20.04.2026: Digital lecture by Dr. Olga Breskaya and Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Giordan on "Attributes and Activities of Religious Communities in Italy: Insights from a City Congregations Study"

9. April 2026

Foto: A. Körs

 We are pleased to invite you to a digital lecture by Dr. Olga Breskaya and Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Giordan on the topic of “Attributes and Activities of Religious Communities in Italy: Insights from a City Congregations Study” on Monday, April 20, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., as part of the lecture series “Religions in Transition: International Perspectives”.

This presentation explores the characteristics and activities of religious communities in three Italian cities using the City Congregations Study methodology. The research was conducted between 2020 and 2021, mapping a total of 877 communities in Bologna, Milan, and Brescia and their surrounding areas. The findings highlight key differences across traditions, with Catholic groups more involved in social services and Muslim and Orthodox communities more focused on supporting migrants. The study also reflects on patterns of urban religious diversity and their broader implications.

Olga Breskaya, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology at the University of Padua, Italy. Her main research interests include the sociology of human rights, religious change in post-communist societies and religious socialization, religious pluralism, and the comparative study of religious freedom. She recently co-edited Religion Between Governance and Freedoms with Roger Finke and Giuseppe Giordan (Springer, 2024) and co-authored A Sociology of Religious Freedom with Giuseppe Giordan and James T. Richardson (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Giuseppe Giordan, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology at the University of Padova. He coordinates the International Joint PhD in ‘Religion, Culture and Public Life’ and his research interests include spirituality, religious pluralism, conversion, interfaith dialogue, Eastern Orthodoxy, and religious freedom. He has recently co-edited the volumes Religious Freedom: Social-Scientific Approaches with Olga Breskaya and Roger Finke (Brill, 2021), Chinese Religions Going Global with Nanlai Cao and Fenggang Yang (Brill, 2020), and Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics with Andrew P. Lynch (Brill, 2019). He co-authored A Sociology of Religious Freedom with Olga Breskaya and James T. Richardson (Oxford University Press, 2024) and Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity with Adam Possamai (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

The lecture series is organized by the Academy of World Religions at the University of Hamburg with support from the Udo Keller Foundation Forum Humanum.

For more information about the program, please click here: [PDF]

If you would like to attend, please register by email (awr"AT"uni-hamburg.de).