Valerio Salvatore Severino
Curriculum vitae
Surname, Given Name: Severino, Valerio Salvatore
Birth: April 2th, 1972, in Rome (Italy)
Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Department of History, Cultures and
Religions - Research Fellow
[email protected]
Academic training
2002 – 2005 Ph.D. in “Religious History” at the University of Rome “La
Sapienza”. Competitive examination: classified first. Dissertation title Italia
religiosa. Percorsi nella vita di Ernesto de Martino [Religious Italy. Stages in
Ernesto de Martino’s Intellectual Life], supervisor prof. Enrico Montanari.
Commission appreciation for the “originality of the research and
methodological competence” (April 2005);
1997 – 2000 Studies in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Rome “La
Sapienza”. Graduation in July 2000. Degree thesis supervisor prof. Marco
Maria Olivetti. Graduated summa cum laude;
1992 – 1996 Studies in History of Religions at the University of Rome “La
Sapienza”, Department of Religious Studies (Dipartimento di Studi storicoreligiosi). Graduation in December 1996 – Degree thesis supervisor prof.
Dario Sabbatucci. Graduated summa cum laude.
Research
Main fields of research:
- History of scientific study of religions in Italian culture: prominent scholars
(Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883-1959), Ernesto de Martino (1908-1965), Ernesto
Buonaiuti (1881-1946), Pietro Tacchi Venturi (1861-1956), Angelo De
Gubernatis (1840-1913)); academic disciplines; relations between the Italian
State and the Catholic Church; relations between politics and intellectuals;
- Religion and Politics: political and civil religion in Italy (fascist political
liturgy, cult of the fatherland);
- Religion and Art: Italian Novecentismo (First half of the 20th Century); Video
Art.
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Experiences:
2001 research conducted in the historical archive of the Istituto dell’Enciclopedia
Italiana (Rome) and the Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu (Rome).
Research supervisor prof. Margarete Durst (University of Rome Tor
Vergata);
2002 – 2003 research conducted in the historical archive of the Italian Communist
Party, Ideological Commission (Fondazione - Istituto Gramsci, Rome).
Research supervisor prof. Albertina Vittoria (University of Sassari);
2003 – 2004 research conducted in visual anthropology, archive of Archivio Diego
Carpitella (University of Rome La Sapienza) and the National Museum of
Popular Arts and Traditions (Roma). Collaboration with dr. Emilia De
Simone (Museo delle Arti e Tradizioni popolari, Rome);
2007 – 2008 National Academy of Lincei (Rome) – Raffaele Pettazzoni scholarship
for studies in the History of Religions. Research project: critical edition of
Pettazzoni’s scientific last notes, manuscripts 1957-1959, “Fondo
Pettazzoni”, “G.C. Croce” library archive in San Giovanni in Persiceto
(Bologna, Italy). Research supervisor prof. Enrico Montanari (University of
Rome La Sapienza);
2009 EASR (European Association for the Study of Religions) Bursary;
2009 – 2010 Luigi Salvatorelli Foundation (Marsciano - Perugia, Italy). Research
scholarship in the History of religions. Competitive examination: classified
first. Project topic: The Study of Religions in the Italian Universities: from
the Abolition of the Theological Faculties (1883) to the Lateran Treaty
(1929). Archival research: Ministry of Public Education’s historical archive,
Central Archive of the State (Rome);
2011 February - April: Archivio Cesare Cattaneo’s Research programme.
Research conducted in Franco Ciliberti’s archive (Como, Italy). Project
topic: Novecentismo art movement and religious studies in the early 20th
century. Supervisor prof. Natale Spineto (History of Religions, University
of Turin);
2012 March: research conducted in Angelo De Gubernatis’s archive (National
Library of Florence (Italy). Project topic: Early Italian History of Religions
Comparative Studies in the European Context. Supervisor prof. Natale
Spineto (History of Religions, University of Turin);
2013 Researches on the political liturgy of the fascist sanctuaries conducted in
Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Central Archives of the State) in Rome, in
particular the archives of the Italian President of the Council of Ministers
(period 1918-1942) and of the Ministry of Interior; also in the archives of
the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento (Central Risorgimento’s Museum),
located at Rome’s Vittoriano, as well as in the Museo Nazionale di Castel S.
Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel’s National Museum);
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2014 Researches on the civil ritual of the Roll Call of the dead performed in
Poland, conducted in Warsaw in the Biblioteka Uniwersytecka BUW and in
the Biblioteka Narodowa. Supervisor prof. Zbigniew Mikołejko (National
Polish Academy of Sciences - IFiS PAN Institute of Philosophy and
Sociology, Department of Religious Studies);
2015 Research project Polish and Italian Historians of Religions between the Destalinization and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Issues of
Religious Historiography in Scholarly Correspondences, Department of
Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish
Academy of Sciences (Warsaw);
2015 SISR (Italian Association for the Study of Religions) Bursary.
Teaching:
University of Rome La Sapienza – former Department of Religious Studies
(now Department of History, Cultures and Religions)
2003 - 2005: teaching assistant, Chair of History of Religions.
From December 2005: Research Fellow (Cultore della materia) in the “History of
Religions” at the University of Rome La Sapienza;
Courses taught: History of Religions
December 2005 - January 2006: The Interdisciplinary Research in
Ernesto de Martino’s Approach towards Italian Folk Traditions;
December 2006 - January 2007: Psychic Powers and the Modern
Concept of Reality in Ernesto de Martino’s Studies in Primitive
Magic;
December 2007 - January 2008: Dirge Symbolism and Death Rituals
in Ernesto de Martino’s Studies in Southern Italian Traditions.
2007 March – July: supervisor of the accord Erasmus/Socrates European Mobility
Program with the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) – Area: “History and
Sciences of Religions”
2009 February – March: scientific seminars at the Auditorium Parco della Musica
(Rome). Collaboration between the International Association Ernesto de Martino
and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” – Central Research projects and cultural
events office;
From December 2005 to November 2012: member and teaching assistant,
examination committee, History of Religions;
From July 2006 to January 2013: Degree theses supervisor and assistant supervisor
of bachelor and master in Religious Studies.
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Polish Academy of Sciences and University of Warsaw
May 2014 guest lecture at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies “Artes
Liberales” at the University of Warsaw, Poland (Histoire religieuse des larmes.
L’oeuvre de Ernesto de Martino);
June 2014 guest lecture at the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of
Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (The Pathologies of
the Sacred in State Religions. Raffaele Pettazzoni's Studies on the Failure of
Secularization in Italian History).
Recent conferences
XXI World Congress - International Association for the History of Religions Erfurt August 2015 - Panel Chair: Nationalism, Transnationalism, Globalization:
Dynamics of Civil Religions - Thematic congress area Religious Communities in
Society: Adaptation and Transformation
I° National Congress of the Italian Society for the History of Religions [Società
Italiana di Storia delle Religioni] - Roma, La Sapienza, 8-9 April 2016 La Storia
delle religioni e la sfida dei pluralismi. – Panel Chair: Altro, Totalmente Altro,
alterità: tematiche del plurale nelle religioni
Editorial activities
- “Storia, Antropologia, Storia del linguaggio” [History, Anthropology, Language
sciences] University of Cassino (Italy), ISSN 0394-74 – Advisory Board since
2010;
- “Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni” University of Rome “La Sapienza”,
Department of History, Cultures, Religions: Peer Reviewer since 2010; Editorial
Secretariat since 2014
- “Mundus – on line journal of the Ernesto de Martino International Association
(Rome)” - Advisory Board since 2015 (work in progress)
Memberships
- Italian Society for the History of Religions (SISR, Rome) affiliated to the
International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) – member since
2007;
- Ernesto de Martino International Association (Rome) – member since 2002.
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List of publications
A) Monograph
In progress Violenza e Cristianesimo nell’Italia fascista [Violence and Christianity in the
Fascist Italy]. Quaderni di Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni.
