Mario Resta is a historian of Christianity. After training in Ancient and Late Antique History and Litterature at the University of Bari (BA in Humanities in 2011; MA in History in 2013), he earned his PhD (Doctor Europaeus) in Ancient and Late Antique Studies from the same University in 2018.
It was a joint Doctorate between the University of Bari and the University of Republic of San Marino. In 2017, he spent four months at the University of Valladolid as a visiting doctoral student. His doctoral thesis was dedicated to the relationship between Christianity, music and dance in Late Antiquity.
He has worked as Postdoctoral Researcher at Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome (2019-2020), Fondazione Michele Pellegrino in Turin (2020-2022) and Fondazione per le Scienze religiose “Giovanni XXIII” in Bologna and Palermo (2022-2023).
In 2021, he received the “Edipuglia Renzo Ceglie” Award for the publication of his book «Cristo vale meno di un ballerino?». Danza e musica strumentale nel vissuto dei cristiani di età tardoantica.
In 2023, he earned the National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor in the Italian higher education system for the disciplinary field of 11/A4 - Science of Books and Documents, History of Religions (History of Christianity).
His research interests lie within ancient lived religion, social history of Christianity, hagiography, gender history, dance studies and pop culture.
