The Havighurst Center at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA is pleased to announce its 12th Annual International Young Researchers Conference on the theme, “Orthodox Christianity In Russia And Eastern Europe: Historical And Contemporary Perspectives,” to be held March 28 – 31, 2013.
Before the collapse of communism, religion in Russia and Eastern Europe was rarely a topic of scholarly research. The prevalence of the secularization thesis in the West, combined with the dominance of militantly atheist regimes in the East, led scholars to assume that religion no longer mattered in the region. Moreover, long held stereotypes about the Orthodox Church contributed to the dismissal of Orthodoxy’s importance as a factor in Russian or East European history; only a few pioneers in the field challenged this tendency. Since the collapse of communism, however, religion has reasserted itself in the public sphere in the former communist bloc as in many other parts of the world. There has been a renewed appreciation of Orthodoxy’s significance in the history of the region, as well as growing interest among political scientists and anthropologists who study Russia and Eastern Europe.
This conference seeks to tap into a new wave of research on Orthodoxy in Russia and Eastern Europe.
The Havighurst Center for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies
Miami University
116 Harrison Hall
513-529-3303
513-529-1709 (FAX)
Email: havighurstcenter(at)muohio.edu
Visit the website at http://www.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter