Dr. Alessandro Testa

 

ACHTUNG!


AFTER MID-2018, THIS PAGE AND THE INFORMATION IT CONTAINS MUST BE CONSIDERED OBSOLETE.

UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION AND PUBLICATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://alessandrotesta.academia.edu/

 

 

Alessandro Testa is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of European Ethnology, University of Vienna.

He has a background in Classics (Liceo Classico), History (Bachelor), and Religious Studies (Master) and has studied at several Italian and French Universities (Universities of Florence, Rome “Sapienza”, and Messina; École Pratique des Hautes Études [EPHE, Sorbonne] and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] in Paris). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Messina.

His main research fields are Anthropology and History, especially Ethnology of Europe, Religious Studies, Folklore, Historical Anthropology and Cultural History, History of Religions, and Micro-History (a list of specific topics can be found at the end of this text). Moreover, he has a strong interest in philosophy, linguistics, and biology, and also has a very good knowledge of literature, art, cinema, and music.

In 2012, he was Visiting Lecturer at the University of Tallinn, Estonia, where he taught a course in Historical Anthropology, and in 2014 he was for a short period Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute in Halle, Germany. Between 2013 and 2015, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, where he also taught Anthropology of Religion and Anthropology of Cultural Heritage. Between 2015 and 2017, he was a “Lise Meitner” Postdoc at the University of Vienna, Austria.

More recently, since 2016, he has been teaching in several different universities in Vienna, Prague, Brno, Bratislava, and Ljubljana. Besides the usual courses in Anthropology of Religion and Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, he has offered courses in the Ethnology of Europe, the Anthropology of Post-socialist Europe, the Historical Anthropology of Religion, and New Religious Movements. At the end of 2017, he has obtained the qualification (“Habilitation”) for professorship.

Alessandro Testa has so far published three books: "Miti antichi e moderne mitologie" (2010), "Il carnevale dell’uomo-animale" (2014), and "La religiosità dei Sanniti" (2016). He has also edited three monographic issues for journals, and is the author of a conspicuous number of articles, chapters in volumes, and reviews, many of which can be read on and downloaded from his academia.edu page (https://univie.academia.edu/AlessandroTesta). He has furthermore presented the outcomes of his research through lectures and oral contributions at universities and for conferences in fifteen countries.

He can write and speak seven languages (Italian, English, French, Spanish, Catalan, German, and Czech) and has a good understanding or a passive knowledge of another half a dozen (among which are Latin and Ancient Greek).

So far, his main ethnographic fieldworks have been undertaken in central-southern Italy (2010-2011), Czech Republic (2013-2014), and in Catalonia (2016-2018).

At present, his main research topics, teaching, and publications are about European public rituals and festivals, the historiography of shamanism, popular culture and vernacular religions in Europe, new religious movements, religion in/and new media, southern and post-socialist Europe, cultural heritages, social memory, European identities, the concepts of Europe, tradition, culture, heritage, power, and religion.

In the past, his research topics and most of his publications were about the comparative study of myths and rituals, Greek mythology, Roman and Samnite religions, medieval Europe, the history and anthropology of masks and carnivals, the region of Molise in Italy, theories and methods in Historical Anthropology and History of Religions.

E-mail: alessandro.testa@univie.ac.at

Research Products

 

(MOST OF THE FOLLOWING PUBLICATIONS CAN BE READ AND DOWNLOADED HERE: https://univie.academia.edu/AlessandroTesta)

 

Books and editions

 

2019 (forthcoming): Co-edition (with Cyril Isnart) of Re-enchantment, Ritualisation, Heritage-Making: Processes of Tradition Reconfiguration in Europe. Monographic issue of Ethnologia Europaea

2017: Edition of Aesernia, Isernia, 'Sernia. Monographic issue of ArcheoMolise, n. 30, 114 pp.

