@MSCActions project exploring Catholic social movements, gender, digital media. Researcher: @giuliaevolvi, at @Unibo & @CUBoulder_CMRC

Bologna, Italy
Joined December 2023
MERGE project: the what, why, who, where, when, and how of a project studying Catholic social movements and gender discourses on social media #Catholicism #MarieCurie #MSCActions #MSCA #gender #SocialMedia 馃憞
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Last week, MERGE hosted its final workshop! It has been such a great experience to conclude this project. I'm a bit sad to close this chapter, but many more will open soon.
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Today I'm in the mood for some feminist classics: Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex" Because one is not born, but becomes a woman
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Who are the MAGA Catholics? Here some examples: Steve Bannon Milo Yanniopoulos Marco Rubio and, of course... JD Vance Do you want me to talk more about any of them?
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Ludmila Javorova just passed away. She was one of the women ordained priests in secret to minister for women in prison during Czechoslovakia鈥檚 communist regime. Despite this, her priesthood was later considered invalid.
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A very interesting book I'm reading right now: "Data Feminism" by Catherine D'Ignazio & Lauren Klein. It's a very good reminder of how we need to consider issues of feminism, intersectionality, and power when we're conducting our research, because data are never "neutral"
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Is God a Man? Often, we think of God as a man, also because of how God is usually painted. But some feminist Catholics use a more gender neutral language: for instance, God is father & mother, and "Creator" is used instead of "Lord"
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This is not only something that feminists do: for instance, the First Nation version of the New Testament, an Indigenous version used in North America, also uses gender neutral terms like "Creator" What do you think? Should language in Catholicism be more gender-neutral?
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For everyone interested in Islam & digital media, this volume, edited by Robert Rozehnal, is a must-go! This account is on Catholicism, but as the project is ending soon I'm thinking about new directions for my work... so some of the suggestions will explore other religions!
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What's Catholic Core? You probably heard of styles promoted on social media accounts like Dark Academia or Cottage Core. But there is also Catholic Core, promoting fashion accessories like mantilla and rosaries.
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This is strange to me as I grew up in a Catholic country and never saw any of this as part of a "fashion," and they're not much used anymore. However, it shows how digital culture can use religion to create aesthetic performances. And what do you think of Catholic Core?
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I never recommend books I haven't yet read, except from this one: "Religion in the Age of AI" is the book we were all waiting for!
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Let's have a look at the logos of different anti-gender movements... France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Russia... they're all the same. Different religions, but very similar visuals and contents.
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With a great colleague, we found very interesting similarities between the movement Provita & Famiglia in Italy and Aito avioliitto in Finland. Stay tuned as I hope we'll write something on the topic!
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Another book to read on the beach (maybe): Saramago's "The gospel according to Jesus Christ". It certainly sparked controversies, but Saramago is such a great writer!
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Reading suggestion: since it's summer, what about a novel that also makes you think about religion? For once, it's not Catholicism. Elif Shafak's "The Forty Rules of Love" is about Rumi, one of the central figures of Sufism. Perfect for every holiday...
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Is religion bad for civil rights? In Italy there are several restrictions on LGBTQ+ families and abortion because of the Vatican. But, Spain is also very Catholic, and it is much more progressive in such matters.
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Also, Ireland, another Catholic country, had restrictions on abortion but they approved same-sex unions before abortion. So how do we explain this? Obviously religion has an impact, but we also need to look at the governments and the history of social movements
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Everybody talks about tradwives, but how are these women connected to Christianity and the far-right? Eviane Leidig's book on the topic answers all these questions, and it's very, very interesting!
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Would you follow a virtual influencer? With AI, we can pretend to meet people we would never meet (even Jesus!) or imagine Bible characters as influencers.
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But there's also the case of virtual influencers: Solomon Ray, for instance, is a Gospel singer who does not exist, but he is still followed. I learned this from the presentation of Heidi Campbell at EUARE, and I remind everyone to check her website drheidicampbell.com/
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