Chiara Ombretta Tommasi, a former student of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (1991–95) and holder of a PhD in Classical Philology (2000), teaches History of Religions and History of Early Christianity at the University of Pisa. Her main research interests focus on Late Antiquity, with particular attention to the dialectic between pagans and Christians, the presence of esoteric currents, and the relationships with other cults of foreign origin within the Mediterranean religious landscape. In recent years, she has broadened her research horizons to include the interactions between classical civilizations and the Far East, coordinating with Andrea Balbo the “SERICA, Sino-European Religious Intercations in Central Asia. Intelligent Networks”, project. She is currently preparing a commented edition of China Illustrata by Athanasius Kircher. In 2024, a volume entitled Religions: A Global History was published by Le Monnier/Mondadori Education. She is a member of numerous scientific committees (Axolotl. Collana di Storia delle Religioni at Mimesis, Milan/Udine; Documenta Orientalia, Pacini, Pisa; PLUS, Pisa University Press; Roma Sinica and Millennium, De Gruyter, Berlin; Religion, Routledge; Religeographies, Fondazione Cini; Religions in the Roman Empire, Tübingen). She serves as Vice-President of the EASR (European Association for the Study of Religion); is a member of the Laboratoire sur les Monothéismes of the French CNRS; of the Executive Board of the Institut d’Études Augustiniennes in Paris; and of the Academia Europaea in London.
