Francesco PIRAINO

Francesco Piraino, PhD

francescopiraino84@gmail.com

https://www.francescopiraino.com/en/

 

Work Experience

• Università Ca’ Foscari - Venice, Venice, Italy (November 2020- onward)

Postdoctoral Fellow - Project SPIN - Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea (DSAAM)

• Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy (May 2017 – onward)

Director of the Centre of Comparative Studies on Civilizations and Spiritualities

• Invisible Lines - a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Program (September 2020- September 2022)

Scientific director of the project Invisible Lines  

• IDEMEC (CNRS) Institut d'ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative, Aix-en-Provence, France (January 2020- September 2020)

Postdoctoral Fellow in the project “soufisme en France / soufisme de France”. Ministère de l’intérieur, DLPAJ, Bureau central des cultes.

• KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (September 2017 – September 2019)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO) 

 

Collaborations in International Research Networks

• ANR Project Cirelanmed, IDEMEC – CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France (February 2017)

Research fieldwork for “Circulations religieuses et ancrages méditerranéens. États et internationalisation des faits religieux contemporains. Europe du Sud, Maghreb, Moyen-Orient”

• University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa (November – December 2016)

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Religious Studies, financed by the National Research Fund South Africa

• Centre Jacques Berque CNRS, Rabat, Morocco (April - June 2016) 

Postdoctoral Fellow, financed by the Centre Jacques Berque (CNRS) and the ANR Cirelanmed

 

Teaching

• University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice (February - April 2021)

Course - 30 hours - “Holy Books and Models of Social Organizations”

• EHESS Paris (December 2020- March 2021)

Seminaire de recherche  - 32 hours UE896 - “Universalisations et patrimonialisations du soufisme”

Education and Training

• Scuola Normale Superiore in co-tutorship with École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Italy - France (November 2011 - February 2016). 

PhD thesis title: « Le développement du soufisme en Europe : au-delà de l’antinomie tradition modernité ». Doctor Europaeus, Ph.D. in Sociology, graduated with highest honors; supervisors prof. Vincenzo Pace and Danièle Hervieu-Léger.    

• Lund University, Lund, Sweden (September - October 2012 and September - November 2015)           

Visiting PhD student at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies CMES, supervisor prof. Leif Steinberg

• University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark (January - February 2015)

Visiting PhD student, supervisor prof. Mark Sedgwick

• University of Padua, Padua, Italy (September 2006 - October 2010)

Master in Sociology, final mark: 110 cum laude/110

• Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy (September 2002 - July 2006)

Bachelor in Philosophy, final mark 105/110

 

Photography Training

• Magnum Workshop, Paris, France (20-21 April 2018)

Photographic workshop with Patrick Zachmann and Xavier Barral (Magnum)

• KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (October 2017 – January 2018)

Advanced and intermediate courses of photography at KU Leuven Photographic Club with professor Ivan Derbiesen

Arabic Language Courses

• PEASS - Programme des Études Arabes appliquées au Sciences Sociales – École de Gouvernance et Économie de Rabat (Rabat, Morocco) July 2018 full immersion course, Arabic A1/A2
• KU Leuven CLT, Leuven, Belgium (September 2017 -June 2018) Arabic A1

 

Publications

Books

1. Francesco Piraino. Forthcoming 2021. Le soufisme en Europe : entre Islam, ésotérisme et New Age. Circulations religieuses dans la Méditerranée. Paris: Karthala Collection l’Atelier méditerranéen.

Edited Books

1. Claude Proeschel, David Koussens, and Francesco Piraino (eds). Forthcoming 2021. Religion, Law and the Politics of Ethical Diversity. Conscientious Objection and Contestation of Civil Norms. London: Routledge.
2. Francesco Piraino, Marco Pasi, and Egil Asprem (eds). Forthcoming 2021. Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories. London: Routledge.
3. Andrea De Antoni and Francesco Piraino (eds). Forthcoming 2021. Comparing Experiences of Spirit Possession. Biomedical and Religious Healing. London: Routledge.
4. Mark Sedgwick and Francesco Piraino (eds). Forthcoming 2021. Esoteric Transfers and Constructions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. London: Palgrave. 
5. Francesco Piraino and Mark Sedgwick. 2019. Global Sufism: Reconfiguring Narratives, Boundaries and Identities. London: Hurst. 

