Lilian Regina GONCALVES DINIZ

Position
Researcher
E-mail
lilian.diniz@unive.it
ucf.021420@unive.it - GONCALVES DINIZ Lilian Regina
Scientific sector (SSD)
Civiltà bizantina [HELL-01/C]
Website
www.unive.it/people/lilian.diniz (personal record)
Office
Department of Humanities
Website: https://www.unive.it/dep.humanities
Where: Malcanton Marcorà

Dr. Lilian R. G. Diniz is a historian specializing in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, with a particular focus on religious transformation, cultural hybridity, and gendered practices of piety. She holds a PhD in European Social History from the Università di Padova in cotutelle with Universität Wien, and has held research positions across leading institutions in Europe, including the Freie Universität Berlin, the Madrid Institute for Advanced Study, and the RomanIslam Center in Hamburg. She is currently a Research Fellow (RTDa) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and a recipient of the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship (2025), which will support her upcoming project across Northern Illinois University and Ca’ Foscari.

Her work examines the intersections of popular religion, material culture, and subversion in post-Roman societies, with particular attention to women’s roles in religious life, healing, and magic. Dr. Diniz’s publications explore topics ranging from female incantations in Caesarius of Arles to religious hybridity in early medieval Gaul and Iberia. Her research has garnered international recognition, including the 2024–2025 Heidi Marx Prize awarded to the best essay on the ambit of medicine in late antiquity. She is currently editing volumes on female religious experience and contributes actively to scholarly networks on medieval Mediterranean studies and gendered religious practices.

Grants and fellowships

2025 – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship (European Commission)
€407,584.02 – Project based at Northern Illinois University (USA) and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy).
2025 – Italian Ministry of University and Research – Young Researchers Grant
€220,150.00 – Funding for independent research project.
2022 – Teaching Grant, Berlin University Alliance
€1,410.00 – For the seminar “Apostasy – past and present implications” (Freie Universität Berlin).
2021 – François Chevalier Residence Fellowship, MIAS (Madrid Institute for Advanced Study)
€3,000.00 – Three-month research residency.
2021 – Junior Fellowship, RomanIslam Center, University of Hamburg
€5,340.00 – Two-month research stay.
2019 – DAAD PRIME Postdoctoral Fellowship (Germany)
€73,332.00 – Research mobility based at Freie Universität Berlin with outgoing phase at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.