Video: Catholicism as Movement: Affective Histories & Political Life Forms, Dr. Valentina Napolitano

Gnoseologies host, Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani engaged in conversation with Dr. Valentina Napolitano on themes of contemporary Catholicism, focusing on the "Atlantic Return", Pope Francis and migrants' (im)mobility highlighting the "heart" as political, historical and affective life forms. This conversation presented multiple aspects of Prof. Napolitano’s current research and, among others, modes of academic practice that explore unknowing and ‘epistemic humility’ in attending to ethnographic, political/theopolitical  and religious dynamics, the ‘divine’ and social justice.

Valentina Napolitano is an anthropologist, author, professor at the University of Toronto, and Connaught Scholar whose interdisciplinary work bridges thresholds of sensory experience, place, and history. She is the author of multiple monographs and edited collections. Her current research explores mysticism and political theology, borderlands, and holy infrastructures, while drawing on her Italian, trans-Mediterranean, English, and Canadian inheritances alongside her son, Kamau.