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles

1. Francesco Piraino. 2019. “Esotericisation and De-esotericisation of Sufism in Italy”, Correspondences, vol. 7(1): 239-276.
2. Francesco Piraino. 2019. “Les Politiques du Soufisme en France”, Social Compass, 66(1): 134-146.
3. Francesco Piraino and Laura Zambelli. 2018. “Queer Muslims in South Africa: Engaging Islamic Tradition”. Journal for Islamic Studies, 37: 123-147.
4. Francesco Piraino. 2016. “René Guénon et son héritage dans le soufisme du XXIème siècle”, Religiologiques, n. 31 pp. 155-180. 
5. Francesco Piraino. 2016. “Between Real and Virtual Communities: Sufism in Western societies and the Naqshbandi Haqqani case”, Social Compass, vol. 63(1), pp. 93-108. *Awarded Best Article 2017 by the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR)
6. Francesco Piraino and Laura Zambelli. 2015. “Mamma Schiavona and Santa Rosalia, popular worship: between religiosity and identity”, Critical Research on Religion, vol. 3(3), pp. 266-281. http://crr.sagepub.com/content/3/3/266.short
7. Francesco Piraino. 2011. “Entrare nel sé divino: un confronto etnografico tra mistica cristiana e mistica musulmana”, Religioni e Società, vol. 71, pp. 97-105.

Peer-Reviewed Chapters in Edited Books

1. Francesco Piraino. (forthcoming 2021). “The Eurasia Network: Riding the Conspiracist Tiger in Contemporary Italy” in Francesco Piraino, Marco Pasi, and Egil Asprem (eds). Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories. London: Routledge.
2. Francesco Piraino. (forthcoming 2021). “The Sufi Shaykh and His Patients: Merging Islam, Psychoanalysis, and Western Esotericism” in Mark Sedgwick and Francesco Piraino. Esoteric Transfers and Constructions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. London: Palgrave.
3. Francesco Piraino and Antonio de Diego González. (forthcoming 2020). “Sufism in Latin Europe” in Marcia Hermansen and Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, Encyclopaedia of Islamic Mysticism - Handbook of Sufi Studies. Leiden: Brill.
4. Francesco Piraino. (forthcoming 2020). “Pèlerinages, voyages et ziyārāt soufis entre Nord et Sud de la Méditerranée : différents modes d’ancrages religieux et social”, in Katia Boissevain et Loïc le Pape, De la complexité des chemins religieux en Méditerranée. Conversions, apprentissages et ancrages. Paris: Khartala.
5. Francesco Piraino. 2019. “Who is the Infidel? Religious boundaries and social change in the Shadhiliyya Darqawiyya Alawiyya” in Francesco Piraino and Mark Sedgwick, Global Sufism: Reconfiguring Narratives, Boundaries and Identities. London: Hurst, pp. 75-92.
6. Francesco Piraino. 2017. “Pilgrimages in European Sufism”, in Richard Natvig and Ingvild Flaskereud (eds), Muslim Pilgrimage in Europe. London – New York: Routledge, pp- 157-169.
7. Francesco Piraino and Laura Zambelli. 2014. “Mamma Schiavona and Santa Rosalina: tra religiosità e identità”, in Pace V., Berzano L. and Castagnaro A. (eds), La religione popolare nella società post-secolare. Padova: Messaggero, pp. 319-332.
8. Francesco Piraino 2014. “European Sufism and its Social and Political Role. The Fluidity of Identities”, in Erkan Toguslu, Ding Yuan and Johan Leman (eds), Developing a sense of Belonging in Diverse Societies: Hui-Muslims in China and Muslims in Europe, Workshop Proceedings, KU Leuven Gulen Chair, pp. 171-185. 

Other Publications

1. Francesco Piraino. 2019. « Sufismo d’Europa, Sufismo in Europa ». Rivista Oasis
2. Francesco Piraino. (2019). Review “Alireza Doostdar. 2018. The Iranian Metaphysicals Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny". Princeton: Princeton University Press, Aries, pp. 301-302 
3. Francesco Piraino. 2016. Review Le soufisme au Maroc : entre mysticisme et politique. Review: “Bouasria, Abdelilah. 2015. Sufism and Politics in Morocco, Activism and Dissent. New York: Routledge”, Société Suisse Moyen-Orient et Civilisation islamique (SSMOCI), Bulletin 42, pp. 54-55.
4. Francesco Piraino. 2014. “Bruno Guiderdoni—Among Sufism, Traditionalism and Science: A Reply to Bigliardi”. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, vol. 3(11), pp. 21-24. 

As a Photographer

1. Francesco Piraino. 2018. “Queering a Mary Icon: a photographic tour of a religious pilgrimage in Southern Italy”. Mr Ma’am 2018, pp. 37-42.
2. Francesco Piraino. 2017. Pictures in Andrea Brigaglia and Mauro Nobili (eds), The Arts and Crafts of Literacy: Islamic Manuscripts in Cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 331-352.

Prizes Awarded

• Best Article Award 2017 – ISSR/SISR International Society for the Sociology of Religion.

For the article Francesco Piraino (2016) “Between Real and Virtual Communities: Sufism in Western societies and the Naqshbandi Haqqani case”, Social Compass, vol. 63(1), pp. 93-108, 900 EUR.

