Giovanni Bazzana is interested in the earliest history of the Christ movement within the broad context of Second Temple Judaism and the ancient Mediterranean. His work is focused on textual narratives about Jesus and his apostles and on apocalyptic literature.

Bazzana is putting the final touches to a book (forthcoming with Yale University Press) on the cultural role of spirit possession within the early Christ groups studied through the lenses of contemporary ethnographies and anthropological writing.

A longer term project of Bazzana's concerns apocalyptic texts. Bazzana plans to explore their political theology, their peace, their regimes of historicity and temporality, and their continuing influence and fascination in contemporary popular culture.

A side interest of Bazzana is documentary papyrology, which he employs to understand more adequately the social context surrounding the early Christ movement and the material characteristics of the writing, reading, and circulation of books.