From the early modern period to the present, Christian missions have been central to the global history of the Churches, shaping religious institutions through encounters with new peoples, forms of knowledge, and environments. Missionary activity functioned as a laboratory of adaptation, where evangelization intersected with colonial expansion, cultural translation, and social transformation.

This conference brings together international scholars to examine Christian missions from a global and interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on four key dimensions of missionary history: the production and circulation of knowledge, the material and everyday life of missions, the roles of women and gendered hierarchies, and the conflicts generated by missionary encounters. By integrating religious history with social, cultural, and colonial studies, the meeting aims to reassess missionary experiences beyond normative narratives, highlighting negotiation, hybridity, and tension.

Through comparative and transnational approaches, the conference seeks to contribute to current debates on global Christianity and to renew the historiography of missions from the early modern era to the twentieth century.

PROGRAM

September 16, Afternoon (14:30–18:30)

Institutional Greetings
Massimo Rospocher (Director of the Italian-German Historical Institute, Bruno Kessler Foundation)
Cristiano Casalini (Academic Director, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Boston College)

Introduction
Danielle Terrazas Williams (University of Leeds)
Claudio Ferlan (Italian-German Historical Institute, Bruno Kessler Foundation, Trento)

1. Production of Knowledge

Erica Feild-Marchello (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona)
Crossing Oceans, Converting Tongues: Missionary Language-Making from Central Africa to the Andes (17th century)

Raffaella Perin (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano)
Connecting the Jesuit Missions: Włodzimierz Ledóchowski and the Making of a Global Communication Network

Kirsten Rüther (University of Vienna)
Committed to New Publics: Radio Voice of the Gospel’s Attempt at Creating a Sphere for Mission, Culture and Education in the 1960s and 1970s

Tara Alberts (University of York)
Oaths, Cultural Translation and Making Meaning on the Mission Fields of Early Modern Vietnam

Discussion:
A dedicated Q&A and open discussion session will follow the presentations

September 17, Morning (09:00–13:00)

2. Everyday Life

Anastasiia Akulich (University of Leeds)
Fasting and Feasting: Easter Celebrations and Community Formation in the Russian Orthodox Mission in China

Paul Kollman (University of Notre Dame)
Constrained Freedom and Redemptive Enslavement: Catholic Missionary Evangelization in German East Africa

Emanuele Colombo (Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Boston College)
Popular Missions? Jesuits in the Italian Peninsula (1814–1900)

Isabel Harvey (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Nature and Its Challenges: Rethinking Missionary Practice through Environmental Constraints in Seventeenth-Century New France

Discussion:
A dedicated Q&A and open discussion session will follow the presentations

September 17, Afternoon (14:30–18:30)

3. Women and Mission

Sarah Barthélemy (UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles)
Women and Spiritual Retreats in Catholic Missions

Emilie Murphy (University of York)
Cloistered Missionaries: English Nuns, Historical Writing, and the Reclaiming of Catholic England

Valentina Ciciliot (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia)
Women and Missionary Writing: Female Voices within the Catholic Missions of the PIME

Sabina Pavone (Università L’Orientale, Napoli)
Widows, Sisters, and Missionaries: Negotiating Gender in the Madurai Mission

Discussion:
A dedicated Q&A and open discussion session will follow the presentations

September 18, Morning (09:00–13:00)

4. Conflicts

Cristiano Casalini (Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Boston College)
“Remaining at the Oars:” Jesuit Teachers, Obedience, and the Denial of Missionary Desire

Karène Sanchez-Summerer (University of Groningen)
Photography as a Missionary Tool: Visualizing the Holy Land and the Politics of Representation (1870–1950)

Magnus Lundberg (University of Uppsala)
The Mission of a Celestial Messenger: Spiritual Conflicts in Chicago’s Little Italy

Bernhard Schär (UniDistance, Suisse)
The Women Who Financed Protestant Missions: Fundraising and Knowledge in a Transimperial Perspective

Discussion:
A dedicated Q&A and open discussion session will follow the presentations

Conclusions

Concluding Remarks & Final Discussion
A dedicated session at the very end of the final day to conclude the works, synthesize key themes, and open the floor for final remarks.

Fellowship Poster Session

Note: A dedicated, substantial space during the day is allocated to the junior scholars’ poster session to foster direct discussion and conversational exchange on their research.

Federico Ballarin
Jacopo Bertol
Silvia Eleonora Brera
Raffaello Cardaccia
Alice Cascato
Claire Zhenxu Fan
Serafima Grechisnikova
Oliver Laband
Francesca Menelao
Simone Zirolia

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Image:
Chapel, MissionHouse, and School, Mbua (Boston. Congregational Publishing Society, 1871)
Anonymous work in the public domain. No copyright restrictions.