I am an Associate Senior Lecturer in European Studies at Lund University. I received my doctorate in sociology (magna cum laude) from the University of Bern (2017) where I was honored to work under Professor Christian Joppke’s supervision within the Swiss Government’s Excellence Scholarship scheme. Before joining the University of St Gallen, where I had the privilege of working with Professor Ulrich Schmid, I was a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard University’s Davis Center, Open Society Research Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), and Hansard Society Research Fellow at the House of Commons (UK Parliament). I am a student of nationalism (MSc in Nationalism Studies from the University of Edinburgh) with research interests in the intersection of nationalism and Christianity in the geographical spaces of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. My first book - Orthodox Christianity and the Politics of Transition (2021, London: Routledge) discusses in detail how Orthodox Christianity was involved in and influenced political transition in Ukraine, Serbia and Georgia after the collapse of communism. Based on original research, including extensive interviews with clergy and parishioners as well as historical, legal and policy analysis, the book argues that the nature of the involvement of churches in post-communist politics depended on whether the interests of the church (for example, in education, the legal system or economic activity) were accommodated or threatened: if accommodated, churches confined themselves to the sacred domain; if threatened they engaged in daily politics. If churches competed with each other for organizational interests, they evoked the support of nationalism while remaining within the religious domain. My current postdoctoral project in Lund brings original insight into the organizational ecology of Orthodox churches, their operational tactics and geopolitical assertions in Ukraine. This constitutes my ongoing book project. I am the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project Coronavirus: A New Test(ament) of Orthodox Christianity which examines the responses of Orthodox churches to the global pandemic. I am also a PI of the project Territoriality of the Georgian Orthodox Church. From February 2023, I will be taking a HURI research fellowship at Harvard University to finish my second book. Supervisors: Professor Christian Joppke
The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907) and Taras Sh... more The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818–1861) as national poets and anti-tsarist intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (in Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century), both Ukraine and Georgia were under tsarist imperial rule (albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian imperial history). Through their major works, each called for their communities to awaken and revolt against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by tsarist subjugation, and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. By comparing the works and activities of the two poets and examining their impact on national mobilization in tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, this article argues that (lyric) poetry rather than prose (novel) constituted the agency of common national imagining. It was lyric and not epic poetry or novel, this art...
On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on... more On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on autocephaly that allowed Ukraine to have its canonical independent church a separate from the Russian one. This marked a monumental event for Orthodox Christianity in general and the beginning of a new era for religion in Ukraine in particular. This article briefly examines the process of the making of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as reflected in the politicization of religion in Russo-Ukrainian relations and conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and EP. Before moving to the contextual part and an argument, however, it worth defining a few central terms and concepts used during this article.
Since the Rose Revolution (2003), Georgia has encountered an unprecedented scale of institutional... more Since the Rose Revolution (2003), Georgia has encountered an unprecedented scale of institutional reforms concomitant with the rise of American and European involvement in the “democratization” process. Various scholars have suggested that Georgian nationalism developed from an ethno-cultural basis to a more civic/liberal orientation after the Rose Revolution. This paper analyzes Georgian nationalism under President Mikheil Saakashvili to demonstrate the significant divergence between political rhetoric on national identity, the selection of symbols, and state policy toward the Georgian Orthodox Church versus state policy toward ethnic minorities. The aim of this article is to examine the at times conflicting conceptions of national identity as reflected in the public policies of Saakashvili's government since the Rose Revolution. It attempts to problematize the typologies of nationalism when applied to the Georgian context and suggests conceptualizing the state-driven nationali...
Georgian state faced a threat of territorial collapse after the Russian invasion in August 2008. ... more Georgian state faced a threat of territorial collapse after the Russian invasion in August 2008. A five-day war accompanied by Russia’s unilateral recognition of independence of the two Georgian break-away territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia put the Georgian government under an existential pressure. To rebuild public morale and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of disappointed electorate the Saakashvili government opted to seek an alliance with the most trusted public institution – Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC). This alliance manifested itself in two-fold increase in state’s funding of GOC after the war, immense donations of movable and immovable property and luxurious gifts to church officials (Metreveli 2016). Certain conditionality attached to these practices of clientelism was an assumption on behalf of the Georgian ruling elites that church will collaborate with the government in (re)building civic (territorial) nationalism in defence of Georgia’s contested sovereignty. De...