2016: La religiosità dei Sanniti. Cosmo Ianno­­­ne, Isernia (foreword by Dominique Briquel)

2014: Il carnevale dell’uomo-animale. Le dimensioni storiche e socio-culturali di una festa appenninica. Loffredo, Napoli

2011: Edition of L’abbazia di San Vincenzo e l’Alta Valle del Volturno. Special issue of ArcheoMolise, n. 8

2010: Miti antichi e moderne mitologie. Saggi di storia delle religioni e storia degli studi sul mondo

antico. Aracne, Roma (appendix by Claude Calame)


Articles in peer-reviewed journals

 

2017: “A Utopia of Eurasia: the Uses and Abuses of a Concept – a counter-reply to Chris Hann”. In The Anthropology of East Europe Review, n. 35 (1), pp. 64-79

2017: “Ritual zoomorphism in medieval and modern European folklore: some skeptical remarks on a possible connection with shamanism”. In Religio: Revue pro religionistiku, n. 25 (1), pp. 3-24

2017: “ʻFertilityʼ and the Carnival 1: Symbolic Effectiveness, Emic Beliefs, and the Re-enchantment of Europe”. In Folklore, n. 128 (1), pp. 16-36

2017: “ʻFertilityʼ and the Carnival 2: Popular Frazerism and the Reconfiguration of Tradition in Europe Today”. In Folklore, n. 128 (2), pp. 111-132

2016: “Problemi e prospettive della ricerca demo-etno-antropologica su memoria sociale, (n)ostalgia, ritualità pubblica e patrimonio culturale immateriale nell’Europa post-socialista”. In Lares, n. 82 (2), pp. 237-276

2016: “From folklore to intangible cultural heritage. Observations about a problematic filiation”. In Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, n. 119 (3-4), pp. 183-204

2016: “È la ʻtradizioneʼ ancora buona da pensare? Riflessioni critiche su una nozione controversa”. In Annuaire Roumain d’Anthropologie, n. 53, pp. 63-91

2015: “On Eurasia and Europe”. In The Anthropology of East Europe Review, n. 33 (2), pp. 60-88 – with a reply by Chris Hann

2014: “Religions in Videogames. Historical and Anthropological Observations”. In Online. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, n. 5, pp. 249-278

2014: “Rethinking the Festival: Power and Politics”. In Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, n. 26 (1), 2014, pp. 44-73

2013: “Dioniso nelle mitologie francesi e italiane”. In Limes, revista de estudios clásicos, n. 25, 2012, pp. 89-115.

2013: “Mascheramenti zoomorfi. Comparazioni e interpretazioni a partire da fonti tardo-antiche e alto-medievali”. In Studi Medievali, n. 54 (1), 2013, pp. 63-130.

2012: “The Cultural Heritage. Anthropological Observations”. In Atti del Convegno Internazionale Conservation, Tourism and Risks Management Workshop. Isernia 14 15 Ottobre 2010 (Annali di Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica dell'Università di Ferrara, 2012), pp. 76-79.

2012: “Verità del mito e verità della storia. Una critica storico-religiosa a recenti ipotesi sui primordia di Roma”. In Mediterranea. Quaderni annuali dell’Istituto di Studi sulle Civiltà italiche e del Mediterraneo antico del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, n. 9, 2012, pp. 195-231.

2011: “Micro-etnografia notturna. Riflessioni di un antropologo in discoteca”. In Antrocom: Online Journal of Anthropology, n. 7 (1), 2011, pp. 21-26.

2010: “Il principale ingrediente nella cucina del sacrificio greco… in Francia. Presenza ed importanza del Saggio sul misticismo greco di Dario Sabbatucci negli studi di Marcel Detienne e Jean-Pierre Vernant”. In Antrocom: Online Journal of Anthropology, n. 6 (1), 2010, pp. 31-38.

2010: “Le destin tylorien. Considérations inactuelles sur la « réalité » de la magie”. In Ethnographiques.org. Revue en ligne de sciences humaines et sociales, n. 21, 2010.


Chapters in books

 

2018: “L’impact de la création de patrimoines immatériels dans les différents domaines de la vie sociale : le cas des carnavals et les « fêtes de transition » en Europe”. Forthcoming in the proceedings of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies Biennial Conference What does heritage change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi?, 2-10 June 2016, Montréal, Canada

2018: (with Giovanni Casadio) “Phenomenologies of Religion in Italy”. Forthcoming in D. Thurfjel, S. Fujiwara (ed.), Phenomenologies of Religion: Cross-culturally Revisited, Equinox, Sheffield

2015: “The Re-Enchantment of Europe: ‘Traditional’ Carnivals and the Belief in Propitiatory Magic (Two Ethnographic Cases from Italy and Czechia)”. In T. Minniyakhmetova, K. Velkoborská (eds), Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference of the SIEF Working Group on the Ritual Year “Magic in Rituals and Rituals in Magic”, ELM Scholarly Press, Innsbruck-Tartu, pp. 100-109.

