Curriculum Vitae
Marina Zumstein studied Protestant Theology at Heidelberg University and the University of Basel, completing her studies in 2018 with the First Church Examination (Magister Theologiae). Since September 2018, she has been pursuing a PhD in Church History at Heidelberg University. Her doctoral research has been supported by a full doctoral scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and was supplemented in 2019 by a DAAD scholarship for a research trip abroad.
A central focus of her research is the relationship between church and state in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In the course of her academic work, she has undertaken repeated research trips to Eastern Europe (including St Petersburg, Moscow, and Irkutsk) and has participated in relevant specialist conferences. During her studies, she also gained practical experience of church institutions abroad, including in St Petersburg and Kaliningrad. Further international experience was acquired through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program, which included a year abroad in Minnesota (USA).
In 2019 and 2020, she served as an elected member of the Faculty Council of Heidelberg University’s Faculty of Theology and participated in the Study Commission. From 2014 to 2023, she worked in hospital chaplaincy at Heidelberg University Hospital. Since 2020, she has been a founding member and Chair of the Belarus Cultural Association (Kulturverein Belarus e.V., KuB e.V.), with a focus on project design and project management for international cultural and educational initiatives, including “Kupalaucy: Kuo Vadis ?” (funded by the German Federal Foreign Office) and “GRAI!”.
Following her move to Italy in 2024, she has served since April 2024 as Vice President of the Church Council of the Chiesa Cristiana Protestante in Milan. Since July 2025, she has been part of the Villa Vigoni team; since 2026, she has worked there as a Project Manager.
Areas of expertise:
- Project development and project management
- External funding acquisition and grants management
- Stakeholder management and institutional networking
- Design and delivery of academic and educational formats (conferences, workshops, seminars)
Research areas:
- Church–state relations; freedom of religion and state religious policy
- Intercultural dialogue and transnational processes of mutual understanding
- Civil society, cultural policy, and social cohesion
- EU external relations and the European Neighbourhood Policy towards Eastern Europe
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