Annalisa Burello is a writer and researcher working through arts-based research to explore art, spirituality, consciousness, creativity and transformation in contemporary secular culture.
Academic and Intellectual Background
My intellectual formation is interdisciplinary.
I have an MSc in Economics from Bocconi and spent fifteen years in investment banking before leaving that career in 2006. That background is important because it gives me direct experience of high-pressure capitalist and patriarchal institutional environments. It also informs City Girls, which draws on the culture of finance, ambition, motherhood, crisis, professional identity and female reinvention.
I later studied photography at the University of Westminster and developed a visual and artistic practice. I also studied Anthropology of Religion at LSE, which became the intellectual foundation for my work on contemporary spirituality, secularisation, ritual, art, belief, and the sacred in post-religious societies.
Additional vocational and experiential training includes HICAT in 2023 and Psych-K. There may be other courses and trainings to add, but these are part of the wider field of enquiry into transformation, healing, consciousness, belief and embodied change.
My work has also developed through extensive self-directed research into spirituality studies, anthropology of religion, contemporary art, neuropsychology, affect regulation, ritual, material religion, consciousness studies, Dissanayake’s work on artification, Schore’s work on affect regulation, and the role of art in human development and meaning-making.
Academic Output, Talks and Public Work
My academic and public work includes writing, talks, conference presentations, online events and public conversations.
Known talks and presentations include:
INSS / BASS Zoom talk, 8 June 2021.
McGilchrist retreat, Cotswolds, 3 October 2021.
Scientific and Medical Network online talk, 26 January 2022.
SASIG online talk, 12 September 2023.
Scientific and Medical Network online talk, 23 September 2023.
Oxford ABR / LABRC talk, 10 May 2025.
INSS Northampton presentation, 17 June 2025.
These details may need checking and completing, but they show that the work has already had a public and intellectual life through talks, online events and conference settings.
My article “Art as Spiritual Technology” has been developed for academic publication and submitted/revised in relation to the Journal for the Study of Spirituality. The central thesis is that art can be understood as a secular spiritual technology through its capacity to regulate affect, create connection, shape experience, and generate transformation.
I have also developed a broader book project, currently framed around contemporary spirituality, secular meaning-making, art, extraordinary experience, ritual, belief, and the function of spirituality in post-religious societies. The book is important, but the website should not depend on the book being published within a year. It should be presented as a long-term research and writing project, not as the sole foundation of the public platform.