood in the Western Civilization", in KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture, 59 (book review of Luisa Muraro, The Symbolic Order of the Mother, Sunny Press 2019)
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- Projects
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Organization and coordination of the one-week seminar The History of Femininity, Villigst Sommeruniversität "Emotion", Odenthal, August 11-15, 2025. Guest Prof. Ruth Albrecht (University of Hamburg) [forthcoming]
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The research project Protestantism as a Minority Religion, with Prof. Eugenio Biagini (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Karina Bénazech Wendling (University of Lorraine). The project aims to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary and non-confessional work among scholars and academic institutions; to organise and promote conferences, and events, but also publish in academic journals, preferably in open access; engage with a wider audience and favour online visibility for a broader dissemination of research.
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Organization of the International and Interdisciplinary Conference Bible Revolution: Empowering People, Subverting Identities. New Study Directions in 21st-Century Academic Research, University of Cambridge, September 15, 2023 (funded by the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst after a successful application, in collaboration with Prof. Eugenio Biagini and Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide). The conference consisted of three panels and the keynote lecture Uses of the Bible in Evangelical History, held by the world's leading historian of Evangelicalism, Emeritus Prof. David Bebbington (University of Stirling).
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Publication of biographies of Italian Protestant women teachers in Dizionario biografico on-line dei Protestanti in Italia, edited by the Society for Waldensian Studies and funded by Otto per mille della Chiesa Valdese Unione delle Chiese Valdesi e Metodiste [under review]
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Publication of the volume Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, co-edited with Dr. Roeland Goorts, with a Foreword by Emerita Prof. Pnina Werbner (Keele University), Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (funded by the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture after a successful application)
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Co-organization and coordination of the International and Interdisciplinary Laboratory-Conference Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, University of Giessen, June 23-25, 2021, with Clara Verri (online and funded by the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture after a successful application). The conference consisted of a keynote lecture, eight panels, two workshops, and a laboratory debate. You can read a personal review of the event written by a speaker here: Learnings from a Laboratory Conference.
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