Francesca Ciancimino Howell, PhD

Francesca Ciancimino Howell, PhD, is an educator, writer, activist and performer. She first came to Naropa as staff in 2001, but soon was invited also to teach. (“Deep Ecology in Context” was the first of many courses she’s taught and led for Naropa.)  The relationship with Naropa and with many of the original teachers/faculty/staff, as well as the Wisdom Chair holders, has been a precious through-line in Francesca’s life.  She has been a meditation instructor at Naropa as well and in past led many Naropa Practice Day workshops and ceremonies.

Among her diverse roles in a varied international career, Francesca has also been a life-long activist and also a spiritual care counselor/chaplain. In her earlier life, she was a marine mammal campaigner and Direct Action participant for Greenpeace and The Environmental Investigation Agency, where she worked in three other languages beyond English.

Francesca’s scholarly research has specialized in New Religious Movements, ritual, festival, materiality, and deep ecological themes of the relationships between humanity and Nature — sometimes described as the Other-than-Human. Francesca is published in the academic as well as the popular press. Her most recent book is: Food, Festival and Religion: Materiality and Place in Italy (Bloomsbury Academic, Aug. 2018; Feb. 2020). In addition to being an Instructor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, Francesca has taught and advised students at The University of Colorado Boulder, among other educational institutions.

As a spiritual teacher, ritual leader and chaplain, Francesca has had decades of creating rituals and ceremonies, offering spiritual care in a myriad of settings, including hospice and hospital care. For her spiritual leadership over decades, Francesca was granted honorary ordination. Similar to her environmental and wildlife campaigning, she has provided spiritual support and counseling widely in Spanish, Italian and English.

In her life as a performer, Francesca has been a professional actor and a workshop leader across the Americas, the UK and Europe. She relishes the exploration of interfaces among magic, ritual, masking and theatre.

Her latest article is for the peer-reviewed journal Ecopsychology: “Coping with Climate Anxiety: Animism, Materiality and Community in Heterotopic Time”.  Naropa’s Allen Ginsberg Library is a subscriber to the journal, but here is the article for those who would like to download it.

Francesca is delighted and honored to be invited to teach at Naropa again, in one of the many diverse roles she has carried out for the University.