New publication: “The Many Faces of the Saint: St. Anthony of Padua Revisited for Sri Lanka.”
November 1, 2024
New book chapter just came out in Religion Between Governance and Freedoms (Springer, 2024). Here is the abstract:
This chapter analyzes the pilgrimage that, for the past 25 years, thousands of Sri Lankans have made every first of May to St. Anthony’s church in Padua, Italy, in the largest rally of people from Sri Lanka outside their homeland. The analysis of the structure and dynamics of this pilgrimage, conducted through a long-term ethnographic research based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, reveals the construction of a national unity under the symbol of St. Anthony of Padua, proposed and controlled by the highest members of the Sri Lankan Catholic clergy, through a wise mix of religious, political, and ethnic elements that make the symbol accepted by different groups of Sri Lankans, not only Catholic. The dream of a united and peaceful Sri Lanka symbolized by the saint was suddenly broken in the aftermath of the terror attacks that on Easter Sunday 2019 hit St. Anthony’s church in the capital city of Colombo, as well as other churches on the island. This had highly destabilizing effects on the Catholic attempt to represent cohesion in the highly divided Sri Lankan society through their own symbology. After describing the pilgrimage as it took place from its birth to the 2019 Easter attacks and examining the many faces that the symbol of St. Anthony takes on during its most salient moments, the chapter identifies some of the solutions used by the organizers of the Padua pilgrimage to make this symbolic construction and the imagined community it represents survive.
Op-ed drawn from my current project “Religion in Public” just published in Mondo Economico.
October 29, 2024
I have a new op-ed in Mondo Economico on the use of religion in American politics, Italian fashion and the Olympics. Drawn from my current project “Religion in Public.” The op-ed is available here.
Interview about controversial advertisements on Sacro&Profano newsletter.
April 13, 2024
I spoke with Lucandrea Massaro about the use of religion in advertising campaigns in light of a TV ad aired this week, which stirred controversy for mixing snacks and the Eucharist. The interview is available here.
Research featured in La Ragione
April 9, 2024
My research was featured in a La Ragione piece by Ilaria Donatio on the use of religious symbols in advertising and politics. Read the article here.
Research featured in the Corriere della Sera’s cultural supplement, La Lettura.
March 31, 2024
My research on the renewed public presence of religion was featured in a piece by Marco Rizzi for the Corriere della Sera‘s La Lettura. The article is available here.
Interview on Radio24 about religion in pop culture today.
March 17, 2024
Interview with Marialuisa Pezzali, host of “Essere e Avere” on Radio24, about the use of religious references in pop culture. The interview is available here.
Magazine piece on possession rituals and popular religion just published on Missione Oggi.
March 1, 2024
An article, authored by me, on the transformations in ritual possession just came out in Missione Oggi magazine. The article is available here.
Interview about the public use of religion on “Il posto delle parole” podcast.
February 25, 2024
I spoke with Livio Partiti about the renewed public presence of religions in Italy and around the globe. Episode details are available here.
Vienna hosts international workshop on the reuse of church buildings.
September 30, 2023
At a workshop, co-organized by me and sponsored by the International Society for the Sociology of Religion, which took place in Vienna from 27 to 30 September 2023, international scholars discussed how church buildings are finding new uses across Europe. Here is the flyer of the event. And here is the workshop program.