Dr. Clizia Franceschini (Main Investigator)
She currently holds a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her research focuses on preserving religious heritage, analyzing UNESCO and European policies, and their interaction with religious communities. Her latest publication, UNESCO, Religious Cultural Heritage and Political Contestation: Conflict of Values or Values in Conflict? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), highlights her expertise in this field. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Florence and leads Working Group 4 (The crisis of intangible heritage and its impact on tangible heritage loss) within COST Action CA24125.
She earned her PhD in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage from the IMT School of Advanced Studies in Lucca (Italy) in 2022 and was a Fellow at the University of Bologna, Campus of Ravenna. As a Fellow, she also served as an academic tutor for courses on Human Rights Law, Religion, and Comparative Ecclesiastical Law. Her academic path began with a law degree from the University of Bologna in 2017, where her master’s thesis concentrated on religious cultural heritage and the Palestinian conflict. In 2018 and 2020, she furthered her expertise as a Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Visiting Researcher at UNIDROIT in Rome.
PD Dr. habil. Izabella Parowicz (International Supervisor)
PD Dr. habil. Izabella Parowicz is a Senior Researcher at the Chair for Heritage Studies at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and Coordinator of the MA programme Strategies for European Cultural Heritage. A double Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow of the European Commission, she specialises in the management and marketing of cultural heritage, with particular interest in genealogical and religious intangible heritage. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the COST Action CA24125 Cultural Heritage in Crisis: Transdisciplinary Assessment of Legal and Regulatory Frameworks (CRICULT).
Prof. Piotr Stec (International Supervisor)
Prof. Piotr Stec is an academic lawyer specializing in cultural heritage law, in particular art trade and return of cultural goods. He is now based at the University of Opole where he serves as a director of the Institute of Law and chair of the Private Law Department. He is currently the Chair of the COST Action CA24125 Cultural Heritage in Crisis: Transdisciplinary Assessment of Legal and Regulatory Frameworks (CRICULT).
Dr. Giacomo Giorgini Pignatiello (Collaborator)
Qualified as Associate Professor (Professore di II Fascia) in Comparative Law (academic sector 12/E2), he has been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” He holds a Ph.D. in Legal Sciences from the University of Siena (36th cycle). He is the author of a monograph entitled “La natura come soggetto di diritto. Lezioni dal Sud globale?” (Editoriale Scientifica, 2025).
His main research interests, from a comparative perspective, include the rule of law, the legal protection of nature, the rights of LGBTI+ persons, and the impact of new technologies on law.
