I'm a sociologist who works in church archives.

My subject is confession in eighteenth-century Italy, approached from the administrative side. After the Council of Trent, priests couldn’t simply hear confessions; they had to be examined, licensed, and assigned to a parish; sometimes their authorizations were revoked (or denied). The seal of confession meant the Church could never review the transaction it held most dear, so it credentialed the man instead. That’s the puzzle I keep circling: what an institution does when its core is—by design—opaque to it.

I am also working on public arts funding and creative autonomy, and on what Italian microhistory can offer to historical and cultural sociology.

PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Padova, Associate Managing Editor at Sociologica. My work has appeared in the British Journal of Sociology and Church History, has been supported by the U.S.–Italy Fulbright Commission, and received the BJS Early Career Prize.

When I’m not in the archive, I’m chasing the perfect instant noodle or listening to punk rock (too loud).