Brescia: Morcelliana
2009 La religione di questo mondo in Raffaele Pettazzoni [“The Religion of this
World” in Raffaele Pettazzoni’s Works]. Roma: Bulzoni, 194 pp. [ISBN:
978-88-7870-449-7]
Reviews of the book:
NUMEN (International Review for the History of Religions [Journal of the International
Association for the History of Religions]), 58 (2011): 129-151 (English);
RELIGION (international journal) 41 (2011, 2): 297-299 (English);
STUDIA PATAVINA [Journal of Religious Sciences – Pontifical University – Padova
(Italy)], 57 (2010, 2): 681-686 (Italian);
MYTHOS [Review of History of Religions – University of Palermo (Italy)], 18 (2011):
224-228 (Italian);
STORIA ANTROPOLOGIA E SCIENZE DEL LINGUAGGIO [Journal of the University
of Cassino (Italy)], 2010: 122-126 (Italian);
RELIGIONE E SOCIETÀ [Journal of Social Sciences of Religion], 76 (2013, 2): 102-109
(Italian).
B) Other publications
1.2015 Editoriale. Scienza, religione, razza nell’Italia degli anni Trenta. In: Alberto
Latorre (ed.), Il carteggio Zolli-Pettazzoni (1925-1952). Vicende,
collaborazioni, cautele. Department of History, Cultures, Religions.
University of Rome La Sapienza. Brescia: Morcelliana: 5-12.
2.2015 Il Sacrificio dell’immagine in Bill Viola. Appunti sulla rappresentazione del
sacro nell’arte elettronica [The Sacrifice of the Image in Bill Viola’s Art.
Notes on the Representation of the Sacred in Video Art]. In: Le religioni e le
arti [Religion and Art], eds. Sergio Botta – Tessa Canella. Department of
History, Cultures, Religions. University of Rome La Sapienza. Brescia:
Morcelliana: 296-308.
3.2015 La dittatura della presenza. Aspetti politici del concetto di sciamano in
Ernesto de Martino [The Dictatorship of the “Presence”. Political Aspects of
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the Concept of “Shaman” in Ernesto de Martino’s Works]. In: Sciamanesimo
Sciamanesimi. Un problema storiografico [Shamanism and Shamanisms. An
Historiographical Inquiry], eds. Luca Arcari and Alessandro Saggioro.
Roma: Nuova Cultura: 81-93;
4.2015 Cavalli di Troia e rifugi. Fenomenologia e storicismo intorno al Congresso
IAHR Marburgo 1960. Dall’epistolario di Vittorio Lanternari e Mircea
Eliade [Trojan horses and refuges. Phenomenology and Historicism at the
IAHR Congress Marburg 1960. Vittorio Lanternari – Mircea Eliade
epistolary correspondence], STORIOGRAFIA. RIVISTA ANUALE DI
STORIA, vol. 18:169-183
5.2014 For a secular return to the sacred: Raffaele Pettazzoni's last statement on the
name of the science of religions, RELIGION (Journal), vol. 44: 1-23 [ISSN:
0048-721X]
6.2014 Irresponsabilità e comunità nel culto della morte patriottica. La tradizione
degli Altari della Patria [Irresponsibility and Community in the Patriotic
Death Worship. The Tradition of the Altar of the Fatherland], STUDI E
MATERIALI DI STORIA DELLE RELIGIONI, vol. 80, 1: 388-404 [ISSN:
0393-8417]
7.2014 Angelo De Gubernatis al primo congresso internazionale di Storia delle
religioni. Rappresentanza e percezione degli studi italiani nella Francia di
fine Ottocento. [Angelo De Gubernatis at the First International Congress of
History of Religions. The Representation and Reception of the Italian Studies
in 19th Century France]. In: La storiografia storico-religiosa italiana tra la
fine dell’800 e la seconda guerra mondiale [The Italian Studies of History of
Religions between the End of the 19th Century and the Second World War.
A Historiographical Approach], eds. Mario Mazza and Natale Spineto.
Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso: 11-25 [ISBN 978-88-6274-544-4]
8. 2012 Cronaca della prima ricezione de Il mondo magico (Italia, 1948-1955)
[Early Reception of Ernesto de Martino’s The Magic World (Italy, 19481955)]. QUADERNI DI STORIA, ANTROPOLOGIA E SCIENZE DEL
LINGUAGGIO, vol. 14: 167-204;
9. 2012 Note e riflessioni sull'edizione brelichiana de Gli ultimi appunti [Annotations
and Reflections on Angelo Brelich’s Edition of Raffaele Pettazzoni’s “Last
Notes”]. In: AAVV. Il mistero che rivelato ci divide e sofferto ci unisce.
