I am a Senior Lecturer in Religion at the School of Social Sciences of the University of Hull, UK, and Director of the Centre for Spirituality Studies CSS at the University of Hull. I am also a member of the international networks International Exchange on Media and Religion and Commun(icat)ing Bodies, a project that was funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

I am an avid CrossFitter (at CrossFit Hull) and currently preparing a research bid on CrossFit as meaning making practice, CrossFit and religion, the marketing of CrossFit, and the sociology of CrossFit. If your research interests include CrossFit, please get in touch. To follow my CrossFit journey, check out my Instagram feed: https://instagram.com/ad_ornella.

My other research interest includes the relationship between the human body/technology/religion, religion and popular culture, religion and media/film and I have published extensively on these topics.

I received my doctorate from Graz University, Graz, Austria, in 2007. My PhD major is Fundamental Theology, my minor in Ethics and Catholic Social Teaching. My thesis The Networked Subject analyzed the constitution and transformation processes of subjectivity through information and communication technology. The thesis was published with LIT-Verlag in 2010.

In my research for my Magister, I looked at the relevance of US civil religious language and iconography in GW Bush’ speeches after 9/11. The title of the thesis was: Zivilreligion in den USA. Entstehung –  wissenschaftliche Debatte – Aktualität in den Reden von George Walker Bush nach dem 11. September 2001. [Civil Religion in the USA. Emergence – Scientific Debate – Significance in the Adresses of George Walker Bush after 9/11].