2015: “Estasi e crisi. Note su sciamanismo e pessimismo storico in Eliade, de Martino e Lévi-Strauss”. In L. Arcari, A. Saggioro (eds), Sciamanesimo e sciamanesimi: un problema storiografico, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma, pp. 101-114.

2014: “L’homme-cerf, l’ethnologue et le maire. Les politiques du folklore dans un contexte rural italien”. In Folklores et politique. Approches comparées et réflexions critiques (Europes – Amériques), S. Fiszer, D. Francfort, A. Nivière, J.-S. Noël (eds), Le Manuscrit, Paris, pp. 99-120.

2013: “Mascheramenti zoomorfi”. In I. Baglioni (ed.), Monstra. Atti del convegno “Costruzione e Percezione delle Entità Ibride e Mostruose nel Mediterraneo Antico”. Velletri 8-11 giugno 2011, Quasar, Roma, pp. 235-254.

2013: “Exploring the Power Dimensions of Festivals”. In F. Martínez, K. Slabina (ed.), Playgrounds and Battlefields. Critical Perspectives of Social Engagement, Tallinn University Press, Tallinn, pp. 440-467.

2012: “Il magismo di Ernesto de Martino: un confronto e un dibattito francese”. In F. Ciccodicola (ed.), Ernesto de Martino: storicismo critico e ricerca sul campo, Domograf, Roma, pp. 205-230.

2010: “Un entretien avec Claude Calame” (avec C. Calame). In Miti antichi e moderne mitologie, Aracne, Roma, pp. 407-417.

2009: “Discorso sul mito. Il mito greco interpretato dagli storici delle religioni italiani e dagli storici–antropologi francesi. Un’indagine epistemologica e metodologica comparativa”. Master thesis. In Miti antichi e moderne mitologie, Aracne, Roma, pp. 107-406.

2009: “Paganesimo e Neopaganesimo”. In P. Jones, N. Pennick, Storia dei pagani, Odoya, Bologna (tr. of A History of Pagan Europe, London 1995), pp. 283-300; 313-315.

2008: “Il mondo in disordine. I prodigi nella terza deca di Livio”. Previously unpublished. In Miti antichi e moderne mitologie, Aracne, Roma, pp. 63-81.

2007: “Annibale e le popolazioni dell’Italia Meridionale. Considerazioni storico-religiose”. Bachelor thesis. Partially published in Miti antichi e moderne mitologie. Saggi di storia delle religioni e di storia degli studi sul mondo antico, Aracne, Roma, pp. 17-62.


Review essays

 

2018: “Religion: evolutionism, modernism, post-modernism; what comes next? A review essay of Understanding Theories of Religion by Ivan Strenski”. Forthcoming in Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, n. 83 (3)

2016: “‘Ipsi sunt multi […] et faciunt magnum strepitum’: storici delle religioni, etnologi e sciamani in Lo sciamanesimo prima e dopo Mircea Eliade di Giovanni Casadio”. In Archaeus. Studies in the History of Religions, n. 19-20, pp. 483-498

2016: “Note de lecture de Œuvres publiées by R. Hertz (éd. de C. Isnart)”. In Ethnologie française, n. 163 (3), pp. 554-557

2014: Review essay of Il paganesimo in Europa. Riti e culti dall’antichità al medioevo by K. Dowden. In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia)

2014: “Quale futuro per la comparazione in storia delle religioni antiche? Una lettura critica di Comparer en histoire des religions antiques. Controverses et propositions, a cura di Claude Calame e Bruce Lincoln”. In Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, n. 80 (1), pp. 426-435

2013: Review essay of The Uses of Greek Mythology by K. Dowden. In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia)

2012: Review of Myth. A very Short Introduction by R. A. Segal. In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia)

