The Folklore Program was honored to host Dr. Alessandro Testa as a Visiting Professor in Spring 2025. Professor Testa is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University, Prague, and is widely recognized for his research in cultural heritage and comparative religion. He has particular research interests in ritual, magic, collective memory, cultural identity, and nationalism across Europe. His recent books include the monographs Ritualising Cultural Heritage and Re-Enchanting Rituals in Europe (2023) and Rituality and Social (Dis)Order: The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe (2020).
In the spring semester, Professor Testa taught two courses in the Folklore Program. The first, “Heritage, Memory, and Identities in Europe,” offered an introduction to the analytical study of the relationship between cultural heritage and collective identity in Europe, presenting examples from various European countries, with a special focus on Professor Testa’s own historical and ethnographic research in Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Catalonia. The second course, “Theories of Magic (in Social Anthropology and History of Religions),” provided a broad overview of magic as studied from various scientific theoretical perspectives, drawing upon over 2000 years of intellectual history and 150 years of modern research across disciplines such as social anthropology, history of religions, ethnology, folkloristics, and cognitive and cultural studies. In this course, students engaged with magic as a historically diverse and polysemic phenomenon, offering interpretive tools for studying beliefs and practices related to magic in both past and present cultures.
We were thrilled to have Professor Testa with us in the spring. Students and faculty enjoyed many conversations with him on a wide range of topics including not only vernacular traditions and cultural heritage but also literature, music, cinema, and fine arts.