• Merit scholarship 2016 – Giorgio Cini Foundation, 1,000 EUR

 

Conferences Organized

“Contesting in the Name of Religion in “Secularised” Societies Between Doctrine and Militancy” in collaboration with Claude Proeschel (GSRL EPHE-CNRS) David Koussens (Université de Sherbrooke) Valérie Amiraux (Université de Montréal) Frédéric Volpi (Edinburgh University), Venice 4-5 April 2019.

“Embodying Scientific Medicine and Religious Healing, A Comparative Perspective on Exorcism and Non-Voluntary Spirit Possession” in collaboration with prof. Andrea De Antoni (Ritsumeikan University - Kyoto) at Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 13-14-15 December 2018.

 “Common and Comparative Esotericisms” in collaboration with Mark Sedgwick (Aarhus University) and Dilek Sarmis (EHESS) at Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 12-13-14 June 2018.

“Political Islam in Europe” in collaboration with Mohammed Ben Salah (Mohammed VI University) and Khalid Rhazzali (Padua University) at Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 15-16 December 2017.

“Transnational Sufism in contemporary Societies: reconfiguring narratives, identities and boundaries” in collaboration with Mark Sedgwick (Aarhus University) at Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 10-11-12 November 2017.

Conferences Attended

ISSR - International Society for the Sociology of Religion

University of Barcelona (9-12 July 2019). Paper presented: “A Sufi Network in the Transnational Public Sphere”. 

7th Biannual Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism 

University of Amsterdam (2-4 July 2019). Paper presented: “Understanding Dreams: Sufism and Psychoanalysis in Milan”.

117th Conference of the American Anthropological Association

San José (San Francisco) (14-18/11/2018). Paper presented: “Sufism and Politics in North Africa: Between Powers and Societies”.

14ème Congrès national de science politique 

University of Montpellier (10-12/07/2017). Paper presented: “Soufisme et politique”.

ISSR - International Society for the Sociology of Religion

University of Lausanne (4-7/07/2017). Paper presented: “Soufisme, politique et écologie”.

6th Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism ESSWE - Western Esotericism and Deviance

University of Erfurt (1-3/06/2017). Paper presented: “Negotiating Orthodoxy and Deviance Among Sufi Orders in Milan”.

Circulations religieuses et ancrages méditerranéens, Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain IRMC

Tunis (23-24/11/2016). Paper presented: “Au-delà des frontières du croire : le soufisme transnational”.

First Euro-Arab Meeting for Young Researchers in Social Sciences 

Knowledge Transfer Project Manama, Bahrein (19-25/10/2015). Paper presented: “Le développement du soufisme en Europe: éthiques et politiques”.

International Society for Media, Religion and Culture  

University of Kent, Canterbury (4-6/08/2014). Paper presented: “Sufism in western societies, between real and virtual communities: an overview and the Naqshbandi Haqqani case”.

Developing a sense of belonging in diverse societies: Muslims in Europe and Hui-Muslims in China 

University of Leuven, Belgium (14/05/2014). Paper presented: “The fluid identities in European Sufism and its social and political role”.

Pilgrimages in European Islam 

University of Bergen (03-03/10/2013). Paper presented: “Pilgrimages in European Sufism”.

Witchcraft, Magic and Popular Religion XI Gustav Vasa Seminar  

University of Jyväskylä (11-12/06/2013). Paper presented: “Mamma Schiavona and Santa Rosalia: between identity and spirituality”.

La religione popolare nella società post secolare  

University of Padua (19-20/10/2012). Paper presented: “Santa Rosalia e Mamma Schiavona: tra religiosità e identità”.

 

Seminars and Lectures

De la fabrique des autorités religieuses CHERPA – IREMAM – IDEMEC, invited by Katia Boissevain, Marie-Laure Boursin, Norig Neveu, Sabrina Mervin and Franck Fregosi, “Des parcours, formation et présentation de soi des maîtres soufis” (CNRS-Science Po Aix-en-Provence, 29/11/2018).

IDEMEC – CNRS, “Le soufisme méditerranéen dans la sphère publique : entre diplomatie et realpolitik” (Aix-en-Provence, 12/10/2018).

CISMOC - Louvain-la-Neuve, invited by Brigitte Maréchal, “Les politiques du soufisme entre l’Europe et le Maghreb” (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 30/05/2018).

KU Leuven, invited by Dick Houtman, “Sufism and Islam” (KU Leuven, Belgium, 24/04/2018).

Une Méditerranée connectée. Anthropologie des religions et introduction aux humanitées numériques. Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain IRMC, (Tunis, Tunisia, 26-30/11/2016). 

Université Moulay Ismaïl de Meknès, invited by Khalid Mouna and Mohammed Fadil 

« Conversion à l’Islam pour une sociologie des conversions » (Meknès, Morocco, 16/05/2016).

