Francesco Piraino is a sociologist of religion, culture, and art. He obtained his PhD in Sociology in 2016 at the Francesco Piraino is a sociologist of religion, culture, and art. He obtained his PhD in Sociology in 2016 at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), and have held research positions at KU Leuven, CNRS, Ca’ Foscari, University of Bologna, and Harvard Divinity School. He is currently tenure-track researcher at the University of Ca’ Foscari of Venice. He also serves as director of the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations and Spiritualities at the Cini Foundation in Venice. Piraino works on spirituality, esotericism, mysticism, and the relationship between art and religion, especially, but not exclusively, in the Islamic and Sufi frame. He has recently published “Sufism in Europe. Islam, Esotericism, and the New Age” (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) and edited “Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories Comparing and Connecting Old and New Trends” (with Marco Pasi and Egil Asprem, Routledge 2022).