Zoom link for all events:  https://psu.zoom.us/j/3257831800?pwd=cEFqL2tmd1pUcnFlS1RyN3Y5RE5XQT09 

24 February 2022, 19:00-20:15 CET 

Alla Marchenko 

Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw) 

Hasidic Pilgrimages and Local Memory: Belz, Bobowa, Leżajsk, and Uman 

With commentary by Jeanne Kormina, Professor of Anthropology, Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia 

Work in Progress 

Hasidic pilgrimages to many localities in Eastern and Central Europe belong to distinctive post-Communist transformations in the region connected with freedom of travel and speech, as well as with interest in local history. In this presentation, the focus will be on four localities, whose position on cognitive maps of Jewish pre-war life significantly exceeds their role in today’s Poland and Ukraine. How are the agents of memory of each town dealing with the phenomenon of contemporary mass pilgrimages? What are the effects of Hasidic pilgrimage for local memoryscapes? What meanings do the pilgrimages have for local inhabitants, and how are they connected to inclusion/dismissal of pilgrimages into local memory frames? The results of this research demonstrate that, despite the uniqueness of each case, there are similarities in patterns of local memory, which offers a wider perspective to the field of cultural memory. 

31 March 2022, 19:00-20:15 CET 

Yuliya Yurchuk 

Umea University, Sweden 

Zuzanna Bogumil 

Institute of Archeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland 

With commentary by Miriam Dobson, Department of History, University of Sheffield, UK, and Stanisław Obirek, Professor of Humanities, American Studies Center, Warsaw University 

Book Presentation 

Memory and Religion from a Post-Secular Perspective 

https://www.routledge.com/Memory-and-Religion-from-a-Postsecular-Perspective/Bogumil-Yurchuk/p/book/9781032206981

The editors call for a postsecular turn in memory studies to provide a more reflective and meaningful approach to the constant interplay between the religious and the secular. This opens up new perspectives on the intersection of memory and religion and helps memory scholars become more aware of the religious roots of the language they are using in their studies of memory. By drawing on examples from different parts of the world, the contributors to this volume explain how the interactions between the religious and the secular produce new memory forms and content in the heterogenous societies of the present-day world. The cases analysed demonstrate that religion has a significant impact on cultural memory, family memory, and the contemporary politics of history in secularized societies. At the same time, politics, grassroots movements, and different secular agents and processes have so much influence on the formation of memory by religious actors that even religious, ecclesiastic and confessional memories are affected by the secular. 

28 April 2022, 19:00-20:15 CET 

Tetiana Kalenychenko 

Independent researcher, European Center for Strategic Analytics, Kyiv, Ukraine

The Religious Factor in Conflict and Peacebuilding: The Potential of Religious Communities in Ukraine 

PAX International, 2021: https://paxforpeace.nl/what-we-do/publications/the-religious-factor-in-conflict?fbclid=IwAR2avlTKEdA3w7JwsFCJnkqRWR1IQOaA06umjX26YgBFwo06puGQuRnKrDk 

Work in Progress 

The aim of this study is to explore the peacebuilding potential of Ukrainian religious communities by focusing on individual communities in two target areas (Volyn and Donbas). We identify opportunities for peace and the destructive influences of religion on the social and political situation during armed conflict. What is the connection between religion and war? Is it possible to talk about a theology of peace, and if so how? We will link the Ukrainian case to issues within the global context. 

With commentary by Robert Hayden, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Law and Public & International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, United States 

See www.wglivedreligion.org for more information. 

All are welcome!