Studi pettazzoniani in onore di Mario Gandini. Milano and Udine: Mimesis:
497-505 [ISBN: 9788857513539]
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10. 2011 –
Le mur de la laïcité (1961). Histoire des religions et sécularisation de
l'histoire en Italie [The Wall of laïcité (1961). History of Religions and
Secularization of History in Italy]. STUDI E MATERIALI DI STORIA DELLE
RELIGIONI, vol. 77: 100-118 [ISSN: 0393-8417]
11. 2011 Il contraltare della patria. Cristianesimo e laicità nel monumento alla Terza
Roma (1870-1935)[The Counter-altar of the Fatherland. Christianity and
Secularization of the Monument to the Third Rome (1870-1935)]. STORIA,
ANTROPOLOGIA E SCIENZE DEL LINGUAGGIO, vol. 26: 407-466 [ISSN:
0394-7963]
12. 2011 Il Mito delle analogie sommerse. Novecentismo letterario e storia delle
religioni in Franco Ciliberti (1929-1934) [The Myth of the Submerged
Analogies. The Literary Novecentismo and History of Religions in Franco
Ciliberti’s Works (1929-1934)]. In: È Dio il vero tema. Cesare Cattaneo e il
sacro, ed. Maria Antonietta Crippa and Damiano Cattaneo. Como: Archivio
Cattaneo Editore: 141-162 [ISBN 978-88-905349-0-4]
13. 2011 Ciliberti, Franco. Panteismo e Pessimismo nello sviluppo delle religioni
eurasiatiche (1929) [Pantheism and Pessimism in the Development of
Religions in Eurasia. A critical edition], ed. Valerio Salvatore Severino. In: È
Dio il vero tema. Cesare Cattaneo e il sacro, ed. Maria Antonietta Crippa
and Damiano Cattaneo. Como: Archivio Cattaneo Editore: 164-181 [ISBN
978-88-905349-0-4]
14. 2010 "Chi siamo": nascita e presupposti di una collana editoriale (1969-1975)
[“Chi siamo”: the Birth and Premises of an Editorial Series (1969-1975)]. In:
AAVV. Scritti in onore di Gilberto Mazzoleni. Roma: Bulzoni: 331-345
[ISBN: 978-88-7870-489-3]
15. 2010 –
Soggetto e origine della realtà nell'interpretazione storico-religiosa del mito
[Subject and Origin of the Reality in Historical-Religious Interpretation of
Myth]. In: AAVV. Storia delle religioni e archeologia. Discipline a
confronto. Roma. Alpes: 281-295 [ISBN: 978-88-653-1026-7]
16. 2009 –
Religione del presente versus tempo della presenza [Religion of the Present
versus the Time of Presence]. STORIA, ANTROPOLOGIA E SCIENZE DEL
LINGUAGGIO, vol. 24: 159-172 [ISSN: 0394-7963]
17. 2008 Carteggi sulla Storia del magismo di Ernesto de Martino. Dal laboratorio
del "mondo magico" [Correspondence regarding Ernesto de Martino’s
History of Magic. The Preparations of the “Magic World”]. STORIOGRAFIA,
vol. 12: 39-49 [ISSN: 1128-2339]
18. 2007 -
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La dialettica del pensiero primitivo in Raffaele Pettazzoni (1957-1959)[The
Dialectics of Primitive Thought in Raffaele Pettazzoni’s Studies]. MYTHOS.
RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLE RELIGIONI, vol. 13-14: 199-214 [ISSN: 19722516]
19. 2007 Una recente pubblicazione su Mircea Eliade a un secolo dalla sua nascita
(1907-2007) [A Recent Publication on Mircea Eliade at 100th Anniversary of
his Birth (1907-2007)]. STUDI E MATERIALI DI STORIA DELLE
RELIGIONI, vol. 73: 395-408 [ISSN: 0393-8417]
20. 2006 –
«Ricerche religiose» e «Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni»: il sorgere
simultaneo di due riviste [“Ricerche religiose” and “Studi e materiali di storia
delle religioni”: a Simultaneous Arise of two Periodicals]. STUDI E
MATERIALI DI STORIA DELLE RELIGIONI , vol. 72: 45-63 [ISSN: 03938417]
21. 2004 La ragione storica dei colori. Ernesto de Martino: 1959-1961 [The
Humanistic Reason of Chromatic Symbology. Ernesto de Martino: 19591961]. STORIOGRAFIA, vol. 8: 177-184 [ISSN: 1128-2339]
22. 2004 Da Raffaele Pettazzoni a Carlo Alberto Blanc. Una premeditata successione
all'incarico di Etnologia [From Raffaele Pettazzoni to Carlo Alberto Blanc.
