Darius Liutikas
Title: Senior scientific researcher at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences
Darius Liutikas (PhD),is a senior scientific researcher at the Lithuanian Centre for Social sciences (Vilnius, Lithuania). Research interests include modern and traditional pilgrimage, sociology of tourism, anthropology of tourism, forms of mobility, sacred places and sacred spaces, and geography of religions.
He has published around 50 articles and book chapters in Lithuanian and international academic journals. He has prepared and published 6 books. He participated in more than 50 international scientific conferences as guest speaker or speaker.
Giovanni Notari SJ
Title: Director of the Pedro Arrupe Institute for Political Education in Palermo
Giovanni Notari SJ is a multidisciplinary Jesuit, currently Director of the Pedro Arrupe Institute for Political Education in Palermo, a centre of excellence that deals with training and research in the political and social field. His vast academic experience sees him as a theologian, sociologist, clinical pedagogue, and university lecturer in cultural anthropology and sociology of religious processes. P. Notari is also a recognized expert in designing and evaluating training processes, particularly interested in public policies' role in promoting social justice and democratic renewal. In its activity, it is distinguished by the attention to the valorisation of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, central elements in the mission of the Jesuits, especially in local and global contexts in transformation.
Paolo Giuseppe Caucci von Saucken
Title: Italian historian
Paolo Giuseppe Caucci von Saucken is an Italian historian, essayist, and academic, considered one of the world’s top authorities on the Camino de Santiago. Born in Ascoli Piceno in 1941, he built an academic career of extraordinary depth, graduating in Law and Modern Letters at the University of Florence. He has held important positions as a full professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Perugia and lecturer at the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) in Madrid, and the Pontifical Lateran University. He held courses on the main medieval pilgrimage routes, such as the Via Francigena and the Roman streets.
Currently, the rector of the Confraternity of Saint James of Compostella, Caucci von Saucken, plays a key role in protecting and promoting Christian pilgrimage.
Goretti Silva
Title: PhD in Tourism from Bournemouth University
PhD in Tourism from Bournemouth University, scholar and researcher in Tourism at the Polytechnic University of Viana do Castelo. The main topics of interest are sustainability and tourism development, religious tourism and nature and outdoor tourism. Member of the Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation (CITUR). Coordinated and was a team member for several projects, both at national and international levels, including EU-funded projects, over the last few years. In addition to academia, she has started her business in the tourism sector, Fábrica do Chocolate, Hotel |Restaurante| Museu I Viana do Castelo (in operation since 2014, www.fabricadochocolate.com).