Francesco Piraino

Francesco Piraino is a sociologist of religion, culture, and art. He obtained his PhD in Sociology in 2016 at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), and have held research positions at KU Leuven, CNRS, Ca’ Foscari, and Harvard Divinity School. He is currently Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Bologna, in collaboration with the University of Lausanne and Harvard University (Project “RELIGIOMICS” GA 101149839). He also serves as director of the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations and Spiritualities at the Cini Foundation in Venice. Piraino works on spirituality, esotericism, mysticism, and the relationship between art and religion, especially, but not exclusively, in the Islamic and Sufi frame. He has recently published "Sufism in Europe. Islam, Esotericism, and the New Age" (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) and edited "Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories Comparing and Connecting Old and New Trends" (with Marco Pasi and Egil Asprem, Routledge 2022). 

In this video from the CSWR’s Shorts with Scholars series, learn more about Piraino’s research into "religiomics" – comix infused with esotericism.