2012: “Prospettive antropologiche fra mito e storia nella Grecia classica. Riflessioni su Mythe et histoire dans l’antiquité grecque. La création symbolique d’une colonie di C. Calame”. In Rivista di Diritto Ellenico, 2012 (2), pp. 309-403

 


Non-peer-reviewed articles

 

2017: “From post-transition to pseudo-transition: what is going on in Catalonia? Reflections from and beyond fieldwork”. In Europäische Ethnologie Wien, Jahresbericht 2017, Univeristät Wien, pp. 49-55

2015: “I castelli in ArcheoMolise”. In ArcheoMolise, n. 21, pp. 72-80

2014: “Silloge delle fonti sui Carnevali di Scapoli e Castelnuovo al Volturno”. In Utriculus, n. 47 (1), pp. 101-122

2012: “Il carnevale del diavolo a Tufara”. In ArcheoMolise, n. 11, 2012, pp. 59-72

2012: “Ancora sulla religione dei Sanniti. Nota a margine di due mostre molisane”. In ArcheoMolise, n. 13, 2012, pp. 6-21

2011: “L’Alta Valle del Volturno in età antica”. In ArcheoMolise, n. 8, 2011, pp. 18-25

2011: “La valle, l’abbazia, i borghi: dalla località all’identità”. In ArcheoMolise, n. 8, 2011, pp. 68-82

2011: “Micro-etnografia notturna. Riflessioni di un antropologo in discoteca”. In Antrocom: Online Journal of Anthropology, n. 7 (1), 2011, pp. 21-26; also published inthe paper version of the journal: Antrocom: Journal of Anthropology, pp. 30-34

2010: “Le principal ingrédient de la cuisine du sacrifice grec... en France. Présence et importance du Saggio sul misticismo greco de Dario Sabbatucci dans les études de Marcel Detienne et de Jean- Pierre Vernant”. In Folia Electronica Classica, n. 19, 2010

2010: “Il culto dei Sanniti alla luce della comparazione indo-europea. Una interpretazione relativa ad alcune nuove scoperte archeologiche a Pietrabbondante”. In ArcheoMolise, n. 5, 2010, pp. 34-51

2010: “Le culte des Samnites à la lumière de la comparaison indo-européenne. Une interprétation relative aux nouvelles découvertes archéologiques de Pietrabbondante”. In Folia Electronica Classica, n. 20, 2010

2010: “Il principale ingrediente nella cucina del sacrificio greco… in Francia. Presenza ed importanza del Saggio sul misticismo greco di Dario Sabbatucci negli studi di Marcel Detienne e Jean-Pierre Vernant”. In Antrocom: Online Journal of Anthropology, n. 6 (1), 2010, pp. 31-38; also published in the paper version of the journal: Antrocom: Journal of Anthropology, pp. 49-57

2009: “La maschera del Cervo di Castelnuovo al Volturno. Breve introduzione alla storia ed alle interpretazioni di una pantomima tradizionale”. In ArcheoMolise (ISSN 2036-3028), n. 2, 2009, pp. 48-61

 

Reviews and other written contributions

 

2018: “Doing research on festivals: cui bono?”. Forthcoming in Journal of Festive Studies, n. 0

2017: Review of Magic: a Theory from the South di Ernesto de Martino. In Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, n. 83 (1), pp. 306-308

2017: (with Nada Kujundžić) SIEF Young Scholars Working Group Conference and SIEF General Conference Panel (Heri05) report. In Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, n. 120 (1-2), pp. 109-113

2016: “Young scholars of an ageing discipline in the old continent”. In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, n. 24 (3), pp. 371-373

2016: “Réponse à Nora Demarchi”. In Ethnologie française, n. 162 (2), pp. 359-360

2015: “‘Clubbing’: The Nocturnal Lymph That Flows In The Urban Veins Of Europe”. In F. Martínez, P. Runnel (eds.), Hopeless Youth!, Estonian National Museum, Tartu, pp. 60-63

2015: Review of Lo sciamanesimo prima e dopo Mircea Eliade di Giovanni Casadio. In Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, n. 82 (2), pp. 828-832

2014: Review of Memorylands. Heritage and Identity in Europe Today by S. Macdonald. In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, n. 22 (3), pp. 512-513

