Lisa Scilipoti

(she/her)

BA, MA, PhD in progress

Overview

I am a PhD researcher based at the Department of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University and I am currenlty working as a research fellow in the StoryPharmProject funded by European Commission’s Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctorate Network (DN) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). I hold a BA in Classics (Greek and Latin Linguistic and Literature) and an MA in Classical Philology and Ancient History from the University of Pisa (Italy). My main research interests include Greek and Roman Medicine (from Homer to Galen), Health Illness and Disease in Late Antiquity and Manichaean Studies, but I also have a strong interest in medical storytelling, narrative medicine and phenomenology of illness.

My research project entitled “The concept of Healing from Galen to Mani: a linguistic inspection on the historical and religious origins of Mani persona as medicus-magus and its impact on the Late Antique culture” aims to explore the historical persona of Mani as a healer and the Manichaean ideology on the interconnection between Soul-Body and Health-Illness. This study involves a systematic linguistic analysis of Manichaean healing terminology in close connection with Ancient Greek medical knowledge—particularly the technical writings of the 2nd-century physician Galen—and extends to the theological reinterpretations of health and illness motifs in the broader framework of Late Antique culture.