Religion Between Governance and Freedoms

Olga Breskaya , PhD, is a senior researcher at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology at University of Padova. Her research focuses on the sociology of religion, human rights and comparative study of religious freedom. She recently co-edited Religious Freedom. Thinking Sociologically (Routledge, 2023) and co-authored research articles: ‘The  Lautsi  Legacy: A New Judgment on the Crucifix in Classrooms and the Multiculturalist Turn on Freedom of/from Religion in Italy’ (2022), ‘Social Construction of Religious Freedom: A Comparative Study among Youth in Italy and Russia’ (2022), and ‘Religious Freedom and Microsociology of Law: Thinking with Georges Gurvitch’ (2020)

He has authored two award-winning books with Rodney Stark. His most recent books include The Price of Freedom Denied with BrianGrim (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Places of Faith: A Road Trip Across America’s Religious Landscape with Christopher P. Scheitle (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Faithful Measures: The Art and Science of Measuring Religion with Christopher Bader (New York University Press, 2017)

Giuseppe Giordan  is a professor of sociology at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology at University of Padova. His research interests include spirituality, religious pluralism, conversion, interfaith dialogue, Eastern Orthodoxy, and religious freedom. He has recently co-edited the volumes Religious Freedom: Social-Scientific Approaches (Brill, 2021), Global Eastern Orthodoxy. Politics, Religion, and Human Rights (Springer, 2020), Chinese Religions Going Global (Brill, 2021), and Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics (Brill, 2019). He co-authored Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)