2013: Review of Dicţionar de mitologie greco-romană. zei, eroi, mituri by Z. Petre, A. Liţu, C. Pavel (a cura di). In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia)

2013: Review of Le ragioni dello sguardo. Pratiche dell’osservazione, della rappresentazione e della memoria by F. Faeta. In Voci. Annuale di scienze umane, n. 10, pp. 387-390

2012: Review of Out of the Study and into the Field. Ethnographic Theory and Practice in French Anthropology by R. Parkin, A. de Sales (eds). In L’Homme. Revue française d’anthropologie, n. 201, 2012, pp. 171-175

2011: Review of Prométhée généticien by C. Calame. In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia); French translation in L’Homme. Revue française d’anthropologie, nn. 198-199, 2011, pp. 396-399

2011: Review of L’enigma delle sirene. Due corpi. Un nome by E. Moro”. In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia)

2011: Review of Le storie del diluvio by H. Usener. In the website of the G.Ri.M.M. (Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia)

 

Lectures, presentations for conferences and other oral contributions

 

2018a, 18/06: “Unexpected Resonances and Troubled Relationships: Problematic Philosophical Parallels between de Martino, Eliade, and Lévi-Strauss on Magic and Shamanism”. Paper for the EASR annual Conference “Multiple Religious Identities”, 17-21 June, Bern, Switzerland

2018a, 31/05: “The Symbolic Codification and Political Role of Collective Performances and Public Rituals in Central Catalonia (Berga, Solsona)”. Lecture for the weekly seminar of the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

2018b, 13/05: “An introduction to the anthropology of European identity/ies”. Lecture for the seminar “Jean Monet Lectures: Teaching Europe”, Department of Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

2018c, 16/04: “Heritage making processes and the politics of culture in post-socialist Europe: the case of Masopust (UNESCO) in Czechia”. Lecture for the seminar “Anthropology of East-Central Europe”, Department of Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

2017a, 21/09: Co-convenorship of the panel “The Work of Culture: Making Sense in/of Religion as a Communication System” (co-convenor: Giuseppina Paola Viscardi) for the EASR annual Conference “Communication Religion”, 18-21 September, Leuven, Belgium

2017b, 20/09: “Mythopoesis in Revitalised Traditions: Carnival and the Social Production of a Vernacular Mythology”. Paper for the EASR annual Conference “Communication Religion”, 18-21 September, Leuven, Belgium

2017c, 28/03: Co-convenorship of the panel “Re-enchantment, ritualisation, heritage-making: processes of tradition reconfiguration in Europe – historical and ethnographic examples” (co-convenor: Cyril Isnart; discussant: Sharon Macdonald) for the 13th SIEF Conference “Ways of Dwelling: Crisis, Craft, Creativity”, 27-30 March, Göttingen, Germany

2017d, 28/03: “What is ʿpopular Frazerismʾ and how is it at work in Europe today? Conceptualising re-enchantment, ritualisation, and heritage-making from a different perspective”. Paper for the 13th SIEF Conference “Ways of Dwelling: Crisis, Craft, Creativity”, 27-30 March, Göttingen, Germany

2017e, 26/03: organisation and presentation of the First Conference of the SIEF Young Scholars Working Group “Coming of Age: Young Scholars in the Field of Folkloristics, Ethnology, and Anthropology”, 26 March, Göttingen, Germany

2017f, 26, 03: Co-convenorship of the panels “Paradigm Shifts and Crossings of Disciplinary Borders” e “M.A., Ph.D., Postdoc – What Comes Next? Discussion Round” at the First Conference of the SIEF Young Scholars Working Group “Coming of Age: Young Scholars in the Field of Folkloristics, Ethnology, and Anthropology”, 26 Marzo, Göttingen, Germany

2016a, 23/11: “El treball de camp sobre les pràctiques socials tradicionals: reflexions critiques”. Lecture for the XIV Seminari d’Antropologia Social, Girona University, Girona, Spain

2016b, 28/09: “How festive traditions change in Europe: re-enchantment, (re-)ritualisation, heritage-making (case studies from Italy, France, and Czech Republic)”. Lecture for the Department of Ethnology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

