Dr Diego Maria Malara
- Senior Lecturer (Sociological & Cultural Studies)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3215-9940Biography
Diego Maria Malara joined the University of Glasgow in 2018 as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Global Religion. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, an MSc in Medical Anthropology from the same institution, an MA in African Studies from Dalarna University, and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Bologna. Prior to joining the University of Glasgow, he held a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, and a teaching fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. During his doctoral fieldwork research, he was a research affiliate at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the University of Addis Ababa.
Research interests
Diego Maria Malara’s research interests include:
- Ritual and religion
- Embodiment and personhood
- Ethics and care
- Spirit possession, witchcraft and magic
- Kinship and relatedness
- Religious media and visual anthropology
- Religious pluralism
- Food, commensality and hospitality
- Health and healing
- Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity
During fieldwork conducted in 2011-2013, Diego Maria Malara started flirting with visual ethnography. The first offspring of this ongoing romance was ‘The Devil and the Holy Water’ (2016), a documentary film on new forms of Ethiopian Orthodox exorcism that has won several international awards and has been screened in academic fora as well as film festivals across Europe, Australia and the US.
Research groups
Publications
2024
Ingold, T., Gibb, R. , Tonner, P. and Malara, D. M. (2024) Conversations with Tim Ingold: Anthropology, Education and Life. Scottish Universities Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781917341028 (doi: 10.62637/sup.cmnz6231)
2022
Malara, D. M. and Dejene, B. H. (2022) Possessed by the post-socialist zeitgeist: history, spirits and the problem of generational (dis)continuity in an Ethiopian Orthodox exorcism. In: Francello, Sandra and Gusman, Alessandro (eds.) Charismatic Healers in Contemporary Africa: Deliverance in Muslim and Christian Worlds. Series: Bloomsbury advances in religious studies. Bloomsbury Academic: London, pp. 160-177. ISBN 9781350295445 (doi: 10.5040/9781350295476.0018)
Malara, D. M. (2022) Exorcizing the spirit of Protestantism: ambiguity and spirit possession in an Ethiopian Orthodox ritual. Ethnos, 87(4), pp. 749-770. (doi: 10.1080/00141844.2019.1631871)
Malara, D. M. (2022) Angels and demons: notes on kinship and exorcism at an Ethiopian Orthodox shrine. In: Espírito Santo, Diana and Shapiro, Matan (eds.) The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession. Series: Bloomsbury advances in religious studies. Bloomsbury Academic: London, pp. 21-34. ISBN 9781350298859 (doi: 10.5040/9781350299351.ch-1)
Malara, D. M. (2022) Sympathy for the Devil: secrecy, magic and transgression among Ethiopian Orthodox debtera. Ethnos, 87(3), pp. 444-462. (doi: 10.1080/00141844.2019.1707255)
2018
Mayblin, M. and Malara, D. (2018) Special Section: Discipline and Lenience in Religious Systems [Guest Editor]. Social Analysis, 62(3),
Malara, D. M. and Boylston, T. (2018) Vertical love: forms of submission and top-down power in Orthodox Ethiopia. In: Hickel, Jason and Haynes, Naomi (eds.) Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. Berghahn Books: New York. ISBN 9781785339967
Malara, D. (2018) The alimentary forms of religious life: technologies of the other, lenience, and the ethics of Ethiopian Orthodox fasting. Social Analysis, 62(3), pp. 21-41. (doi: 10.3167/sa.2018.620302)
Mayblin, M. and Malara, D. (2018) Introduction: lenience in systems of religious meaning and practice. Social Analysis, 62(3), pp. 1-20. (doi: 10.3167/sa.2018.620301)
2016
Malara, D. and Boylston, T. (2016) Vertical love: forms of submission and top-down power in Orthodox Ethiopia. Social Analysis, 60(4), pp. 40-57. (doi: 10.3167/sa.2016.600403)
2011
Malara, D. (2011) Le tradizioni terapeutiche della Chiesa Ortodossa Etiopica. In: Nicolini, Beatrice and Taddia, Irma (eds.) Il Corno d'Africa: Tra Medicina, Politica e Storia. Novalogos: Aprilia. ISBN 9788897339427
Malara, D. (2011) Le tradizioni terapeutiche della Chiesa Ortodossa Etiopica: alcune considerazioni preliminari. Quaderni del CIRSDIG, 48, pp. 4-36.
