General History Department
Subject: “Catholicism, Antisemitism and Esotericism in the Construction of the Fascist Spirit: The Case of La Scuola di Mistica Fascista”
Supervisor: Prof. Manuela Consonni
Abstract: In my current research I focus on a group of intellectuals and activists in Fascist Italy who called themselves La Scuola di Mistica Fascista. The group integrated a set of ideas and projects that historiography to date has considered fundamentally at odds: racial antisemitism, orientalist esotericism, and traditional catholicism. I use the group's interest in these themes as a prism to understand Fascism's desire and ability to take interest in a variety of religious traditions, and to enlist them to concrete political programs.
Bio: Originally from New York City, I made Aliyah after finishing a BA at the University of California Santa Cruz. Some of my interests are: secularism and modern religion, poetry and music, and dream interpretation. I study the meeting point between antisemitic ideas/attitudes and political structures.
Publication:
“The Inheritance of Violence in Fascism’s Second Generation: The Case of the School of Fascist Mysticism”, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 68 (upcoming, November 2023)
President Stipend 2021/22