Laura Carnevale is an Associate Professor of History of Christianity and the Churches at the Department of Humanities, Research and Innovation of the University of Bari Aldo Moro. She teaches “Sources for the History of Early Christianity,” “Christian Tradition and European Cultures,” “Christianity and Mediterranean Cultures,” and “History of Religions” within the Master’s Degree Programs LM-15, LM-14, LM-1, and the Bachelor’s Degree Program L-10, respectively.
She served as the National Principal Investigator for the FIRB Project “Sacred spaces and identity pathways. Foundation texts, iconography, worship, and traditions in Italian Christian sanctuaries between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages” (2012-2017) and as the Local Unit Coordinator for the PRIN Project “Resilient Septuagint” (nationally coordinated by Davide Dainese, University of Bologna).
She co-directs the journal “Vetera Christianorum” and is a member of numerous academic societies and advisory boards; in particular, she serves on the Executive Board of the SISR (Italian Society for the History of Religions).
She participates, as both a speaker and an organizer, in numerous conferences in Italy, Europe, South Africa, and the United States.
Her publication record includes around one hundred contributions, encompassing monographs, edited volumes, journal articles, reviews, and book chapters. Her research focuses on the history of biblical reception, with a particular emphasis on the figure of Job and the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22; sacred places and pilgrimages, with a special focus on the “sacred space” of Gargano in Apulia; women and female devotions in the history of early Christianity; and Christian cultic traditions of pastoral and popular origin, with specific reference to the cults of Saint Matthew the Apostle and Saint Michael.