About SHARP Lab
The SHARP Lab (Sharing Religious Places, hereinafter SRP) is a network of scholars interested in inter-religious interaction, devoting special attention to its spatial dynamics. It is by definition a trans-disciplinary network, as it brings together historians of religions, geographers, art historians, architects, sociologists, Islamicists, theologians and anthropologists among others. Inspired by an holistic approach towards SRPs, the members of ShaRP LAB meet online once a month, each time approaching the topic of religious sharing from a different angle, in emic, economic, ethnographic and methodological terms in the field of digital humanities.
SRP have highlighted different regimes of coexistence, as holy sites are claimed, used and spatialized by two or more religious groups at once. Sharing should thus be understood as a form of interaction that may vary of time, as SRP can witness peaceful cohabitation and syncretic ritual practices but also turn into an object of contention and lead to conflict and heated confrontations. We thus aim to avoid any aprioristic conception of inter-religious interaction as leaning towards unavoidable conflict or harmonious coexistence, respectively.
We mean “sharing” in a broad sense, as it is not limited to places that spontaneously ended up being attended by several religious groups but also includes sites built ad hoc for fostering inter-religious dialogue (such as inter-faith chapels and rooms). Likewise, the geographical scope of ShaRP LAB is not confined to those areas where shared sites have been already abundantly reported and studied, like the Mediterranean and the Balkans, neither it is meant to focus exclusively on world religions: with the progressive pluralization of the religious panorama, new spiritualities contribute to religious place-making, yet their role in the study of religious diversity.
Who we are
Luca Bossi, University of Turin
holds a PhD in Social and Political Change from the Universities of Turin and Florence, and a PhD in Science of Religions in co-tutorship with the University of Lausanne. His research focuses on religious diversity and secularity in the public and political space, with a focus on minority rights, migration processes and politics/policies of inclusion or exclusion.
Gianfranco Bria, University La Sapienza
is Marie Skłodowska Curie Global Fellow and Professor of Islamic Studies at Roma Tre University; he is also Adjunct Professor of Islamic Law at Sapienza University of Rome and Associate Researcher of the Centre d’études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His research concerns everyday Islamic life (practices, bodies, and beliefs) in the Balkans, and the history of Sufi thought and practices - particularly Bektashi – in Southeastern Europe since the late Ottoman period. He is scientific member of the research project on “Muhammad in the mirror of his community in early and modern Islam” (ANR-DFG, three-years project) and of the project “Red Golden Legend” (ANR- three-years project) .
Daniele Campobenedetto, Polytechnic of Turin
is an architect and Assistant Professor in Architectural and Urban Design at the Department of Architecture and Design of Politecnico di Torino. His research primarily focuses on urban transformation and urban design in European cities, with a specific interest in architectural typologies and urban rules. He actively contributes to the interdisciplinary research center "Future Urban Legacy Lab" as a Research Fellow.
Ioan Cozma, Pontificial University
is an independent researcher and invited professor of Byzantine Canon Law at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. His expertise includes Byzantine canon law, comparative religious law, monasticism, interreligious dialogue, and religious places.
Eleonora D’Alessandro, independent researcher
holds a MA in Byzantine Art History (2015) and Religious Studies (2019) from La Sapienza University of Rome, and a Master in World Heritage and Cultural Projects for Development at the Polytechnic of Turin and the University of Turin in collaboration with UNESCO. Her research explores the interplay between culture, architecture, religious practices and communities. She collaborates with several cultural institutions such as the MAXXI - National Museum of Contemporary Arts in Rome and Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture.
Angelica Federici, FBK
is a Research Fellow at Fondazione Bruno Kessler, in Trento. Her research interests are: Virtual Reality, Religious Art and Architecture; Virtual restoration of liturgical furnishings, art and architecture.
Maria Chiara Giorda, University of Roma Tre
is an Associate Professor of History of Religions at Roma Tre University in Rome. Her research interests are: History of Monasticism, Geography of Religions, Shared Religious Places, and Religious Diversity in Public Spaces.
Giulia Massenz, Polytechnic of Turin
is a PhD Candidate in Urban and Regional Development at the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST) of the Polytechnic of Turin and the University of Turin. Her interests lie at the crossroad between minorities rights, urbanity, secularity, and religions with a particular focus on the interplay between the legal sphere and the spatial realm.
Silvia Omenetto, University La Sapienza
is a Research Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome and scientific collaborator of ISR-FBK. Areas of Interest: religious architectures and geographies (places of worship and cemeteries); Gurudwaras and Sikh Communities in Europe; Shared Religious Places; GIS and Geography of Religions.
Luca Patrizi, University of Turin
teaches History of Islam at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Turin, Italy. He has been a research fellow at the Universities of Geneva, Sorbonne-Paris, Bonn and Exeter. His interests focus on the theological and ethical issues of Islam and on the doctrines and practices of Islamic esotericism.
Carmelo Russo, University La Sapienza
is Assistant Professor in Cultural Anthropology at Sapienza University of Rome. His research interests are: Italian migration and the cult of the Virgin Mary in Tunisia; Religious superdiversity; Religion and Spaces; Religion between transformations and persistence; New spiritual movements.
Giuseppe Tateo, University of Bucharest
is Postdoctoral Fellow at the ICUB University of Bucharest and research fellow at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Trento, Italy). After earning his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, he was postdoctoral fellow in Bucharest, Riga and Prague. Giuseppe’s current project investigates church-building activities in postsocialist Europe in comparative perspective.