Angela Cimino

PhD fellow

Research interest

The relations between the Holy See and Israel during the pontificate of Pius XII.

Education, academic and professional experience

Since October 2022, she has been a PhD student at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rome.

Since February 2024, she has been collaborating on the project Virtual Exchanges in Religious Euro-African Dialogue (VEREAD).

In 2023, she participated in the winter seminar Gli archivi della Santa Sede e del cattolicesimo romano: istruzioni per l’uso e prospettive di ricerca, organized by the Istituto Sangalli. She then furthered her knowledge of modern Hebrew at the International School of the University of Haifa, thanks to a scholarship from the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.

In 2022, she attended the winter school Antigiudaismo e Antisemitismo nella storia, organized by the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose; she completed the Master’s program in Pluralismo religioso e sapere storico (PluReS) and studied modern Hebrew at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

From December 2021 to October 2022, she conducted research at FSCIRE thanks to a post-graduate scholarship.

In July 2021, she earned her master’s degree with honors in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at the University of Bologna, with a thesis entitled Pontefici in Terra Santa. Relazioni teologiche e politiche tra Santa Sede e Israele (supervisor: Prof. Cristiana Facchini; co-supervisor: Dr. Miriam Benfatto).

Conferences, seminars and workshops

January 21, 2025, paper: La Santa Sede e la realizzazione del sogno sionista (1947-1949), panel: Emigrazione, umanitarismo e nazionalismi alla fine del conflitto: due casi di studio, within the workshop Le chiese di Pio XII tra nazionalismi e universalismo nel secondo dopoguerra: ricerche in corso, University of Tor Vergata, Rome.

December 11, 2024, Pius XII – The Vatican and Israel, lecture within Theologisches Studienjahr Jerusalem, Rome.

June 5–7, 2024, paper: Diplomacy and Diplomats of the Holy See Facing the Establishment of the State of Israel, International Conference Souverainetés fragiles. Diplomatie et diplomates du saint-siège face aux recompositions territoriales et frontalières (1939-1958), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Lyon Saint-Étienne, FR.

May 20–23, 2024, (moderator, organizer, and speaker) panel: Controversy and Perception: Jews and Christians Amidst Dialogue and Dispute; panel Holocaust: A Real Turning Point in Jewish-Catholic Relations?, VII International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2024, Palermo.

May 19–23, 2024, (organizer and speaker) panel: Antisemitism and Religious Hatred in the Middle Ages, Summer School and Annual Conference of the International Network for Interreligious Research and Education (INIRE), Palermo.

April 11–12, 2024, paper: What Future for the Holy Land? The Holy See, the United Nations, and the Question of Palestine in 1947, for the workshop The Global Pontificate of PIUS XII, Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau, Warsaw, PL.

April 18–19, 2023, paper: The Partition of the Holy Land and Internationalization of the Holy City: the Vatican’s Perspective on the Work of the United Nations in 1947, International Conference Vatican Diplomacy and the Shaping of the West during the Pontificate of Pius XII, Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Rome.

November 7–11, 2023, paper: Papacy, Holy See, Judaism and Israel in the post-World War II period (1945-1958), for the workshop Civitas Academy, KADOC Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society, Leuven, BE.

June 19–23, 2023, (co-organizer with Dr. Monika Stolarczyk-Bilardie) paper: The Holy See’s concerns toward the State of Israel: an analysis of Vatican documents, in the panel Pius XII's Vatican Archives: New Documents and Research; panel: Interaction and Dynamics between Judaism and Christianity in Historical Perspective: An Emic Mapping, VI International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2023, St. Andrews, Scotland (UK).

May 26–27, 2023, paper: Papacy, Holy See, Judaism and Israel in the post-World War II period (1945-1958), for the workshop The Global Pontificate of PIUS XII, Sudetendeutsches Haus, Munich, DE.

April 17, 2023, Le relazioni tra Santa Sede e Israele nel periodo del secondo dopoguerra (1945-1958), seminar Les archives du pontificat de Pie XII – recherches en cours, École française de Rome, Rome.

June 21, 2022, (organizer and speaker) panel: The Catholic Church and the State of Israel (1948-1958); panel The Catholic Church and the Jews, V International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2022, Bologna.

May 9, 2022, presentation of master’s thesis Pontefici in Terra Santa. Relazioni teologiche e politiche tra Santa Sede e Israele, for Oggi mi laureo al MEB – event organized by the Jewish Museum of Bologna in collaboration with the School of Letters and Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna.

April 7, 2022, (co-organizer with Dr. Adele Valeria Messina), L’atlante della distruzione degli ebrei, within the study day Al di là delle buone intenzioni. Scuola e libri per ragazzi fra storia e memoria della Shoah, workshop at LUMSA University and Liceo Umberto I, Palermo.