Who is Stefano Bigliardi?

This is a new episode of Real Sciences podcast and in this episode we are welcoming professor Stefano Bigliardi. He is a professor of philosophy in Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. He is interested in research about Islam and science, New Religious Movements, movies and philosophy, and Ancient Aliens. His research interests are very close to the topics that we are interested in, in Real Sciences. welcome Stefano and I hope I pronounced your name correctly.

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Yes, the pronunciation was perfect. Thank you so much for the invite and for the introduction. Indeed, I'm a professor of philosophy at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco since 2016. By education, I am a scholar in the philosophy of science. I graduated in philosophy with a focus on the philosophy of science from the University of Bologna, where I earned my PhD. Then, I worked at different institutions around the world until I received an offer from AUI, where I am happily serving as an associate professor. I've been specializing in the debate on religion and science, with a focus on Islam and modern science. Then, 10 years ago, I started studying New Religious Movements and science as well.

If you wonder what my methodology is, I would say that I have two hats. On the one hand, I'm an historian of ideas or ethnographer in the sense that I reconstruct the debate from the outside. Also, I engage in interviews with the participants in the debate. This is one of the advantages of studying modern authors; you can send them an email and interact with them! But still, I'm a philosopher at heart, you can say, and therefore, if needed, I also engage in criticism of ideas.

To contact Dr. Stefano Bigliardi: S.Bigliardi@aui.ma

We're interested in your main publications and your academic journey. How did you come to focus on studying these particular topics?

It’s a long story, in fact, but I'll try to summarize it. As you may know, in Italy, being a secular country, religious education is optional. When I was a kid, my parents opted me out of religious education in primary school, so while my schoolmates were attending that class, I would do something else in a classroom nearby. There was an Egyptian kid, a girl by the name of Abir, who, by the way, is currently a journalist. She would talk to me about Egypt, she would talk to me about Arabic, and my interest started, in fact, with Arabic, which I perceived as an interesting intellectual challenge. So, later on, while I was already a university student, I started studying Arabic at the university in a sort of parallel course to my official studies. Then, I traveled to Egypt multiple times to study Arabic in Alexandria and also to teach Italian. That's how I got exposed to ideas on Islam and modern science. Then, I decided to conduct research in the field for my postdoc work. That's the story in a nutshell.

Islam and Science

I wanted to ask you about your book The Crescent and the Splitting Moon (in Italian: La Mezzaluna e la Luna dimezzata, 2018). I wish that we see this book translated to Arabic one day. My first question is what attracted you to study the relationship between science and religion particularly for Islam?

Okay, my interest in religion perhaps stems from the fact that I was not raised religious. Maybe the more you are deprived of something, the more you get interested in it. Islam, in particular, wasn't mainstream and in fact it was stigmatized; my interest peaked in the aftermath of 9/11.  I also started wondering whether the debate on religion and science in the Muslim world would be different or similar to that among Christians.

The book was published in 2018, so it's already a few years ago.

Id. d’épisode : 1000655228577

GUID : https://real-sciences.com/?p=260031

Date de publication : 11/5/2024 à 02:03:54