Research: METHODIST EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN ITALY IN THE YEARS OF FASCISM
PERSONAL DATA
He graduated in Modern Literature in 1999 (110 cum laude) at the University of Padua, with a thesis on seasonal migrations between the mountains and the Venetian plain in the modern age. Thesis which, in the same year, received two national awards for the best thesis in local history.
He then obtained the Specialization Diploma for Secondary Teaching (Linguistic-Literary address) in 2008 at the University of Ferrara (SSIS Emilia Romagna).
Subsequently (between 2009 and 2011) he perfected his studies on new technologies, information and multimedia, in the didactic field, through two first level university masters at the University of Teramo; the Leonardo da Vinci telematic University (online campus of the "G. D'Annunzio" State University of Chieti) and a training course in I.C.T. Information and Communication Technology funded by the Erasmus Project) at the University of Limerick in Ireland.
He has collaborated with some local and cultural bodies for the realization of historical-documentary exhibitions, the creation of a historical-local documentation center and for the dissemination of themes of local culture and history.
Furthermore, he collaborates with a local magazine for the publication of themes relating to the history of the Venetian territory and with a municipal library for book reviews, through social channels.
He has participated, as a speaker, in some conferences on issues relating to the First War of Independence in the territory of the northern part of the province of Padua, the seasonal migrations between the Pre-Alps and the Venetian plain, the continuity of frequentation of pagan sacred places in the Christian age, the origins of Methodism in Veneto.
He has published several studies and researches relating to the territory of the northern part of the province of Padua in the modern age, to transhumant pastoralism, to the relationship between pagan cults and Marian devotion in a sanctuary in the Venetian Pre-Alps, to early Christianity in the Paduan territory, to the Methodist Church of Padua in the years of fascism.
He is currently a full-time professor of Italian Literature and History (class A012: Literary disciplines in secondary education institutions of II degree)
Member of SISSCO (Italian Society for the Study of Contemporary History)
Member of SSV (Waldensian Studies Society)
CURRENT RESEARCH FIELDS
- History of Italian Methodism
- Italian Protestantism in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century
- The Resistance in the Veneto
RESEARCH PROJECT:
"The Methodist Evangelical Churches in Italy in the years of the "black eddy": between nicomedism and militant anti-fascism, networks of relationships and cover-ups (1919-1945)"
Tutor: Prof. Alessio Gagliardi
ABSTRACT
Focused on the period from the birth of the fascist movement to the end of the Second World War, this research aims to account for the complex (and largely unexplored) links between Italian Methodism and fascism from an international and interdenominational point of view.
The research starts from a different perspective than the historiography on the subject which, until now, has been almost limited to the examination of documentation produced by central offices of the Public Administration and therefore kept in the Central State Archives. In this way, however, it has forcibly renounced using other archives. First of all the provincial state archives, many of which preserve detailed documentation concerning the surveillance and police repression of local churches, and then the ecclesiastical archives of the Methodist Church, both at central and local level. In particular, as regards that source, not yet investigated, consisting of the correspondence, both private and with the central organs of one's own Church or with other ecclesial authorities, of Methodist pastors (and more generally of those who had similar roles ). Documentation that involves a difficult investigation, given the breadth of the selected material, and the delicate issues it poses (especially in relation to the existing bibliography). Finally, this research also takes into account oral evidence, of course not taken uncritically but related to archival documentation also coming from private archives.