2016c, 03/06: “Pseudo-religious Intangible Heritage or Intangible Heritage with Religious Characteristics? Conflicts of Interpretations and Definitions in Two Ethnographic Cases”. Paper for the Association of Critical Heritage Studies Biennial Conference What does heritage change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi?, 2-10 June 2016, Montréal, Canada

2016d, 07/06: “Le patrimoine immatériel, ça change tout. L’impact de la création de patrimoines immatériels dans les différents domaines de la vie sociale. Quelques exemples européens”. Paper for the Association of Critical Heritage Studies Biennial Conference What does heritage change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi?, 2-10 June 2016, Montréal, Canada

2016e, 09/03: “European Carnivals as objects of anthropological investigation. Theories, methods, and case studies”. Lecture for the Institutskolloquium des Instituts für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien, Sommersemester 2016, Vienna, Austria

2015, 05/11: “The Reconfiguration of Traditions, Heritages, Identities, and Other Anthropologically Relevant Things: Doing Comparative Ethnological Research throughout Europe”. Lecture for the Institutskolloquium des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie Wien, Wintersemester 2015, Vienna.

2015, 11/10: “Zoomorphic masks and masquerades in pre-modern European folklore: any real connection with initiation and shamanism?”. Paper for the conference of the International Society for the Academic Study of Shamanism “Sacred Landscapes and Conflict Transformation: History, Space, Place and Power in Shamanism”, Delphi, Greece, 9-13 October 2015.

2015, 10/07: “Il carnevale europeo e la sfera alimentare: considerazioni comparative a partire da materiali storici ed etnografici”. Paper for the conference “Il cibo e il sacro. Tradizioni e simbologie”, Velletri, 7-11 July 2015.

2015, 22/06: “From folklore to cultural heritage and the other way round. Theoretical annotations from two ethnographic case-studies (Italy and the Czech Republic)”. Paper for the 12th International SIEF congress “Utopias, Realities, Heritages. Ethnographies for the 21st century”, Zagreb, Croatia, 21-25 June 2015.

2015, 22/06: Convenor of the panel “From Folklore to Intangible Heritage” for the 12th International SIEF congress “Utopias, Realities, Heritages. Ethnographies for the 21st century”, Zagreb, Croatia, 21-25 June 2015.

2015, 18/02: “Why Study the Masopust in the Czech Republic: Folklore, History, Anthropology and the festivals as windows onto culture and society”. Lecture for the seminar “Kula Seminar”, Charles University, Prague.

2014, 13/11: “The Samnites and Their Religiosity”. Lecture at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale.

2014, 30/10: “‘Masopust’ between Folklore and Intangible Heritage: UNESCO, Post-socialism and the Politics of Tradition in a Bohemian Town”. Lecture at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale.

2014, 09/10: “Being Europeans: problems of identity behind and beyond politics, economy and laws”. Lecture at the Metropolitní Univerzita Praha, Prague.

2014, 27/09: “The Re-Enchantment of Europe: ‘Traditional’ Carnivals and the Belief in Propitiatory Magic (Two Ethnographic Cases from Italy and the Czech Republic)”. Paper for the 10th annual conference of the SIEF working group on the ritual year Magic in Rituals and Rituals in Magic, 25‐27 September 2014, Innsbruck.

2014, 30/08: “La religiosità dei Sanniti. Riflessioni a partire dai siti alto-molisani”. Paper for the conference Gli italici: tra biologia, cultura e coltura, 31 August 2014, Roccaraso.

2014, 31/07: “Obsession With Immutability. Traditions, Cultural Heritages, And Other Things That Are Not Supposed To Change”. Paper for the 13th EASA Biennial Conference Collaboration, Intimacy & Revolution innovation and continuity in an interconnected world, Tallinn, 29 July-3 August 2014.

2014, 31/07: Convenor of the panel “Obsession with Change” for the 13th EASA Biennial Conference Collaboration, Intimacy & Revolution innovation and continuity in an interconnected world, Tallinn, 29 July-3 August 2014.

2014, 23/05: “«This is no spectacle». Poetics of Authenticity and Ritualization in the Use of Tradition in Europe Today”. Paper for the 11th Conference of the SIEF Working Group on Ethnology of Religion Making Sense of Religion. Performance, Art and Experience, Lisbon, 22-23 May, 2014.

