Alberto Melloni is a professor of History of Christianity at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Director of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies (Fscire) and Chair holder of the UNESCO Chair on Religious Pluralism and Peace at the University of Bologna. He studied history and church history at the University of Bologna, Cornell University and Université de Fribourg. He became member of the Institute for religious studies (now Fscire) in 1982. He is project coordinator of the starting community ReIReS (Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies) and of the research infrastructure Resilience (REligious Studies Infrastructure: tooLs, Experts, conNections and CEnters), headed by Fscire. He also spearheaded the establishment of the European Academy of Religion, a research platform which includes institutions, associations, academies, publishers, reviews concerned with the study of religion throughout Europe, the Mediterrean, Middle East, the Balkans, Caucasus and Russia. He is the director of the COGD program and the History of Ecumenism. He has written more than 400 articles and several books on religious history. Among the last books he wrote or directed: Luther. A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517-2017), Berlin, De Gruyter 2017; Benedetto XV. Giacomo della Chiesa nel mondo dell’inutile strage, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017; Il concilio e la grazia, Milano, Jaca Book, 2016; Rimozioni. Lercaro e la pace 1968, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018. He is columnist of «La Repubblica», and RaiNews.