ABSTRACT
YASMINE is the tool developed within ITSERR for the extraction and automated analysis of data for research in Religious Studies. It transforms large volumes of unstructured information into structured, accessible, and queryable datasets, supporting multidisciplinary research.
The system integrates artificial intelligence techniques for the analysis of texts and images. More specifically, YASMINE is conceived as a collection of AI-augmented datasets and tools designed to turn heterogeneous sources into interoperable research resources, enabling new forms of comparative and data-driven analysis in Religious Studies.
RESULTS AND TOOLS
YASMINE developed an integrated ecosystem of AI-based workflows and datasets. The platform supports automated data extraction from archival sources and advanced querying and visualisation of the resulting research datasets. Within this framework, dedicated applications and corpora are created and maintained as reusable resources for the scholarly community.
CASE STUDIES
Plorabunt is an open-access dataset and platform on violence against worshippers in places of worship worldwide since 1982. It documents over 1,600 cases in 97 countries, describing each event through 32 variables that include religious traditions, types of places of worship, modes of attack, perpetrators, victims, judicial outcomes, and community responses. By treating violence against worshippers as a distinct phenomenon and by recording sources, uncertainties, and updates, Plorabunt makes it possible to study patterns of violence in religious contexts over time and across traditions.
Sanctuaria is a semantic exploration environment for Catholic shrines that integrates more than 200 foundation legends (16th–18th century) and more than 4,000 painted ex voto. Users can combine textual and visual searches, filter by geography, chronology, depicted subject, and venerated object, and directly access primary sources that are normally dispersed across archives and collections. In this way, Sanctuaria supports comparative research on shrines, devotions, and healing practices.
Sanctuaria Gaze is a complementary multimodal dataset that collects first-person video and eye‑tracking recordings from four Italian shrines. It enables researchers to analyse visual attention and embodied experience in sacred spaces, opening new perspectives on how visitors perceive and interact with devotional images and environments.
TEAM
WP6 was coordinated by Fabrizio D’Avenia (University of Palermo), with Federico Ruozzi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia–FSCIRE) and Marcella Cornia (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) as scientific coordinator for defining research objectives and case study requirements.The work was carried out by an interdisciplinary team combining expertise in Religious Studies, contemporary history, art history, sociology of violence, computer vision, and artificial intelligence, with contributions from Giuseppe Cartella (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Silvia Cascianelli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Federico Cocchi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Vittorio Cuculo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Antonio Pio Di Cosmo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Emanuele Lenzi (CNR), Marco Papasidero (University of Palermo), Fiorenzo Parascandolo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Fabio Quattrini (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), and Sidra Shahnawaz (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia).
BEYOND ITSERR
Plorabunt provides a structured data foundation for comparative analyses of violence in religious contexts, with potential applications in public policy and human rights monitoring.
Sanctuaria supports the study and dissemination of religious cultural heritage, with potential applications in museum, tourism, and heritage valorization.
More broadly, the YASMINE framework can be applied to any domain requiring the integration and analysis of heterogeneous data sources, supporting the development of data-driven research infrastructures.