Agostino Giovagnoli is a historian and former Full Professor of Contemporary History since 1987. From 1993, he taught at the Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as President of the Italian Society for the Study of Contemporary History (Sissco). He is a member of the Luigi Sturzo Institute in Rome and the Confucius Institute at the Catholic University. He collaborates with universities and scholars from France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, China, Japan, and Argentina.

His research primarily focuses on the relationship between the State and the Church in the 19th and 20th centuries; the Catholic movement, the Italian Popular Party, and Christian Democracy; the history of the Italian Republic from its origins to the present day; international relations in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the role of the Holy See and the Catholic Church; politics and religion in contemporary China; and the cultural and religious dynamics of globalization. He has published essays and books in Italian, English, French, and Chinese. He also contributes to newspapers, magazines, and online publications on topics concerning the Church and Catholics in Italian society and worldwide.

He is a member of the Community of Sant’Egidio and is actively engaged in interreligious dialogue with Buddhists, Shintoists, and Muslims from China, Japan, and other Asian countries.

Main Publications:
• Le premesse della ricostruzione. La classe dirigente cattolica fra tradizione e modernità, Milan, NIEI, 1982.
• Dalla teologia alla politica. Carlo Passaglia negli anni di Pio IX e di Cavour, Brescia, Morcelliana, 1984.
• La cultura democristiana tra Chiesa cattolica e identità italiana, Rome – Bari, Laterza, 1991.
• Il partito italiano. La Democrazia Cristiana dal 1942 al 1994, Rome – Bari, Laterza, 1996.
• Interpretazioni della Repubblica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1998.
• Roma e Pechino. La svolta extraeuropea di Benedetto XV, Rome, Studium, 1999.
• Storia e globalizzazione, Rome – Bari, Laterza, 2003.
• Tra guerra fredda e distensione, with Silvio Pons, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2003.
• Il caso Moro. Una tragedia repubblicana, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2005.
• La Chiesa e le culture. Missioni cattoliche e scontro di civiltà, Milan, Guerini, 2005.
• Chiesa e democrazia. La lezione di Pietro Scoppola, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011.
• L’Italia contemporanea dagli anni ottanta ad oggi, Vol. III, Istituzioni e politica, with S. Colarizi and P. Pombeni, Rome, Carocci, 2014.