Religiomics is a research project focused on the relationships between religion and comics.

In this project, the term religion is used in a very broad sense: including spirituality, esotericism, psychedelics, occultism, and even fiction-based and parody religion.

In fact, comics have often been the vehicle for disseminating both institutional religions and heterodox doctrines.

RELIGIOMICS

Un progetto di ricerca sulla relazione tra religione e fumetti

In questo progetto, la religione è intesa in un senso molto ampio: include spiritualità, esoterismo, psichedelia, occultismo e persino religioni parodistiche.

Infatti, i fumetti sono stati spesso un veicolo per la diffusione sia delle religioni istituzionali che di dottrine eterodosse.

'The Oracle' by Jean Giraud (Moebius).

The project

The project aims to establish a long-term platform for scholars and artists to discuss and share insights on this intersection.

Differently from previous research, Religiomics does not focus only on artworks, but also on the biographical journeys of artists and on their audiences. It tries to understand how artists and audiences live and produce religion via comics. That’s why in this website you will find an online survey for comics readers, inquiring what emotions and experience readers live.

SURVEY!

Your point of view is important to our research!

An initiative by Francesco Piraino

Religiomics is a joint initiative of the University of Bologna, Université de Lausanne, and Harvard University, led by Francesco Piraino.

This project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement Project 101149839 — RELIGIOMICS.

Prof. Marco Santoro (University of Bologna) and Prof. Irene Becci (University of Lausanne) are the supervisors of this project.

Members of network

Initial network members include David Lewis (UMass Medical School) and Kees de Groot (Tilburg University), and Matthew Brake (George Mason University).