Francesco’s project, “The development of European Sufism,” is focused particularly on the French and the Italian contexts, looking at the Alawiya (Shaykh Khaled Bentounes), Boutchichiyya (Shaykh Hamza), Naqshbandiyya Haqqaniya (Shaykh Mehmet), Ahmadiah Idrisiah Shadhiliyya (Shaykh Abdel-Wahid Pallavicini) and Jerrahi-Halveti (Shaykh Tugrul Inancer). Its approach is ethnographic. Its aim is to describe the development of European Sufism according to three different perspectives: the micro-sociological, the middle sociological, and the macro sociological.

Francesco is a PhD candidate at the EHESS (Paris) and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and is currently visiting the ICSRU as a guest researcher.