The growing influence of the European Union (EU) on the international political arena and at the ... more The growing influence of the European Union (EU) on the international political arena and at the same time its “particular kind” of characteristics as an international player appears to be a widely debated issue among various scholars of social sciences over the last decades. During this period a wide range of theories and concepts have attributed various epithets to the EU and tried to explain its power in different, sometimes controversial ways. Consequently the descriptions of the EU in international relations vary from it being a “Kantian paradise” (Kagan, 2004), a “vanishing mediator” (Manners, 2006:.174) to “an economic giant, a political dwarf, and a military worm” (Eyskens, 1991). For some scholars the concept of the EU goes beyond the bold epithets and is analyzed from the critical-social theoretical perspective, where the latter was hypothesized as an actor that spread its own norms beyond its borders and whose power lies in its system of values and forms of relations with...
Imagine a situation: the world rushes into dystopian chaos as the novel coronavirus spreads acros... more Imagine a situation: the world rushes into dystopian chaos as the novel coronavirus spreads across the globe. Little is known about COVID-19 apart from the noticeable deadly effects on public health and general well-being. Governments enforce new practices of social distancing and compulsory sanitary regulations in parallel with draconian lockdowns and strict isolation rules. Face-to-face contact is reduced to an absolute minimum: #2020! Now zoom into (or Zoom into) the cultural spaces dominated by Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox churches full of parishioners and clergy locked in
Trotz Ausnahmezustand hielt die Georgische Orthodoxe Kirche im Frühjahr 2020 an öffentlichen Litu... more Trotz Ausnahmezustand hielt die Georgische Orthodoxe Kirche im Frühjahr 2020 an öffentlichen Liturgien und der Kommunionspendung mit einem gemeinsamen Löffel fest. Die Weigerung der Kirche, sich an die verhängten Schutzmaßnahmen zu halten, wird zu einem Lackmustest für die säkulare Identität des georgischen Staates. Angesichts der hohen Infektions- und Todesraten mehrt sich die Kritik am Status der Kirche in Georgien
This paper represents a study of the geopolitical reasoning of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC)... more This paper represents a study of the geopolitical reasoning of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) and its leader Patriarch Ilia II regarding the question of Georgia’s territorial integrity. Does the GOC’s territorial discourse complement or challenge Georgia’s territorial nationalism? The empirical analysis of the geopolitical discourses of Patriarch Ilia II in the early 1990s and in the wake of the 2008 August (Russia-Georgia) War shows a complicated relationship between spiritual and secular geopolitical discourses on Georgia’s territorial integrity. Ilia’s spiritual geopolitics is neither dissident nor entirely complementary. The Patriarch’s definition of Georgia’s territorial integrity eschews the broadly accepted formulation of “Russian occupation” within Georgia and in its place, insufficient faith and religiosity within the Georgian society take a more prominent place in the explanation of the problem’s origins. Ilia II defines the religion and the GOC as the unifying factor, spiritually, territorially, and politically, of the rival parties and alienated peoples and territories. The church’s canonical territoriality, rather than the state’s sovereign territoriality, plays the key object of concern in the Patriarch’s geopolitical discourse. However, Ilia II frames this narrow institutional interest of the church as the basis for the nation’s territorial unification. By advocating more narrowly for the GOC’s canonical jurisdiction across the entire disputed territories, rather than actively embracing secular anti-Russian geopolitical narratives, the church simultaneously stands outside of the territorial conflict, taking a seemingly neutral position, and reinforces the territorial claim of the Georgian state. By distinguishing and problematizing the role of GOC’s canonical territoriality in the question of Georgia’s sovereign territoriality, the paper concludes that the GOC is a territorial power in its own right, not merely a spiritual wing of the state of Georgia.
პოლიტიკურ კულტურაზე ბევრგან და ხშირად ვსაუბრობთ. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე სოციალურ სივრცეში, სოციალურ მედი... more პოლიტიკურ კულტურაზე ბევრგან და ხშირად ვსაუბრობთ. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე სოციალურ სივრცეში, სოციალურ მედიასა თუ საგანმანათლებლო ინსტიტუტში. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე ირიბად, როდესაც ჩვენ დამოკიდებულებასა თუ ქმედებას გამოვხატავთ ქვეყანაში მიმდინარე პოლიტიკური პროცესების მიმართ. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე პირდაპირ, როდესაც პოლიტიკური სისტემის ნორმატიულ კატეგორიზაციას ვახდენთ. მაგრამ ზუსტად რა არის პოლიტიკური კულტურა? როგორ შეიძლება გავზომოთ ან სულაც გავიგოთ თუ რა ტიპის პოლიტიკური კულტურა გვაქვს?