2014, 06/05: “Pride, Prejudice, Methodological Dilemmas, and Slivovice. Unsystematic Observations on Doing Fieldwork in Czechia”. Presentation for the workshop SOCIOCON, University of Pardubice.

2014, 28/04: “Structuralism yesterday and today”. Lecture for the seminar “Key texts for social anthropology”, Charles University, Prague.

2014, 18/03: “Gender and Carnival festivities in Europe”. Lecture for the seminar “Anthropology of Europe”, University of Pardubice.

2014, 06/02: “The Overwhelming Power of ‘Tradition’: Festivals, Carnivals and the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Europe Today”. Lecture for the Ernest Gellner Seminar, Czech Association of Social Anthropologists, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague.

2014, 29/01: “Carnivals, UNESCO and the Politics of Tradition in Post-socialist European Contexts. First Comparative Observations”. Lecture for the Inimkond Seminar, Tallinn University, Tallinn.

2013, 16/12: “Representations of Religions in Videogames and Other New Media”. Lecture for the seminar “Anthropology of Media and New Media”, University of Pardubice.

2013, 12/12: “Micro-history, Ethnography and the Study of European Carnivals (and their religious characteristics)”. Public Lecture for the Czech Association for the Study of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno.

2013, 15/07: “L’homme-cerf, l’ethnologue et le maire: un exemple ethnographique entre politisation du folklore et folklorisation de la politique”. Paper for the congress Folklore et politique, Institut d’Histoire Culturelle Européenne, Château de Lunéville, 15-16 July 2013.

2013, 05/06: “Ibridismo zoo-antropomorfico nella lunga durata: dalle tassonomie simbolico-rituali alla patrimonializzazione”. Paper for the congress The Role of Animals in Ancient Myth and Religion, Grumento Nova, 05-07 June 2013.

2013, 27/04: “Patrimonio culturale immateriale e strategie locali”. Paper for the workshop Riflessioni sullo stato di attuazione della Convenzione UNESCO per la Salvaguardia del Patrimonio Culturale Immateriale a 10 anni dalla sua adozione. Associazione “Circolo della Zampogna”, Scapoli (IS), 27 April 2013.

2013, 21/02: “Exploring the Power Dimensions of Festivals”. Paper for the congress Playgrounds and Battlefields, University of Tallinn, 19-22 February 2013.

2012, 28/03: “Folk Aesthetics. Notes on – and examples of – the reinterpretation of European folk music traditions in classical and contemporary music genres”. Lecture for the Workshop Melomaania III, University of Tallinn.

2011, 29/10: “Gl’ Cierv di Castelnuovo al Volturno: un carnevale tra passato e modernità”. Paper for the congress Il paesaggio agrario del Molise. Storia, tutela e valorizzazione. Campobasso 20, 23, 29 October 2011.

2011, 25/07: “Alle origini delle etnie”. Lecture for the seminar of Prehistoric studies, C.E.R.P. (Centro Europeo di Ricerche Preistoriche), Isernia.

2011, 10/06: “Mascheramenti zoomorfi”. Paper for the congress Monstra. Costruzione e Percezione delle Entità Ibride e Mostruose nel Mediterraneo Antico. Velletri 8-11 June 2011.

2011, 12/01: “Carnaval ‘de masse’: de la micro-analyse sociale à l’interprétation macro-historique”. Lecture for the seminar of “Ethnologie religieuse de l’Europe”, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.

2010, 14/10 “The Cultural Heritage. Anthropological observations about the social production and use of a category”. Paper for the congress Conservation, Tourism and Risks Management Workshop. Isernia 14-15 October 2010.

2010, 1/10: “Il carnevale di Castelnuovo al Volturno tra storia e costruzione dell’immaginario”. Paper for the congress Essere Contemporanei. Musei, patrimonio, antropologia. Matera, 29 September-2 October 2010

2008, 14/03: “L’anthropologie historique de Jean-Claude Schmitt”. Lecture for the seminar “Ethnologie religieuse de l’Europe”, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris (Annuaire EPHE, Sciences religieuses, n. 116, 2007-2008, p. 273).