Alessia Passarelli

Associated Fellow

Research interests

Atlas of Religious or Belief Minorities Rights in European Countries – Atlas of Religious or Belief Minorities Rights.

Education, academic and professional experience

Since 2021, Passarelli has been the scientific coordinator of the project Theologies and Practices of Religious Pluralism - which is led by Reset-Dialogue on Civilisation and in which the Foundation for Religious Sciences is a partner - dealing with the working group on Protestantism.

Since 2023, she has been collaborating on the Better Neighbour Project at Whitley College (University of Divinity) in Melbourne. 

Since September 2022, she has been Headmaster of the Waldensian High School in Torre Pellice, also dealing with projects related to the history of religions in primary and secondary schools.

Since 2008 she has been collaborating with the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) as researcher and as member of the Commission on Study – Dialogue and Integration. In 2019 she has been nominated as moderator of the section Integration of the above-mentioned Commission.

From 2017 to 2018 she worked for the Observatory for Religious Pluralism – GRISS (project funded by Emilia-Romagna Region in cooperation with the Universityof Bologna) researching Protestant Churches in the Region.

Since 2016 she is a senior researcher at Confronti Study Center and magazine, where she coordinates the research project on the ‘health status’ of the Methodist and Waldensian churches in Italy.

In October 2008 she started her doctoral studies at the Department of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin collaborating on a research project, Theories and practices of integration among Protestant churches in Ireland and Italy (supervised by Dr. Ronit Lentin and Prof. Daniel Faas). She was awarded a postgraduate scholarship by the Irish Research Council. She submitted her thesis in April 2014 and successfully defended it in September of the same year.

While at Trinity, she was a member of the Institute for Integration and Intercultural Studies (IIIS) and she also continued to work as a consultant on other research project. She was Teaching Assistant in European Societies and Introduction to Sociology undergraduate courses. 

From 2005 until 2008 she worked for the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) as project and research assistant on migration, integration and role of religion for migrants.

Alessia Passarelli graduated cum laude in 2004 at the University of Rome La Sapienza in Cultural Anthropology researching Romanian Roma people in Rome.

Featured publications

Monographs

P. Naso, A. Passarelli, I giovani evangelici e l’immigrazione. Una generazione interculturale, Carocci, Rome, 2019.

A. Passarelli, Insights into Migrants’ Experiences in Active Participation in Churches in Europe, Brussels, CCME, 2010.

Articles

A. Passarelli, Val Pellice: intreccio di persone, di culture e religioni, in «La Beidana», 109,  2024, pp. 27-35.

A. Passarelli, Una generazione sul ponte. I giovani evangelici e l’immigrazione, «Protestantesimo» vol. 74, 3-4 (2019), pp. 249-265.

A. Passarelli, Il rapporto dei giovani (figli di) immigrati con la religione, in Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 2018, «Idos/Confronti» (2018), pp. 201-204.

A. Passarelli, Evangelici, in Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 2016, «Idos/Confronti» (2016), pp. 195-196.

A. Passarelli, Dalle politiche alle pratiche d’integrazione: modelli di essere chiesa insieme a confronto, «Protestantesimo» 3-4 (2013), pp. 407-416.

A. Passarelli, Integration, Migration and Religion: Responses of the Church of Ireland, «Translocations» 6, 2 (2010).

Edited volumes

D. Jackson, A. Passarelli (eds.), Mapping Migration, Mapping Churches’ Responses. Being Church Together, Brussels-Geneva, Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe/World Council of Churches, 2021.

P. Naso, A. Passarelli, C. Paravati (a cura di), Granelli di Senape. Una fotografia delle delle chiese metodiste e valdesi in Italia, Torino, Claudiana, 2019.

D. Jackson, A. Passarelli (eds.), Mapping Migration, Mapping Churches’ Responses. Belonging, Community and Integration, Brussels-Geneva, Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe/World Council of Churches, 2015.

P. Naso, A. Passarelli, T. Pispisa (a cura di), Sorelle e fratelli di Jerry Masslo. L’immigrazione evangelica in Italia, Torino, Claudiana, 2014.

D. Jackson, A. Passarelli (eds), Mapping Migration, Mapping Churches’ Responses, Brussels-Geneva, Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe/World Council of Churches, 2008.

Chapters in books

A Passarelli, Il cambiamento dell’habitus religioso nelle chiese protestanti storiche, in Annarilli, A. e Cosentino, A. Praises. Musiche e liturgie nelle comunità migranti di Roma, NeoClassica (in press, expected in 2025).

A Passarelli, Religious Freedom and Minority Rights: Challenges and Opportunities in a Plural Society from the Results of the ATLAS Project in A. Mambelli e M. Muelke, Freedom, Interreligious, Intercultural (TBC),​​V&R, (in press, expected in 2025).

A Passarelli, S. Ferrari, I. Valenzi, Religious minorities in public institutions. Case studies, in Fokas, E. e Giorgi, A. (eds), Religion and Public Institutions, Routledge (in press, expected in 2025).

A Passarelli, From Narrative to Policy and Back. A Glimpse into the Potential of Practitioners, in Bobrowicz R, Hjälm A, and Schmiedel, U. (eds) Living in A World of Neighbours Activists and Academics in Conversation on Multi-Faith Refugee Relief, Church of Sweden Research Series, Pickwick (in corso di stampa, prevista per il 2025).

A Passarelli, “CONFRONTI” e la European Academy of Religion, in Paravati, C. (a cura di), 50 anni di Confronti, ComNuoviTempi, 2024.

A Passarelli, Il Lavoro interculturale nelle e per le chiese, in Di Sanzio, D. e Paravati, C. (a cura di), Faccio solo il mio dovere. Scritti per Paolo Naso, ComNuoviTempi, 2024. 

