Religions, Beliefs, and the Supernatural in Italy and across Italian Mobilities
April 24–25, 2026
Religious practices, policies, tensions, and conflicts have been a defining feature of the construction of the modern Italian state and its struggle to assert a national identity while in the shadow of the Catholic Church. Various religious communities, such as Jews and Waldensians, and most recently Muslims and Buddhists, have had to contend with the dominance of Catholicism in Italy’s political and cultural spheres. Italy’s colonial and imperial projects in Africa and in the Mediterranean racialized religious differences as aspects of warfare and violent subjugation. Religious beliefs and practices have also shaped the ways in which Italian migrants were seen and understood in new environs, especially in Protestant-dominant countries like the United States. This conference builds on recent scholarship in the field of religious studies and Italian mobility studies to explore new avenues of research.
This interdisciplinary conference is open to a wide range of topics concerning religion from an Italian—broadly understood—perspective. As in the past, the Institute’s conference proposes an inclusive approach to Italy and Italian mobilities, including inhabitants of the nation-state, members of the diaspora, current immigrants in Italy and their descendants, and former colonial subjects.
Suggested paper topics include but are not limited to:
- Church-State relations in Italy, e.g., the Roman Question, the Lateran Pacts, Fascism and the Holocaust, the Cold War
- Role of religion in Italian law, e.g., divorce, abortion rights, bans on Muslim prayer spaces
- Religions in Italian colonies and occupied places
- Migrant religious practices and beliefs in Italy and abroad
- Vernacular and political anti-clericalism
- Folk vs official religious exegesis and practice
- Neo-paganism and neo-stregheria
- Disbelief and atheism
- Religion and the arts, e.g., literature, film
- Material culture
- Beliefs about illness and healing practices, e.g., the evil eye, vaccines
- Encounters with supernatural beings, e.g., monacielli, apparitions
- Sacred spaces
- Religious persecution
- Rituals and festivals
- Conceptions of the afterlife
This is an in-person event without virtual presentations.
The official language of the conference is English. All presentations are limited to twenty minutes, including audio and visual illustrations. Thursday evening is dedicated to welcoming comments and reception; sessions and panels will take place all day Friday and Saturday.
Registration Fee: Upon acceptance of your abstract, you will be requested to pay the nonrefundable conference registration fee of $75. This amount includes your one-year subscription to the print version of the Institute’s semiannual, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal Italian American Review.
Nota Bene: There are no available funds for travel, accommodation, or meals. The conference does not make arrangements with local hotels, so participants are responsible for booking their own accommodations.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2025. Abstracts for scholarly papers (up to 500 words, plus a note on technical requirements) and a brief, narrative biography should be emailed as attached documents by September 15, 2025, to [email protected], where other inquiries may also be addressed. We encourage the submission of organized panels (of no more than three presenters). Submission for a panel must be made by a single individual on behalf of the group and must include all the paper titles, abstract narratives, and individual biographies and emails.
Notice of acceptance or rejection will occur in November 2025.