Leonardo Ambasciano (0000-0003-4413-7060)

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Biography

Leonardo Ambasciano earned his Ph.D. in Historical Studies at the University of Turin, Italy, in 2014, with a cognitive and evolutionary analysis of the ancient Roman female cult of Bona Dea. In 2016, he was Visiting Lecturer in Religious Studies at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
In 2017, he became Managing Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography after having served as Editorial Assistant since 2014. On December 2021, he relinquished the editorship of the journal. From April 2022 to March 2023 he was Virtual Visiting Researcher in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
Leonardo is the author of An Unnatural History of Religion: Academia, Post-Truth, and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge (Bloomsbury, 2019), and of various articles, book reviews, and chapters, including “History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert’s List, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion”, co-authored with T. J. Coleman, III and published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion 87(2): 366-400.

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Oxford Brookes University: Oxford, Oxfordshire, GB

2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31 | Virtual Visiting Researcher (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences)

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Leonardo Ambasciano

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4413-7060

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Biography

Activities

Employment (4)

Oxford Brookes University: Oxford, Oxfordshire, GB

Equinox Publishing Ltd: Sheffield, Sheffield, GB

Equinox Publishing Ltd: Sheffield, Sheffield, GB

Masaryk University: Brno, CZ

Education and qualifications (4)

Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca: Roma, Lazio, IT

Università degli Studi di Torino: Torino, Piemonte, IT

Università degli Studi di Torino: Torino, Piemonte, IT

Università degli Studi di Torino: Torino, Piemonte, IT

Professional activities (3)

British Association for the Study of Religions: Wolverhampton, GB

International Association for the History of Religions: Kraków, PL

Università degli Studi di Torino: Turin, IT

Works (50 of 64)

Zombies Roaming Around the Pantheon

Alan Moore racconta i supereroi tra populismo e nostalgie infantili. Il lato oscuro del fumetto made in Usa. Recensione di Alan Moore (2022). Illuminations. London & New York: Bloomsbury

I dolori del giovane Parker. Sessant’anni di Uomo Ragno: come nasce una mitologia a fumetti. Recensione di Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (2022). The Amazing Spider-Man. Foreword by Jason Reynolds. Introduction by Ben Saunders. London: Penguin Classics Marvel Collection

Letter to the Editors

L’Homo fictus di Jonathan Gottschall e la decostruzione della storiografia. Recensione di J. Gottschall (2022). Il lato oscuro delle storie. Trad. G. Olivero. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri

Studying the Religious Mind: Methodology in the Cognitive Science of Religion

The Eclipse of Morality: A Riposte to Lane, Wildman, & Shults’ “Paying the Piper” Commentary

Anatomia di Dio

Homo anxius, or How Fear and Anxiety Conquered the Social World

Shamanism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Notes on Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity (2017) and Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo (2018)

The Year the World Became a Cognitive Historiographical Lab En Plein Air: Musings on the Covid-19 Pandemic as Two Editors Bid Farewell to the JCH

Brelich, A. “Some Notes Concerning a Congress of the History of Religions.” In D. Wiebe, An Argument in Defence of a Strictly Scientific Study of Religion: The Controversy at Delphi, 215-224. Toronto, ON: Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion

He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions

The Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s Troublesome Legacy

An Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies: Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational Beliefs

Russell, E. “Popolazioni, comportamenti, culture, colonie e diffusione dei virus: Coevoluzione tra noi e SARS-CoV-2.”

From Gnosticism to Agnotology: A Reply to Robertson and Talmont-Kaminski

The Sisyphean Discipline: A Précis of An Unnatural History of Religions

Memoirs of an Academic Rōnin: Religious Studies and Mentorship in the Age of Post-Truth

An Unnatural History of Religion: Academia, Post-Truth, and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge

The Cognitive Study of (Ancient) Religions

Mircea Eliade, Michael Jackson, and the Normalization of Psychopathology

History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert Lists, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion

The “What is…?” Issue: Explaining Culture(s) through History and Science

What is Cognitive Historiography, Anyway? Method, Theory, and a Cross-Disciplinary Decalogue

Quando Jurassic Park incontra il Far West. Recensione di Crichton, M. (2018). I cercatori di ossa. Trad. D. Comerlati. Milano: Garzanti

Nel nome della croce. La distruzione cristiana del mondo classico

Back in Business

Wine, Brains, and Snakes: An Ancient Roman Cult between Gendered Contaminants, Sexuality, and Pollution Beliefs

Strangers in a Strange Land No More: Introducing the Book Review Symposium Section and Jennifer Larson’s 'Understanding Greek Religion' (2016)

Comparative Religion as a Life Science

Politics of Nostalgia, Logical Fallacies, and Cognitive Biases: The Importance of Epistemology in the Age of Cognitive Historiography

Exiting the Motel of the Mysteries? How Historiographical Floccinaucinihilipilification Is Affecting CSR 2.0

Il Fight Club della scimmia. Recensione di Gottschall, J. (2015). Il professore sul ring. Perché gli uomini combattono e a noi piace guardarli. Trad. G. Olivero. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri

Storia profonda. Il cervello umano e l'origine della storia

Verso una storia dell’umanità che si riconcilia con le scienze naturali

Sitting on the Bench: Is the Cognitive and Evolutionary Study of Religion a Team Sport?

The Persistence of a Delusion

The Gendered Deep History of the Bona Dea Cult

Post-verità, fede e scienza. Recensione di Coyne, J. A. (2016). O scienza o religione: Perché la fede è incompatibile coi fatti. Trad. O. Cavagnino. Roma: Nessun Dogma

Luther H. Martin, Deep History, Secular Theory: Historical and Scientific Studies of Religion (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014)

Luther H. Martin, The Mind of Mithraists: Historical and Cognitive Studies in the Roman Cult of Mithras (New York: Bloomsbury, 2015)

Mapping Pluto’s Republic: Cognitive and Epistemological Reflections on 'Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem'

Achilles’ Historiographical Heel, or the Infelicitous Predominance of Experimental Presentism in Ara Norenzayan’s 'Big Gods'

Slone, D. J. and J. A. van Slyke (eds.) (2015). The Attraction of Religion: A New Evolutionary Psychology of Religion. London and New York: Bloomsbury

The Goddess Who Failed? Competitive Networks (or the Lack Thereof), Gender Politics, and the Diffusion of the Roman Cult of Bona Dea

(Pseudo)science, Religious Beliefs, and Historiography: Assessing 'The Scientification of Religion’s' Method and Theory

Una disciplina fittizia? Recensione di McGrath, A. (2015). La grande domanda. Perché non si può fare a meno di parlare di scienza, di fede e di Dio. Trad. S. Placidi. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri

Mind the (Unbridgeable) Gaps: A Cautionary Tale about Pseudoscientific Distortions and Scientific Misconceptions in the Study of Religion

The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea