Keywords: History of culture, Places of knowledge, Libraries and archives, Sociability, Spirituality

The GI Sociabilities and Religious Practices has more than 25 years of experience in various areas of activity, and its specialization covers the areas of history, literature, cultural studies and religious studies, seeking innovative multidisciplinary links between these and other related areas of CITCEM.

The IG will continue to focus on the historical development of religious sentiment and spirituality from a sociocultural point of view, promoting research in the areas of religious forms of sociability, such as devotions and changes in spiritual sensitivity, religious-military institutions and communities, literature on spirituality, hagiography, epistolography, aristocratic and monastic libraries and archives (of female and male communities).

In the period 2025-29, the IG aims to offer crucial contributions – in the form of research, training, dissemination and collaborations – to understanding the impact of spiritual, religious and cultural frameworks on different types of communities in a kaleidoscopic and polyphonic approach to their history and as parts of a global historical process. Special attention will be paid to communities as places of knowledge and to the reconstruction of historical communities. To this end, various activities will be organized, as well as research projects to produce online databases and map the data obtained to disseminate the knowledge acquired. In order to achieve these objectives, it will be essential to work together with other CITCEM IGs, namely the “Information, Communication and Digital Cultures” group (to promote the organization and dissemination of the information collected and analyzed), the “Material and Intangible Heritage” group (to promote the study of the material heritage of the monastic communities studied) and “Education and Societal Challenges” (to help educate local, regional and national audiences, political and administrative structures and policymakers about heritage preservation).