A Premeditated Succession in the Ethnology]. STUDI E MATERIALI DI
STORIA DELLE RELIGIONI, vol. 70: 397-412 [ISSN: 0393-8417]
23. 2003 Ernesto de Martino nel Pci degli anni Cinquanta, tra religione e politica
culturale [Ernesto de Martino Member of Pci in the 1950s. Religion and
Cultural Politics]. STUDI STORICI, vol. 44: 527-553 [ISSN: 0039-3037]
24. 2003 –
Ernesto de Martino e «Nuovi argomenti». Il ripristino della critica marxista
in campo religioso [Ernesto de Martino e “Nuovi Argomenti”. A
Reactivation of the Marxist Criticism in the Religious Field]. NUOVI
ARGOMENTI, vol. 22 n. s.: 312-327 [ISSN: 0029-6295]
25. 2002 La storia delle religioni italiana nei primi anni della Conciliazione.
Documenti e riflessioni su Pietro Tacchi Venturi S. J. [The Italian History of
Religions in the First Years after Lateran Accords. Documents and
Reflections on Pietro Tacchi Venturi]. STUDI E MATERIALI DI STORIA
DELLE RELIGIONI, vol. 68: 379-396 [ISSN: 0393-8417]
26. 2002 Ernesto de Martino nel circolo crociano di Villa Laterza: 1937-1942.
Contributo a una contestualizzazione politica de Il mondo magico [Ernesto
de Martino in Benedetto Croce’s Circle of Villa Laterza 1937-1942]. LA
CULTURA, vol. 40: 89-106 [ISSN: 0393-1560]
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27. 2002 Giovanni Gentile e Raffaele Pettazzoni (1922-1924). Un carteggio sulla
storia delle religioni e l'università in Italia [Giovanni Gentile and Raffaele
Pettazzoni (1922-1924). Letters on the History of Religions and Academic
Institutionalization in Italy]. In: La storia comparata delle religioni, ed.
Giovanni Filoramo and Natale Spineto. Pisa and Roma: Istituto editoriale e
poligrafici: 107-110 [ISBN: 888147350X]
28. 2002 Gentile, Giovanni and Pettazzoni, Raffaele. Carteggio 1922-1924 [Epistolary
1922-1924], ed. Valerio Salvatore Severino. In: La storia comparata delle
religioni, ed. Giovanni Filoramo and Natale Spineto. Pisa and Roma: Istituto
editoriale e poligrafici:111-126 [ISBN: 888147350X]
29. 2002 Gentile, Tacchi Venturi e l'Enciclopedia italiana [Gentile, Tacchi Venturi
and the Italian Encyclopedia]. STORIOGRAFIA, vol. 6: 9-11 [ISSN: 11282339]
C) Accepted for publication
1 - Reconfiguring Nationalism: the Roll Call of the Fallen Soldiers (18002001). JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN EUROPE (2016) - Special Issue Aesthetics of
Civil Religion – ed. Anne Koch;
2 - The irreligiousness of Fascism: the concept of a ‘religion of the state’ in
Raffaele Pettazzoni’s studies. Analysis of the subtext. NUMEN.
INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS (2016);
3 - La Commissione per lo studio dei problemi della laicità. L’Ufficio
ideologico e culturale del Partito Socialista Italiano nel biennio 1949-1950.
In: Apex. Studi storico-religiosi in onore di E. Montanari [Festschrift in
honor of prof. Enrico Montanari], eds. Giovanni Casadio - Claudia Santi Attilio Mastrocinque; in collaborazione con Leonardo Sacco - Valerio
Severino. Roma: Edizioni Quasar: 209-216.
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