Main research interests
Anthropology of religion, death studies, shamanism, indigenous cultures, religion and popular culture (comics and video games), anthropology of music.
Education
| 2014-2019 | PhD in Religious Studies, Durham University, UK PhD Supervisors: Professor Douglas Davies and Dr. Simon Mills PhD Examiners: Professor Martin Clayton (Durham University) and Professor Fiona Magowan (Queen’s University Belfast) Dissertation title: Healing the Individual, Healing the Community Shamanic Rituals and Funerals of the Wana People of Morowali |
| 2009-2013 | Master of Ethnomusicology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy Major: Ethnomusicology Minor: Religious Studies and Anthropology Mark: 110/110 cum laude |
| 2005-2009 | Bachelor of Arts, University of Palermo Major: Music Minor: Anthropology, Ethnomusicology and Religious Studies Mark: 110/110 |
research experience
| 2023 – Present | Research Fellow on the Freedom of Religious Expression in Death (FRED) project Sapienza University of Rome |
| 2019 – 2021 | Postdoctoral Researcher on The Healing and Emotional Power of Music and Dance project NOVA University Lisbon |
| 2014 – 2019 | Research Assistant for Professor Douglas Davies, Durham University, UK |
| 2016 | PhD dissertation fieldwork in Tana Wana, Morowali Natural reserve, Indonesia |
| 2013 | Fieldwork in Tana Wana, Morowali Natural reserve, Indonesia |
| 2011 | MA dissertation fieldwork in Tana Wana, Morowali Natural reserve, Indonesia |
TEACHING QUALIFICATION
Since 2019 Fellowship of Higher Education Academy, UK
teaching experience
| 2022 | Lecturer University of Palermo, Italy Research and fieldwork methods workshop (25 hours). |
| 2022 | Guest Lecturer University of Palermo, Italy Research and fieldwork methods for the MA in Ethnomusicology. |
| 2021 | Lecturer (Online) University of Padua, Italy Anthropology of death, for the post-graduate degree Death studies & the end of life for the intervention of support and the accompanying |
| 2021 | Guest Lecturer (Online) University of Udine, Italy Ethnopsychiatry for the BA in socio-health professional educator |
| 2021 | Guest Lecturer (Online) NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal Ethnomusicology and anthropology of emotion for the Recent Trends in Ethnomusicology module (BA) |
| 2015 – 2019 | Teaching Assistant Durham University, UK Modules: “Introduction to the Study of Religion”, “Death, Ritual and Belief, Emotion”, “Identity and Religion”, and “Sects, prophets and gurus” (BA) |
| 2017 – 2018 | Lecturer Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Rome, Italy Anthropology of Death for the post-graduate degree Autopathological and microbiological diagnostic techniques |
| 2016 | Guest Lecturer University of Tadulako, Indonesia Indigenous religions for the BA in Religious Studies |
| 2010 – 2015 | Guest Lecturer University of Palermo, Italy Ethnomusicology for the Music of the world course (BA) |
Grants and fellowships
2015 AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership (Full cover for PhD tuition fees and fieldwork, and £14054 per year)
2011 Indonesian government scholarship Darmasiswa (Full economic cover for a 6-month language and culture course in Indonesia)
2010 University “La Sapienza” of Rome scholarship Wanted the best (Full cover for MA tuition fees)
Publications
Monograph
2023 [Contract Signed] Scalici, G., Pain, Play and Music: Death and Healing Rites among the Wana, London: Bloomsbury
Articles and Book Chapters
2023 Scalici, G., Morto, semi morto e non morto: quello che tre differenti culture possono insegnare sul rapporto tra uomo e morte, in Toccando l’oltre Lo sguardo e la cura al limite del corpo, Alessia Zielo (Ed.), Padua: Padova University Press: 617-640
2023 Scalici, G., The musical instruments of Wana tradition (Indonesia), in Etnografie sonore | Sound Ethnographies.
2023 [Accepted] Scalici, G., Smiling pain: coping with illness and death through humour, in Religion and Senses of Humour, Stephen E. Gregg (Ed.), Sheffield: Equinox Publishing
2022 Stizzi, A.; Negrola, E.; Iacona, E.; Naglieri, M.; Scalici, G.; Testoni, I., Reconstructing social relationships in a post-lockdown suburban area through pastoral counseling, in Pastoral Psychology.
2022 Scalici, G, Who framed Tetebua?, in Patterns Of Change In The Traditional Music Of Southeast Asia, Giovanni Giuriati (Ed.), Udine: Nota: 160-185
2020 Testoni, I.; Dorsa, M.; Iancona, E.; Scalici, G., Necronym: The effects of bearing a dead sibling’s name, in Mortality, Vol. 3, pp.1-18
2020 Scalici, G., Marginalized center: Wana people and the geography of power, in Joint special issue of the Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (JISASR) and Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions (JBASR) Vol. 21. 114-134
2019 Scalici, G., Music and the invisible world: music as a bridge between different realms, in Approaches, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 150-165.
2017 Scalici, G., Eating together to grieve together: the funeral meal of Wana people of Morowali, in FEAST journal, The Meal, Issue 3.
2013 Scalici, G., The ritual music of Wana people, Central Sulawesi, International Conference for Asia Pacific Arts Studies (ICAPAS), Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.19-30.