Articles
Malara, D. M. (2022) Exorcizing the spirit of Protestantism: ambiguity and spirit possession in an Ethiopian Orthodox ritual. Ethnos, 87(4), pp. 749-770. (doi: 10.1080/00141844.2019.1631871)
Malara, D. M. (2022) Sympathy for the Devil: secrecy, magic and transgression among Ethiopian Orthodox debtera. Ethnos, 87(3), pp. 444-462. (doi: 10.1080/00141844.2019.1707255)
Mayblin, M. and Malara, D. (2018) Special Section: Discipline and Lenience in Religious Systems [Guest Editor]. Social Analysis, 62(3),
Malara, D. (2018) The alimentary forms of religious life: technologies of the other, lenience, and the ethics of Ethiopian Orthodox fasting. Social Analysis, 62(3), pp. 21-41. (doi: 10.3167/sa.2018.620302)
Mayblin, M. and Malara, D. (2018) Introduction: lenience in systems of religious meaning and practice. Social Analysis, 62(3), pp. 1-20. (doi: 10.3167/sa.2018.620301)
Malara, D. and Boylston, T. (2016) Vertical love: forms of submission and top-down power in Orthodox Ethiopia. Social Analysis, 60(4), pp. 40-57. (doi: 10.3167/sa.2016.600403)
Malara, D. (2011) Le tradizioni terapeutiche della Chiesa Ortodossa Etiopica: alcune considerazioni preliminari. Quaderni del CIRSDIG, 48, pp. 4-36.
Books
Ingold, T., Gibb, R. , Tonner, P. and Malara, D. M. (2024) Conversations with Tim Ingold: Anthropology, Education and Life. Scottish Universities Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781917341028 (doi: 10.62637/sup.cmnz6231)
Book Sections
Malara, D. M. and Dejene, B. H. (2022) Possessed by the post-socialist zeitgeist: history, spirits and the problem of generational (dis)continuity in an Ethiopian Orthodox exorcism. In: Francello, Sandra and Gusman, Alessandro (eds.) Charismatic Healers in Contemporary Africa: Deliverance in Muslim and Christian Worlds. Series: Bloomsbury advances in religious studies. Bloomsbury Academic: London, pp. 160-177. ISBN 9781350295445 (doi: 10.5040/9781350295476.0018)
Malara, D. M. (2022) Angels and demons: notes on kinship and exorcism at an Ethiopian Orthodox shrine. In: Espírito Santo, Diana and Shapiro, Matan (eds.) The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession. Series: Bloomsbury advances in religious studies. Bloomsbury Academic: London, pp. 21-34. ISBN 9781350298859 (doi: 10.5040/9781350299351.ch-1)
Malara, D. M. and Boylston, T. (2018) Vertical love: forms of submission and top-down power in Orthodox Ethiopia. In: Hickel, Jason and Haynes, Naomi (eds.) Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. Berghahn Books: New York. ISBN 9781785339967
Malara, D. (2011) Le tradizioni terapeutiche della Chiesa Ortodossa Etiopica. In: Nicolini, Beatrice and Taddia, Irma (eds.) Il Corno d'Africa: Tra Medicina, Politica e Storia. Novalogos: Aprilia. ISBN 9788897339427
Supervision
I would like to hear from students interested in any of my areas of interest.
- Habte, Tsion Afework
Exploring gendered mental health issues in a One Health context with a pastoralist community in the Afar region of Ethiopia. - Ulysse, Steveen
Rethinking Haitian Vodou
Teaching
'Anthropology of Religion' - Section of 'Sociology 2B', Undergraduate 2018-2019
'Religion in Society' - Postgraduate 2018-2019
'Cosmology, Ritual and Belief' - Undergraduate (Hons.) 2019-2020
Additional information
I am the Postgraduate Dissertation coordinator