This policy paper focuses on religion-state relations in Georgia and argues that competition betw... more This policy paper focuses on religion-state relations in Georgia and argues that competition between the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church and the Muslim community have had an impact on state involvement with humanitarian programmes. The Georgian case stands out as the country experienced three waves of internal forced displacement. Each wave has shown that religious identity and state building processes have been interlinked.
On the one hand, this chapter is informed by the content analysis of the pastoral letters issued... more On the one hand, this chapter is informed by the content analysis of the pastoral letters issued by the Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia during the 40 years since his enthronement. On the other, data gathered through textual analysis is contextualised through political events the GOC directly participated in. The chapter focuses on three protests led and organised by the GOC during the last 10 years (2008–18), namely the debates on the Law on Registration of Religious Minority Organizations (2011) and the Anti-Discrimination Law (2014), as well as and the violent rally against LGBTI activists on the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on 17 May 2013.
The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Sh... more The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818-1861) as national poets and anti-tsarist intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (in Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century), both Ukraine and Georgia were under tsarist imperial rule (albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian imperial history). Through their major works, each called for their communities to awaken and revolt against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by tsarist subjugation, and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. By comparing the works and activities of the two poets and examining their impact on national mobilization in tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, this article argues that (lyric) poetry rather than prose (novel) constituted the agency of common national imagining. It was lyric and not epic poetry or novel, this article shows, that laid the foundation of nationalist mobilization as it framed the revolt of the "I" against colonialism as a revolt of the "I" against an oppressive society under which the cultural grounds for common imagining had been constructed.
On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on... more On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on autocephaly that allowed Ukraine to have its canonical independent church a separate from the Russian one. This marked a monumental event for Orthodox Christianity in general and the beginning of a new era for religion in Ukraine in particular. This article briefly examines the process of the making of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as reflected in the politicization of religion in Russo-Ukrainian relations and conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and EP. Before moving to the contextual part and an argument, however, it worth defining a few central terms and concepts used during this article.
The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907) and Taras Sh... more The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818–1861) as national poets and anti-tsarist intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (in Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century), both Ukraine and Georgia were under tsarist imperial rule (albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian imperial history). Through their major works, each called for their communities to awaken and revolt against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by tsarist subjugation, and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. By comparing the works and activities of the two poets and examining their impact on national mobilization in tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, this article argues that (lyric) poetry rather than prose (novel) constituted the agency of common national imagining. It was lyric and not epic poetry or novel, this art...
On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on... more On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on autocephaly that allowed Ukraine to have its canonical independent church a separate from the Russian one. This marked a monumental event for Orthodox Christianity in general and the beginning of a new era for religion in Ukraine in particular. This article briefly examines the process of the making of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as reflected in the politicization of religion in Russo-Ukrainian relations and conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and EP. Before moving to the contextual part and an argument, however, it worth defining a few central terms and concepts used during this article.
Since the Rose Revolution (2003), Georgia has encountered an unprecedented scale of institutional... more Since the Rose Revolution (2003), Georgia has encountered an unprecedented scale of institutional reforms concomitant with the rise of American and European involvement in the “democratization” process. Various scholars have suggested that Georgian nationalism developed from an ethno-cultural basis to a more civic/liberal orientation after the Rose Revolution. This paper analyzes Georgian nationalism under President Mikheil Saakashvili to demonstrate the significant divergence between political rhetoric on national identity, the selection of symbols, and state policy toward the Georgian Orthodox Church versus state policy toward ethnic minorities. The aim of this article is to examine the at times conflicting conceptions of national identity as reflected in the public policies of Saakashvili's government since the Rose Revolution. It attempts to problematize the typologies of nationalism when applied to the Georgian context and suggests conceptualizing the state-driven nationali...
Georgian state faced a threat of territorial collapse after the Russian invasion in August 2008. ... more Georgian state faced a threat of territorial collapse after the Russian invasion in August 2008. A five-day war accompanied by Russia’s unilateral recognition of independence of the two Georgian break-away territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia put the Georgian government under an existential pressure. To rebuild public morale and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of disappointed electorate the Saakashvili government opted to seek an alliance with the most trusted public institution – Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC). This alliance manifested itself in two-fold increase in state’s funding of GOC after the war, immense donations of movable and immovable property and luxurious gifts to church officials (Metreveli 2016). Certain conditionality attached to these practices of clientelism was an assumption on behalf of the Georgian ruling elites that church will collaborate with the government in (re)building civic (territorial) nationalism in defence of Georgia’s contested sovereignty. De...
