Claudio Ferlan
Claudio Ferlan (1972) is a senior researcher at Fondazione Bruno Kessler’s Italian-German Historical Institute in Trento. He holds degrees in law and the history of Christianity, as well as a Ph.D. in Modern History. His research focuses primarily on the Society of Jesus and the history of Christian missions in Europe and the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. His work also explores the history of Native Americans and food culture, examining its significance in both Indigenous and Christian religious traditions.
His most recent books include Il lungo sentiero. La storia mai conclusa dei nativi nel Nordamerica (il Mulino, 2025, The Long Path: The Unfinished Story of the Natives in North America, The Jesuits. A Thematic History (Jesuit Sources, 2024), and Storia delle missioni cristiane. Dalle origini alla decolonizzazione (il Mulino, 2023, History of Christian Missions. From the Origins to Decolonization).
He has held research appointments at several leading international institutions, including the Universities of Klagenfurt and Graz, the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris, the University of California, Berkeley, and Boston College. This international experience has strengthened his commitment to public history and the communication of history as essential components of contemporary society. He actively pursues this commitment as editor-in-chief of FBK Magazine and through his personal newsletter, Il piacere delle parole (The pleasure of words).
Spotlight's articles
-
March 4, 2026Interview with Claudio FerlanClaudio Ferlan, a researcher at the Italian-German Historical Institute, has been confirmed for another three-year term as Director of FBK’s publications, a role he has held since 2022, in alignment with Massimo Rospocher’s leadership of FBK-ISIG. We asked him a few questions to better understand and discuss upcoming projects. -
March 23, 2023Not just a name. The Legacy of Bruno KesslerRadio FBK's new podcast presents the conversation among historians around the figure of Bruno Kessler, Trentino's ferryman from what it was until the early 1960s to what it has become over the next four decades. -
May 11, 2022Deep fake: between history and current affairsThis month's podcast and vodcast sees a conversation between a human scientist (historian Claudio Ferlan) and a researcher in science and technology (Elisabetta Farella). An interdisciplinary path around the topic of falsehood, in history as well as in the present time. An open reflection that poses new questions and at the same time allows us to take a closer look at what the craft of research is all about, exploring the laboratory of knowledge in the making -
March 25, 2021Fasting is not anymore what it used to beWe are in Lent, the forty-day period preceding Easter which according to Catholic norms should be characterized by fasting and abstinence. Often the two terms are used interchangeably, but it is wrong to do so. -
March 28, 2019Claudio Ferlan wins a grant at Boston CollegeThe FBK-ISIG researcher was selected with a writing project that investigates the relationship between religion and food
-
December 23, 2016Mobility story: Claudio FerlanI met Claudio Ferlan and asked him to take a few minutes of his time to share his experience of Mobility abroad.