Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe
Forthcoming events
The RSREE Study Group is pleased to announce the second seminar for 2009/10:
Professor Simon Dixon (Department of History, UCL) will be presenting on 'Celebrity monks in Late Imperial Russia' at 4.00-5.30pm on Friday 7 May 2010 in the Jessop West Exhibition Space, Jessop West building, The University of Sheffield.
Background
The Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe (RSREE) Study Group was created in 2009 to bring together the increasing number of scholars in Britain working on aspects of religion in Russia and Eastern Europe. By founding RSREE, the Convenors hope to create and sustain links between academics and postgraduate students in Britain and beyond researching religion and spirituality in the region. A closed mailing list is maintained by the Convenors; to be added to the list please contact them directly (see below for details).
Aims
The RSREE Study Group is broad in its geographical, historical and disciplinary scopes: it focuses on religion and spirituality in the former Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe across all historical periods and disciplines. The rationale behind the Group is to create and sustain a network of academics, scholars and pedagogs in Britain whose research and teaching interests relate to religion and spirituality in the region of BASEES’s remit. A substantial number of researchers now work in the area of religion broadly construed. The Study Group brings together scholars from anthropological, sociological and literary disciplines as well as historians and political scientists. The website will be an important way for scholars across the country to share ideas and information between workshops and conferences. In line with BASEES’s aim to advance education on the region for public benefit, the Study Group will open its events to the broader public.
Activities
The activities of the Study Group include the compilation of a newsletter which will alert the membership list to academic events related to the Group’s themes. The web site will also list news and events which may be of interest to its members. There will be an annual workshop for researchers working in the area as well as postgraduate students. The Study Group will organise at least one panel at the annual BASEES conference. Finally, a conference on a salient aspect of religion in the region will be held on a tri-annual basis.
Past Events
The first event of the RSREE Study Group was a seminar at the University of Leicester on 4 December 2009. Dr Stella Rock (Baylor University, USA) spoke on ‘Living chronicles of our Fatherland’: The revival of the krestnyi khod (procession of the cross) in post-Soviet Russia. The paper explored the interplay of history, piety and politics at work in the creation and recreation of pilgrimage traditions in post-Soviet Russia. Focusing on the Velikoretskii and Ekaterinburg krestnye khody, it addressed the astonishing flourishing of the procession of the cross as a form of pilgrimage. The former is a revived tradition which is promoted by the Church as being over 600 years old, the latter a post-Soviet construction which commemorates the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Pilgrims’ perceptions were compared and contrasted with clerical representations of these pilgrimages, examining the role of historical memory in the creation of post-Soviet sacred space and ritual.
Contact
The Convenors of the RSREE Study Group are Miriam Dobson (University of Sheffield) and Zoe Knox (University of Leicester). Please contact them to be added to the RSREE mailing list.