Floriana Marra
Research AssociateInstitution Positions:
- Cotutelle PhD Student of Religious Studies and Philology and History of Ancient World at CERES (Ruhr-Universität) and the University of Rome, ‘La Sapienza’.
- Cultrice della Materia (Expert in the field of Iranian Studies) at Pisa University
Link to the personal Website at the University of Rome
Project:
(Provisory) Title: The Manichaean Cosmos between Iranian and Heterogeneous Traditions of Knowledge.
Abstract: The project attempts to study the development of Manichaean cosmogony and cosmology in the Middle Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian), as well as its possible regional varieties. It also aims to understand how the different linguistic traditions of Iranian Manichaeism were influenced by the religions with which they coexisted, especially Zoroastrianism.
Areas of Research
- Manichaeism
- Zoroastrianism
- Zoroastrianism in Central Asia
- Religions and Religious Encounters in Central Asia
- Middle Iranian Languages (Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian)
- Manuscript Studies
- 10/2021 – ongoing Ph.D. Religious Studies (CERES, RUHR-Universität – University of Rome, ‘La Sapienza’).
- ‘The Manichaean Cosmos between Iranian and heterogeneous traditions of knowledge’ (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kianoosh Rezania – Prof. Chiara Barbati).
- 02/2019 – 08/2020 Junior Research Fellow at Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna (Austria).
- Junior Research Fellow within the FWF (Austrian Science Fund) Project "Scribal Habits. A Case Study from Christian Medieval Central Asia" directed by Chiara Barbati at the Institute for Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna.
- The project aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the scribal habits and approaches as reflected in Eastern–Christian Sogdian and Syriac manuscripts discovered in the Early 20th century in Turfan Oasis (present-day Xinjiang, China). Within the project, I was concerned with the investigation of the use of some diacritics in Central Asian manuscripts, and their comparison with other scribal traditions.
- 09/2017 -11/2019 University of Bologna, Bologna (Italy).
- SS 2023: ‘Introduction to Manichaeism’ (210062)
- WS2023/2024: ‘Manichaeism East and West’ (210054)
- SS2024: ‘The Manichaean Cosmos’ (210031)
- WS2024/2025: ‘Iranian Manichaeism’ and coteaching ‘Manichaeism in Religiöse Traditionen’
- ‘Manichaean Cosmogony and Cosmology’, in 10th IAMS Conference (Conference of International Association of Manichaean Studies, 8-11 August 2022), Aarhus University (Denmark).
- ‘Manichaean Cosmogony and Cosmology and Its Iranian Background’ in XXXIVth DOT (Deutscher Orientalistentag, 12-17 September 2022), Freie University (Berlin)
- ‘Manichaean Cosmogony and Cosmology: the Case of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos’ in Vith CoBIran (Convegno Bolognese di Iranistica, 20-21 October), Bologna University (Italy).
- ‘Some Reflections on the Religious Encounters in Manichaean Cosmological Texts’, in Xth ECIS (Tenth European Conference of Iranian Studies, 21-25 August), Leiden University.
- ‘How did the Iranian Manichaeans Translate?’, in Late Antiquity as an Epoch of Translation. Workshop June 20th-21st 2024.
Research Associate of Center for Religious Studies and Western Asian History of Religions
PhD Student of CERES Early Career Researchers' Program and Western Asian History of Religions