Université International de Rabat – Science Po Rabat, invited by Sophie Bava and Farid El Asri « Soufisme contemporain : éthiques et politiques entre le Maghreb et l'Europe » (Rabat, Morocco, 20/04/2016).

Centre Jacques Berque de Rabat – CNRS, invited by Sabrina Mervin

« Soufisme et politique entre Europe et Maghreb » (Rabat, Morocco, 19/04/2016).

Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, invited by Leif Stenberg 

“European Sufism: Ethics and Politics” (Lund, Sweden, 13/11/2015).

Research Group CIRELANMED - Circulation religieuses et ancrages méditerranéens. États et internationalisation des faits religieux contemporains. Europe du Sud, Maghreb, Moyen-Orient

“Les pèlerinages dans le soufisme européen” (Padua, Italy, 6-7/11/2015).

University of Padua, “Master Islam d’Europa”, invited by Enzo Pace and Khalid Rhazzali

“Introduzione al Sufismo, Sufismo europeo”, (Padua, Italy, 18/04/2013).

Aarhus University, invited by Henrik Reintoft Christensen

“Sociology of religion, sociology of conversion” (Aarhus, Denmark, 24/02/2015).

Aarhus University, invited by Mark Sedgwick

“Pathways of religious conversion in European Sufism” (Aarhus, Denmark, 12/02/2015).

University of Southern Denmark, invited by Dietrich Jun and Mark Sedgwick

“Modern Muslim Subjectivities” (Odense, Denmark, 20/01/2015). 

University of Padua, “Master Islam d’Europa”, invited by Enzo Pace and Khalid Rhazzali

“I pellegrinaggi nel Sufismo europeo” (Padua, Italy, 23/10/2013).

École Pratique des Hautes Études, invited by Jean Pierre Brach

“René Guénon et son héritage dans le Soufisme du XXIème siècle” (Paris, France, 02/06/2013).

American University of Paris, invited by Waddick Doyle 

“Religious Conversions and construction of self-identity: between theory and fieldwork” (Paris, France, 19/04/2013).

Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, invited by Leif Stenberg 

“Sufism among European converts” (Lund, Sweden, 31/10/2013).

Funding Awarded

Total funding awarded: 639,000 EUR

SPIN Project Ca’ Foscari, 104,000 EUR. 

Invisible Lines Project - Creative Europe  200,000 EUR. 

Ministère de l’intérieur, DLPAJ, Bureau central des cultes, 80,000 EUR. 

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, 200,000 EUR. 

ESSWE, Travel Grant, May 2017, (Germany), 300 EUR.

Cirelanmed CNRS – Aix-en Provence, Research Grant, January-February 2017, (France), 2,000 EUR.

Cape Town University, Research Grant, November 2016 (South Africa), 19,520 ZAR.

Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Merit Scholarship, July 2016 (Italy), 1,000 EUR.

Cirelanmed CNRS – Aix-en Provence, Research Grant, April-June 2016, (France), 3,400 EUR. 

Centre Jacques Berque CNRS – Rabat, Research Grant, April 2016, (France-Morocco), 800 EUR.

Padua University, Travel Grant, November 2015 (Italy), 600 EUR.

Lerici Foundation, Research Grant, September-November 2015, (Sweden), 20,000 SEK.

AUFF Guest Aarhus University, Researcher Grant, January-February 2015 (Denmark), 20,000 DKK.

Erasmus traineeship, January-February 2015, (European Union), 900 EUR. 

Scuola Normale Superiore, PhD Scholarship 2011-2014, (Italy), 40,950 EUR.

 

Collaborations

Member of the AAA (2018 – onward) 

American Anthropological Association (www.americananthro.org)

Founding Member of ENSIE (2016 – onward) 

European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE), a thematic network of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE, www.esswe.org).

Founding Member of the ICSOR (2016 – onward) 

International Centre for Sociology of Religion, http://www.icsor.it/statuto/. 

Member of the AFSP (2017 – onward)

Association Française de Science Politique, http://www.afsp.info/.

Member of the ISSR (2017 – onward) 

International Society for the Sociology of Religion, https://www.sisr-issr.org/fr/.  

Photographic Exhibition

Sufis: A Look at the Mystics of Contemporary Islam, Kif Kif, Anterp, Belgium October 2019- Febrary 2020 https://kifkif.be/sufism-exhibition 

Other information

 

Language Skills:

Italian: native speaker.  

English: fluent (C1)

French: fluent (C1)

Arabic: (A2), but I am improving. 

IT Skills:

Excellent knowledge of Mac and Windows operating systems.

Excellent knowledge of Office packages (Word, Excel, Power Point).

Good Knowledge of SPSS – statistical data analysis. 

Good Knowledge of Photoshop – Photography post-production.