A Passarelli, Dall’emigrazione agli immigrati e alle chiese etniche, in P. Naso and S. Nitti (eds), Storia del Metodismo in Italia, Il Mulino 2024.

A Passarelli, La questione di genere nelle chiese protestanti in Italia, in S. Palmisano e A. Giorgi (eds), Donne e Religioni, Il Mulino 2024.

A Passarelli, “Losing my religion?” La dimensione religiosa nella vita di coppia: narrazioni, negoziazioni e riflessioni,  in Aifcom e Confronti, Io festeggio due volte. Le coppie e le famiglie miste in Italia tra legami, discriminazioni, risorse, ComNuoviTempi, 2024.

A. Passarelli, Castel Volturno, Europa, in Naso, P. (a cura di), Chiese Nere, Lavoro Nero, LePenseur 2023.

A. Passarelli, Pandemia, comunità e tecnologie: l’esperienza evangelica dello Zoomworship, in Del Re, M. and Naso, P. (eds), Religioni e pandemia in Italia: dottrina, comunità e cura, Rubbettino,Soveria Mannelli, 2023.

A Passarelli, La realtà della scuola interculturale dell’I.C. A. Manzoni. Riflessioni a partire dal questionario, in L. Righi (ed), Pace fra le culture, Fscire 2022.

A Passarelli, Negotiating Gendered Religious Experiences among Multicultural Protestant Churches in Italy, in E. Gallo e F. Scrinzi (a cura di), Gender, Religion and Migration. Special Issue, «Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa», Il Mulino, 2021.

Jackson D. and Passarelli A. (eds), Mapping Migration, Mapping Churches' responses. Being Church Together, CCME/WCC, 2021.

A. Passarelli, P.Naso, People on the Pews, in Granelli di Senape. Una fotografia delle delle chiese metodiste e valdesi in Italia, eds. P. Naso, A. Passarelli, C. Paravati, Turin, Claudiana, 2019, pp. 23-48.

A. Passarelli, Casi di studio, in Granelli di Senape. Una fotografia delle delle chiese metodiste e valdesi in Italia, eds. P. Naso, A. Passarelli, C. Paravati, Turin, Claudiana, 2019, pp. 113-120.

A. Passarelli, Immigrazione ed integrazione nelle chiese protestanti in Italia ed in Irlanda: modelli di «essere chiesa insieme» a confronto, in Protestantesimo e sfide della contemporaneità. Percorsi inediti di scienze delle religioni, eds. A. Annese, Brescia, Morcellania, 2017, pp. 58-77.

A. Passarelli, I numeri e non solo: la mappa dell’immigrazione nelle chiese battiste, metodiste e valdesi, in Sorelle e fratelli di Jerry Masslo. L’immigrazione evangelica in Italia, eds. P. Naso, A. Passarelli, T. Pispisa, Turin, Claudiana, 2014, pp. 33-54.

A. Passarelli, “Essere Chiesa Insieme”: un modello o una direzione?, in Sorelle e fratelli di Jerry Masslo. L’immigrazione evangelica in Italia, eds. P. Naso, A. Passarelli, T. Pispisa, Turin, Claudiana, 2014, pp. 55-78.

A. Passarelli, Chiese etniche e multietniche al di là delle definizioni, in Un cantiere senza progetto. L’Italia delle religioni. Rapporto 2012, eds. P. Naso, B. Salvarani, Bologna, EMI, 2012, pp. 205-213.

A. Passarelli, Beyond welcoming the strangers: Migrant integration processes among Protestant churches in Ireland, in Integration from below. Migrant-led activism in the Republic of Ireland, eds. R. Lentin, E. Moreo, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 140-158.

A. Passarelli, Between past and future: Reflections on how migration has been taken into account by the Protestant churches in Italy and how this has affected their ecclesiological self-understanding, in Vieraanvaraisuus ja muukalaisuus, ed. J. Salminen, Helsinki, Suomalainen Teologinen Kirjallisuusseura, 2011, pp. 100-119.

Conferences, seminars and workshops

September 23, 2024, Religious Pluralism: Theologies and Practices, project coordinator, San Giorgio al Palazzo, Milan.

May 21 – 22, 2024, paper: The Atlas - Responses from the Religious or Belief Organisations; paper: Between Reverse Mission and Intercultural Congregations, in panel: Theologies and Practices of Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Dialogue (organiser and coordinator), VII International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2024, Palermo.

May 16, 2024, Global Catholicism and Religious Pluralism, project coordinator and discussant, Georgetown University Rome Office, Villa Malta, Rome.

march 23, 2024, Libertà religiosa: Sicurezza, libertà di religione e diritti delle minoranze religiose, lecture for the “Dialogo interreligioso” course at Istituto San Bernardino, Venice.

March 7, 2024, Better Neighbours Project Findings, con Titus S. Olorunnisola, Interdisciplinary symposium on religion and migration in Australia and the Pacific, Univesity of Divinity, Melbourne (AU).

November 20, 2023, Islam and the Challenge of Pluralism in a Globalized World, coordinator and discussant, Gazi Huzrev-beg library, Sarajevo (BiH).

September 4 – 6, 2023, paper: Religious Freedom and Minority Rights: Challenges and Opportunities in a Plural Society from the Results of the ATLAS Project, Seminar, Freedom, Interreligious, Intercultural, seminar at the Fondazione per le scienze religiose, Bologna.

January 16, 2023, coordinator, organizer and discussant in the workshop Theologies and Practices of Religious Pluralism within Orthodox Christianity Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Volo, Greece.