Annalisa Burello
Writer · Researcher · Visual Storyteller · Screenwriter in Training
London, United Kingdom · Italian and British citizenship · Languages: Italian native, English fluent
Burelloa@icloud.com · +44 7710 380212 (main) · +39 351 7327196 · LinkedIn
PROFILE
Interdisciplinary writer, researcher and visual storyteller with a background in international investment banking, photography, anthropology of religion and creative arts therapy. My work explores transformation, meaning-making, gender, identity and altered states of consciousness, with particular attention to the relationship between rationality, affect and lived experience. I am applying to the MA in Screenwriting for Series to acquire the narrative, structural and professional tools required to develop my visual imagination, research practice and lived experience into serial storytelling.
EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Short Film Making — NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan · July 2025 · University Credits · Grade: 100%
Intensive course in short film production, directing and visual storytelling; short film The Birthday available on request. Course Leader: Lisa Carletta.
Holistic Integrated Creative Art Therapy Practitioner Certificate — HICAT · 2023–2024 · Distinction
One-year, 20-module practical and theoretical training in the use of art in expressive, relational and affective processes.
MSc Social Anthropology – Religion in the Contemporary World — London School of Economics · 2020–2022 · Grade: Merit · part-time
BA (Hons) Photography — University of Westminster · 2013–2019 · Grade: First Class Honours
Visual research and documentary/conceptual photography projects.
Laurea in Monetary and Financial Economics — Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan · 1988–1993 · 108/110
NARRATIVE, AUDIOVISUAL AND VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
The Birthday — 2025 · short film produced at NABA
Short film developed during NABA Short Film Making; available on request.
City Girls / Le ragazze della City — TV series in development
Ensemble series about a group of women who arrive in the City of London from Italy and other countries and build careers in international finance until the eve of the global financial crisis.
Inspired by my experience in international investment banking before the global financial crisis; themes include power, identity, ambition, belonging and personal transformation.
The financial world is treated as a human and emotional ecosystem, not only an economic one.
Un-titled — 2019 · medium format film photography · collective project on fatherhood
Personal concept and photograph within a collective project on contemporary fatherhood; I also contributed to the collective production process as photographer, assistant and technical support.
The image stages a father in a formal suit, with baby carrier and briefcase, standing before public toilet signs, reflecting on the institutional invisibility of paternal care and the conflicts between professional identity, fatherhood and gender roles.
The Seeker’s Project — 2019 · visual, conceptual and audiovisual project
Series composed of two works on states of consciousness, perception, transformation and transcendence: Enlightenment, a single image, and Impermanence, a triptych.
Impermanence was selected and exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, in 2022.
Links: Royal Academy LinkedIn post | video research
Alice in Scaryland — 2014 · constructed photography / cinematic project
Series of constructed images developed as film stills and inspired by an original visual narrative; early exploration of identity, perception and character construction through images.
Me Human Project — Science Museum, London · 2019
Photographer and videomaker for a university project on the brain, evolution and consciousness.
Links: project page
Spirituality and the Arts Special Interest Group (INSS) — Founder and co-chair · 2022–2026
Programme development and moderation of public conversations with artists, scholars and practitioners; audiovisual archive available online.
Links: SASIG YouTube archive
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Awakening Experiences in Non-Religious Contexts: Expanding the Ontology of Spirituality to Art and Nature — Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2021, Vol. 53, No. 1
Links: Academia.edu
Art as Spirituality: The Paradigmatic Case of Marina Abramovic — Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 2023, Vol. 13, No. 1, 5–19
Links: Taylor & Francis
Art as Spiritual Technology: An Evolutionary Perspective — under review, Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 2025–2026
Available on request.
SELECTED TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS
Art as Spiritual Technology: An Evolutionary Perspective — Sacred Arts: Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Artistic Expression and Ritual, London Arts-Based Research Centre, University of Oxford · 10 May 2025
Art as Spiritual Technology: An Evolutionary Perspective — INSS Conference 2025: Spirituality, Consciousness, Technology and Wellbeing, University of Northampton · 17–19 June 2025
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Shaman — Scientific and Medical Network · online · 23 September 2023
Links: presentation page
Art and Spirituality — Scientific and Medical Network · online · 26 January 2022
Links: video materials
Should Aesthetic Experiences Be Reclassified as Spiritual Experiences? — INSS / BASS Biennial Conference, online, in association with York St John University · 7–8 June 2021
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT
Investment Banking — J.P. Morgan and Barclays Capital · 1993–2008
Roles in trading, sales and private banking within global financial institutions; direct experience of high-pressure environments, power dynamics, ambition and institutional structures, which inform my narrative interest in complex professional worlds and characters undergoing transformation.
Art Philanthropy Consultant and UK Ambassador — Save the Artistic Heritage / Cinello · 2023–2025
Cultural consultancy, invitation-only conferences with curators, museum directors and cultural professionals, and institutional relationship development with museums, curators and partners in the UK and Italy.
Civic, Educational and Cultural Engagement — selected roles
Advisory Board Member, Room to Read (2013–2015); The Prince’s Trust First Step Mentor (2016–2017) and subsequent supporter; Bousfield Primary School, London, educational volunteering (2024–2025); supporter of cultural institutions including the Royal Academy of Arts, Hayward Gallery and BAFTA.
SELECTED LINKS