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Laura Popa

About me

 

     

 

I am an international doctoral candidate and researcher in History and Cultural Studies at the University of Giessen (JLU) and a recipient of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst scholarship in Germany. Since December 2023 I have been appointed research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide in the UK. I was a visiting scholar at Sidney Sussex College of the University of Cambridge earlier that year. Before that, I benefited from a fellowship granted by the German Historical Institute in Rome. The dissertation project I am working on is called Nation-State Building at the Crossroads of Gender, Culture, and Religion: Protestant Women Schoolteachers in Italy, 1860-1915. Based on rich archival material, ranging from letters to the press, the project investigates for the first time how and why a group of minority Protestant women tried to build the Italian nation through mobile professional teaching and missionary activities. Supervision: Proff. Philipp David (University of Giessen), Eugenio F. Biagini (University of Cambridge), Lothar Vogel (Waldensian Faculty of Theology).

 Kindly watch the presentation of my project here: L'attivismo religioso e professionale delle maestre elementari valdesi per lo Stato nazionale (1860-1915)

During my master's and bachelor's years, I gained a historian formation but with an interdisciplinary outlook. I studied History, History of Religions, and Philosophy at the University of Turin & Perugia in Italy, initially enrolled as an Erasmus student, then as a full-time student, and at the University of Iaşi in Romania, where I had a merit-based scholarship.

In my master thesis, I researched the religious arguments of the Declaration of Sentiments (1848), the first American feminist document written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and other Protestant women, as well as the transatlantic impact it had on the development of Italian feminism (first and second waves) and Women's Studies as an academic discipline ("La dichiarazione dei sentimenti": storia e circolazione italiana, Prof. Natale Spineto/University of Turin). In my bachelor thesis, I dealt with the topic of European cultural transfer through a comparative case study of Johann Gottfried Herder's theory of the nation and philosophy of history and that of Mihail Kogălniceanu, a prolific cultural and political figure in nineteenth-century Romania ("Europa intelectualilor" în prima jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea. Motive herdiene în discursul cultural și politic al lui Mihail Kogălniceanu, Prof. Gh. Cliveti/University of Iaşi).

This highly international profile is due to my Christian perspective on life, which is to learn about the world, people, and cultures as much as possible. As a result, I consider myself a global citizen.

Contact

Laura.Popa@geschichte.uni-giessen.de

lp639@cccw.cam.ac.uk

Research interests

  • Women's and Gender History / Concept of Hybridity / Nationalism Studies / Religious Minorities, e.g., Protestant, Jewish / History of Feminism, e.g., First and Second Wave, Religious / Feminist Theory, e.g., Emancipation, Sexual Difference in Italy / Cultural History of Protestant Christianity, in particular, Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism
Presentations

 
Research activities

  • 20-23.05.2024. The Open Panel Call Religious Minorities as Drivers of Change: The Case of Protestantism organized by the research group Protestantism as a Minority Religion. The panel is part of the European Academy of Religion 2024 Conference "Paradigm Shifts". (EuARe Travel Grant & Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grant) [Upcoming]

  • 08.12.2023-01.01.2025. Research Associateship at Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide of The Cambridge Theological Federation, UK (CCCW grant)

  • 01.01.2023-31.08.2023. Visiting Scholarship with Dining Rights and Senior Combination Room membership at Sidney Sussex College of the University of Cambridge, UK (Sidney Sussex College/Sponsoring Fellow Prof. Eugenio Biagini & Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grants)

  • 02-07.07.2023. World Christianity Summer Institute & Catalysing Leaders Conference The Bible: Everywhere in Everyday Life, co-organized by the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide & International Bible Advocacy Centre of the British and Foreign Bible Society (CCCW grant)

  • 17-18.04.2023. Cultural Heritage Data School 2023, organized by Cambridge Digital Humanities of the University of Cambridge (CDH grant)

  • 15.01.2023-15.03.2023. Traineeship at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Eugenio Biagini (Erasmus+ Staff Mobility for Training grant)

  • 15-19.08.2022. Villigst Sommeruniversität 2022, seminar A4 »Gehet hin und machet zu Jüngern alle Völker« – christliche Mission im 21. Jahrhundert? (Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grant)

  • 21-22.07.2022. Note-taker in the workshop The Pursuit of Science in Conservative Religious Settings since 1945, co-organized by JLU & a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne & German Historical Institute in Washington, Cologne, Germany (Gerda Henkel Stiftung grant)

  • January 2021-April 2022. Archival research at the Waldensian Church Archives & Library of the Society for Waldensian Studies in Torre Pellice, Italy (Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture & Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst grants)

  • October-December 2020. Research stay at the German Historical Institute Rome, Italy (Max Weber Foundation Fellowship)

  • December 2020. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (American Academy of Religion travel grant)

  • October 2019-September 2021. Co-Speaker of Research Area 6: Cultural Identities of the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. In this capacity, I co-organized the online workshop "Cultural Hybridity Revisited" held by Dr. Doris Bachmann-Medick (GCSC) on June 23, 2020; the lecture "National and Religious Identity in the Low Countries during the Grand Siècle" by Dr. Roeland Goorts (GCSC) on April 7, 2021; and the conference "Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Hybridity" on 23-25 June 2021.

  • July 2019. XVI CISPEA Summer School Nazione/nazionalismi nella storia statunitense (Nation/Nationalisms in the History of the United States) in Carpineto-Reggio Emilia, Italy (Centro interuniversitario di storia e politica euroamericana & Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture grants)

  • March 2019. Archival research at the Waldensian Church Archives & Library of the Society for Waldensian Studies in Torre Pellice, Italy (Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture grant)

Teaching

 

Publications

 

Projects

  • The research project Protestantism as a Minority Religion, with Prof. Eugenio Biagini (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Karina Bénazech Wendling (University of Lorraine). The project aims to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary and non-confessional work among scholars and academic institutions; to organise and promote conferences, and events, but also publish in academic journals, preferably in open access; engage with a wider audience and favour online visibility for a broader dissemination of research.

  • Organization of the International and Interdisciplinary Conference Bible Revolution: Empowering People, Subverting Identities. New Study Directions in 21st-Century Academic Research, University of Cambridge, September 15, 2023 (funded by the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst after a successful application, in collaboration with Prof. Eugenio Biagini and Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide). The conference consisted of three panels and the keynote lecture Uses of the Bible in Evangelical History, held by the world's leading historian of Evangelicalism, Emeritus Prof. David Bebbington (University of Stirling).

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  • Publication of biographies of Italian Protestant women teachers in "Dizionario biografico on-line dei Protestanti in Italia", edited by the Society for Waldensian Studies and funded by Otto per mille della Chiesa Valdese Unione delle Chiese Valdesi e Metodiste [under review]

  • Publication of the volume Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, co-edited with Dr. Roeland Goorts, with a Foreword by Emerita Prof. Pnina Werbner (Keele University), Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (funded by the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture after a successful application)

  • Co-organization and coordination of the International and Interdisciplinary Laboratory-Conference Cultural Identities in a Global World: Reframing Cultural Hybridity, University of Giessen, June 23-25, 2021, with Clara Verri (online and funded by the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture after a successful application as a Research Area 6 project). The conference consisted of a keynote lecture, eight panels, two workshops, and a laboratory-debate. You can read a personal review of the event written by a speaker here: Learnings from a Laboratory Conference.