Second Biennial Conference

Centers and Peripheries: Interaction and Exchange in the Social, Cultural, Historical, and Regional Situations of Eastern Christianity.

Sponsored by ASEC, Inc. and The Ohio State University’s Center for Slavic and East European Studies, Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, the Hilandar Research Library, the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, and the Center for the Study of Religion.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007

6:00—7:00 PM Registration for early arrivals (Lobby of the Holiday Inn on the Lane)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2007

8:30—10:00 Defining and Discovering Eastern Christian Groups in Early Modern and Modern Russia

  • Discussant/Chair: Eve Levin (University of Kansas)
  • Sofia Matrosova Khalil (University of Phoenix):“The Folk and the Old Slavic Motifs in the 17th Century Folk Bible Of Vasiliǐ Koren′
  • J. Eugene Clay (Arizona State University)“The Rise of Russian Spiritual Christianity and the Closing of the Black-Earth Frontier”
  • Page Herrlinger (Bowdoin College) “Trials of the Unorthodox Orthodox: Brother Ioann Churikov and His Followers in Modern Russia, 1894-1914”

10:15—11:45 Nineteenth-Century Russian Orthodox Policies on the Periphery

  • Discussant/Chair: Barbara Skinner (Indiana State University)
  • Lucien J. Frary (Rider University). “Russians Travelers to The Orthodox East: Antonin Kapustin (1817-1894) And His World”
  • Mara V. Kozelsky (University Of South Alabama). “Spreading Orthodoxy in New Russia: Different Strokes for Different Folks”
  • Jesse Murray (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)“Together and Apart: The Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Empire, and Missionaries in Alaska, 1794—1917”

1:15—2:45 Text and Tradition: Perspectives on Medieval and Modern Sources

  • Discussant/Chair: Lucien Frary (Rider University)
  • Donald Ostrowski (Harvard University, Extension School) “Re-dating the Life of Alexander Nevskii
  • Nikolaos A. Chrissidis (Southern Connecticut State University) “A Ladies’ Saint: The Miracles of Saint Nicholas II”
  • Martha M. F. Kelly (Stanford University) “Social Transformation as Transfiguration in Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago

3:00—4:30 Eastern Christian Sources and Cultural Transference: Early Christian and Medieval Examples

  • Discussant/Chair: George Majeska (Emeritus, University of Maryland)
  • Alice Whealey (Independent Scholar)“Muslim Motives for Conquering the Byzantine Empire (634-740): The Evidence from Eastern Christian Sources”
  • Drew Maxwell (University of St. Michael’s College) “Ecumenical Dissonance: Monasticism and Chalcedon”
  • Gregory Myers (Independent Scholar)“Liturgical Reforms and Musical Transitions in the 14th- Century Russian Church” (Cancelled)

4:45—6:15 The Monastery and Society: Evolving Social Profiles in Russia’s Cloisters

  • Discussant/Chair: Jennifer Spock (Eastern Kentucky University)
  • David B. Miller (Emeritus, Roosevelt University) “The Evolving Social Profile of the Brotherhood of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, 1350s-1605.”
  • Marlyn Miller (Brandeis University) “The Social Profile of Female Monastics at the Convent of the Intercession, 1700-1917”
  • Scott Kenworthy (Miami University, Ohio) “The Peasantization of Monasticism: The Trinity-Sergius Brotherhood, 1840s to 1914”

6:30—7:30 RECEPTION, Pfahl Hall Lobby

 7:30     KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Bryan Rennie (Westminster College) “Mircea Eliade: Eastern Orthodoxy and the History of Religions

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6

8:30—10:00  Shaping Identity and Examining Influences in Eastern Christian Traditions

  • Discussant/Chair: J. Eugene Clay (Arizona State University)
  • Roy R. Robson (University of the Sciences in Philadelphia): “Tradition and Transfiguration in the Work of Pimen Sofronov”
  • Amy Slagle (University of Pittsburgh): “A View from the Pew: Attitudes of American Orthodox Laity towards Religious Diversity”
  • Natalia Ermolaev (Columbia University): “77 Rue de Lourmel: Orthodox Social Christianity in Paris”

10:15—12:15  State and Church: Shaping Local Interaction

  • Discussant/Chair: Donald Ostrowski (Harvard University)
  • Charles J. Halperin (Independent Scholar): “Ecclesiastical Immunities in Practice during the Reign of Ivan IV”
  • Barbara Skinner (Indiana State University):Eighteenth-Century Uniate Identity”
  • Natalie Jensen (University of Kansas):”The Contribution of Parish Priests to the Education of Peasants in Late Imperial Russia”
  • Sergei I. Zhuk (Ball State University): “Popular Religiosity in the ‘Closed City’ of Soviet Ukraine: Cultural Consumption and Religion during Late Socialism, 1959—1984”

1:45—3:15 The Kalendae Ianuariae in the Late Antique/Early Byzantine Era

  • Chair/Discussant: Joseph Lynch (The Ohio State University)
  • Frtiz Graf (The Ohio State University) “Libanius and John Chrysostom on the Kalendae Ianuariae in Antioch”
  • Anthony Kaldellis (The Ohio State University) “Kalendrical Antiquarianism and Social Practice in Byzantium”
  • Tom Hawkins (The Ohio State University) “Jester for a Day, Master for a Year”

3:30—5:00 Final Considerations upon the Edition of SSPCR (Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion)

  • Discussant/Chair: Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa Núñez (Universidad Complutense, Madrid)
  • Enrique Santos Marinas (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Leiden): “Included and Excluded Sources in the SSPCR (Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion)
  • ”Susana Torres Prieto-Hay (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of La Sorbonne, Paris) and Matilde Casas Olea (University of Granada): “Useful and Necessary Eastern Slavic Texts
  • ”Inés García de la Puente (Postdoctoral Fellow, Institut Slavjanovedenija RAN, Moscow): “What Does the PVL Tell Us about Pre-Christian Beliefs in Rus’?”

5:15—6:15 OPEN DISCUSSION OF CONFERENCE AND ASEC

8:30 Executive Committee and Board de-briefing.