I am an independent researcher,
writer, educator and apprentice herbalist
diving into New Animism, Ethnobotany and the Plant Humanities.
After a PhD in animism in ancient religions, I currently explore human-plant relations in marginal(ized) European and Indigenous botanical stories, myths, performances and knowledges (TEK and LEK), and their connections with gender, art, and ecological living.
My research, writing and teaching is devoted to explore those
human-environmental relations that nurture respect, care, reciprocity and creativity. I organize and collaborate with projects that seek to advance an environmental education with plants, stories and art in Italy and the UK. I recently contributed to the UK-based project BOTANY BAY, a collaborative project on the migration histories of plants and crops, and their Indigenous cultural heritage in relation to ecology and reciprocity, as a way to stimulate young people to explore new ways of living.
I am a member of the Consortium of Environmental Philosophers (CEP). Together with The Plant Initiative, the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network, and the Eternal Forest project, we are establishing the Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene, a network on research, education and advocacy for respectful human-plant relations.
As evergreen apprentice of
ethno-botany and
folk herbalism, I keep learning the personalities and teachings of plants with shimmering herbalists and friends in the Alps. I am taking the online course
Incontri con l’Erborista with the herbalist Silvia Maria Nepote Fus. In 2015/2016 I attended a course on medicinal plants at the Botanical Garden of Jerusalem, Givat Ram. In the summer, I help with the harvesting of sea buckthorn and other medicinal herbs at my friends’ organic farm in Trentino, Italy.
I am the author of Mountains and Trees, Rivers and Springs: Animistic Beliefs and Practices in Ancient Mesopotamian Religion (2019), and of academic and disseminating writings.
My academic journey started with a first year in
history and anthropology of religions at the University of Bologna, Italy, and then turned into studying Near Eastern history and anthropology of religions. I studied at the University Ca’ Foscari, Venice (BA in Near Eastern Studies (2009), and MA in Ancient Civilizations (2012)), and at the Freie Universität, Berlin (Erasmus, 2007/2008). While carrying out the research for my MA thesis about ancient Mesopotamian
witchcraft, I studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I lately undertook a PhD in
animism in ancient Mesopotamian religions and mythology at the Institute of Archaeology (2019). While completing my dissertation, I was a visiting researcher at Leipzig University (Erasmus+, 2017/2018).