Conference presentations
2021 Costruire una Rumah Adat digitale: come preservare e trasmettere la cultura indigena Wana, 50 anni del Folkstudio di Palermo, Palermo, Italy, December 9-11
2021 The healing music of Wana people shamanism, playfulness and kasintuwu in the Indonesian jungle, Music and Spirituality Symposium, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia, September 13-14
2021 “They are playing”: Controlled violence in Wana funerals, Indonesia, Wellbeing, Harm, and Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, September 9-11
2021 Agama or not agama, the indigenous dilemma of the Wana people of Morowali, European Association for Southeast Asian Studies Annual Conference, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, September 7-10
2021 When rituals fail: cultural change and ritual failure among the Wana, Death, Dying and Disposal conference Biannual Conference, Manchester University, Manchester, UK, September 1-4
2021 Mafia kills only in summer: the role of death, dying and mafia in the everyday life of Palermitans, The Canadian Association for Italian Studies Annual Conference, Online conference, June 4-5 and 11-12
2021 Playing together to heal together: healing, music making and playfulness among the Wana people of Morowali, The Healing and Emotional Power of Music and Dance Symposium, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, May 20-21
2021 Singing together to grieve together music, communitas and playfulness in the Wana funeral, Indonesia, Music, Mortality, and Ritual Symposium, Durham University, Durham, UK, May 15
2021 Healing the individual to heal the community and vice versa: shamanic rituals and funerals of the Wana people of Morowali, ASA Annual Conference, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK, March 29 – April 2
2020 (Invited) Sydney Sacred Music Festival Forum Seminar Session, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia, September 9
2020 Mafia and the city: a death studies view on the Mafia phenomenon in Palermo, Death & Culture III, York University, York, UK, September 3-4
2020 Is Fictional Death Really a Fiction? Death, readers and comic book superheroes, Alt-ac.Uk: The Conference at the End of the World, Online conference, July 14
2019 It isn’t dead yet: the conception of dead and life among the Wana people, Self-Determination in the Twilight: Reflections on Advanced Healthcare Directives, Padua, Italy, September 28
2019 The crumbling of kasintuwu: death and communitas among the Wana people of Morowali, Indonesia, Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EARS), Tartu, Estonia, June 25-29
2018 Marginalized centre: Wana people and the geography of power, Annual Conference of the British Association for the Study of Religion (BARS), Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 3-5
2018 Gender at a funeral: Roles, spaces, and time in the Wana funeral, Indonesia, ASEAS-UK Postgraduate Seminar, York, UK, April 26
2017 Music and the hidden world: the role of music in the healing ritual of Wana people, Nordoff Robbins Plus Research Conference, London, UK, December 9-10
2017 From physically dead to culturally dead: funeral rituality of Wana people, Indonesia, Death, Dying and Disposal conference, Preston, UK, September 6-10
2015 Smiling Pain: A Healing Ritual among the Wana People of Morowali, Indonesia, Biannual Conference of the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS), Vienna, Austria, August 11-14
2015 Music and emotion in the healing rituals of the Wana people, Antropologia e Musica, Palermo, Italy, April 9-10
2014 Musica e sciamanismo dei Wana di Morowali, Sulawesi Centrale, Annual Meeting of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) – Italian Committee, Rome, Italy, January 15-17
2013 The ritual music of Wana people, Central Sulawesi, Annual Conference of the International Conference for Asia Pacific Arts Studies (ICAPAS), Yogyakarta, Indonesia, November12-13
CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION
2023 ASDS’ Death, Dying and Disposal (DDD) conference.
Padua University, Padua, Italy, September
2021 The Healing and Emotional Power of Music and Dance Symposium, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, May 20-21
2021 Music, Mortality, and Ritual Symposium, Durham University, Durham, UK, May 15
memberships
Since 2020 Member of the Endilife NoteBook Research Group of the University of Padova, Padua, Italy
Since 2020 Member of the Association of Social Anthropologists, UK.
Since 2019 Membership Secretary of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS)
2017-2019 Secretary and founder of Society for The Study of Religions, Durham University, UK
Since 2015 Member of the Advisory Board of Durham University Centre for Death and Life Studies, Durham, UK
archivist experience
2022-2022 Archivist for the Mapping Musical Life project, University of Palermo, Italy
2017-2018 Archivist (Placement) at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK
2011-2012 Archivist (Internship) at the Ethnomusicological Archive of “Accademia Santa Cecilia”, Rome, Italy
2018-2019 Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), Durham University, UK
2017-2018 Durham University Learning Teaching Award (DULTA), Durham University
2017-2018 Interreligious Understanding Today, Woolf Institute (Online course)
2016-2017 Religion is…, Woolf Institute (Online course)
Languages
| Speaking | Reading | Writing | |
| Italian | Native | Native | Native |
| English | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Bahasa | Very good | Very good | Very good |
| Spanish | Very good | Very good | Good |
| Wana | Very good | N/A | N/A |
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Audio Editing: Adobe Audition CC, Audacity, Cubase Pro 10, FilmoraPro
Creator and administrator of the HELP-MD project’s website (help-md.eu), of my personal website (giorgioscalici.eu) and of the Facebook page of the Durham University Centre for Death and Life Studies
Microsoft365
Teleconferencing and distance education: Cisco Webex Meeting, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Zoom
Video Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Elements, Filmora, Pinnacle Studio