I specialize in Ecclesiastical History, especially Byzantine and Catholic Church History. At Seton Hall University I teach undergraduate and graduate courses on Church History and Theology; Mediterranean Christianity; Eastern Christianity and Ecumenism. Since 2004, I have been a visiting professor at the University of Bologna Interdisciplinary Master in East European Research and Studies teaching in the areas of Ecumenism; Inter-religious Dialogue; and Religion and Politics in post-Communist Eastern Europe.

My first book, Catholicism, Culture and Conversion: The History of the Jesuits in Albania (1841-1946), is published by Orientalia Christiana Analecta in 2006. My second book Quo Vadis Eastern Europe? Religion, State and Society after Communism, is forthcoming by the University of Bologna, Longo Editore in November 2008. The volume analyzes the radically changed religious situation in the former communist countries as well as explores the future religious co-existence in the area. I am currently working on a monograph on the history of the Greek Abbey of of St. Nilo in Grottaferrata entitled Returning Home to Rome. The Monks of Grottaferrata and the Christian East, forthcoming by the prestigious monastic serial ANAΛEKTA KPYΠTOΦEPPHΣ in 2009.

My most recent research has been generously supported by a three-year (2009-2011) prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. The grant will fund my research on the relations between Eastern and Western Churches as well as Spiritual Ecumenism at the Ökumenisches Institut, School of Theology at the University of Münster, Germany; a three-year (2009-2011) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) collaborative grant will support my research on church-state relations in the enlarged European Union; and a (2006-2007) Fulbright Senior Research Award in Italy supported my archival research in southern Italy, Calabria.

I am the vice-president of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) and a board member of Christians Associated for Relationships with Eastern Europe (CAREE). I am also on the editorial advisory boards of the Bolletino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata and Religion in Eastern Europe scholarly journals.