The growing influence of the European Union (EU) on the international political arena and at the ... more The growing influence of the European Union (EU) on the international political arena and at the same time its “particular kind” of characteristics as an international player appears to be a widely debated issue among various scholars of social sciences over the last decades. During this period a wide range of theories and concepts have attributed various epithets to the EU and tried to explain its power in different, sometimes controversial ways. Consequently the descriptions of the EU in international relations vary from it being a “Kantian paradise” (Kagan, 2004), a “vanishing mediator” (Manners, 2006:.174) to “an economic giant, a political dwarf, and a military worm” (Eyskens, 1991). For some scholars the concept of the EU goes beyond the bold epithets and is analyzed from the critical-social theoretical perspective, where the latter was hypothesized as an actor that spread its own norms beyond its borders and whose power lies in its system of values and forms of relations with...
Imagine a situation: the world rushes into dystopian chaos as the novel coronavirus spreads acros... more Imagine a situation: the world rushes into dystopian chaos as the novel coronavirus spreads across the globe. Little is known about COVID-19 apart from the noticeable deadly effects on public health and general well-being. Governments enforce new practices of social distancing and compulsory sanitary regulations in parallel with draconian lockdowns and strict isolation rules. Face-to-face contact is reduced to an absolute minimum: #2020! Now zoom into (or Zoom into) the cultural spaces dominated by Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox churches full of parishioners and clergy locked in
Trotz Ausnahmezustand hielt die Georgische Orthodoxe Kirche im Frühjahr 2020 an öffentlichen Litu... more Trotz Ausnahmezustand hielt die Georgische Orthodoxe Kirche im Frühjahr 2020 an öffentlichen Liturgien und der Kommunionspendung mit einem gemeinsamen Löffel fest. Die Weigerung der Kirche, sich an die verhängten Schutzmaßnahmen zu halten, wird zu einem Lackmustest für die säkulare Identität des georgischen Staates. Angesichts der hohen Infektions- und Todesraten mehrt sich die Kritik am Status der Kirche in Georgien
This paper represents a study of the geopolitical reasoning of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC)... more This paper represents a study of the geopolitical reasoning of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) and its leader Patriarch Ilia II regarding the question of Georgia’s territorial integrity. Does the GOC’s territorial discourse complement or challenge Georgia’s territorial nationalism? The empirical analysis of the geopolitical discourses of Patriarch Ilia II in the early 1990s and in the wake of the 2008 August (Russia-Georgia) War shows a complicated relationship between spiritual and secular geopolitical discourses on Georgia’s territorial integrity. Ilia’s spiritual geopolitics is neither dissident nor entirely complementary. The Patriarch’s definition of Georgia’s territorial integrity eschews the broadly accepted formulation of “Russian occupation” within Georgia and in its place, insufficient faith and religiosity within the Georgian society take a more prominent place in the explanation of the problem’s origins. Ilia II defines the religion and the GOC as the unifying factor, spiritually, territorially, and politically, of the rival parties and alienated peoples and territories. The church’s canonical territoriality, rather than the state’s sovereign territoriality, plays the key object of concern in the Patriarch’s geopolitical discourse. However, Ilia II frames this narrow institutional interest of the church as the basis for the nation’s territorial unification. By advocating more narrowly for the GOC’s canonical jurisdiction across the entire disputed territories, rather than actively embracing secular anti-Russian geopolitical narratives, the church simultaneously stands outside of the territorial conflict, taking a seemingly neutral position, and reinforces the territorial claim of the Georgian state. By distinguishing and problematizing the role of GOC’s canonical territoriality in the question of Georgia’s sovereign territoriality, the paper concludes that the GOC is a territorial power in its own right, not merely a spiritual wing of the state of Georgia.
პოლიტიკურ კულტურაზე ბევრგან და ხშირად ვსაუბრობთ. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე სოციალურ სივრცეში, სოციალურ მედი... more პოლიტიკურ კულტურაზე ბევრგან და ხშირად ვსაუბრობთ. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე სოციალურ სივრცეში, სოციალურ მედიასა თუ საგანმანათლებლო ინსტიტუტში. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე ირიბად, როდესაც ჩვენ დამოკიდებულებასა თუ ქმედებას გამოვხატავთ ქვეყანაში მიმდინარე პოლიტიკური პროცესების მიმართ. ვსაუბრობთ მასზე პირდაპირ, როდესაც პოლიტიკური სისტემის ნორმატიულ კატეგორიზაციას ვახდენთ. მაგრამ ზუსტად რა არის პოლიტიკური კულტურა? როგორ შეიძლება გავზომოთ ან სულაც გავიგოთ თუ რა ტიპის პოლიტიკური კულტურა გვაქვს?
This policy paper focuses on religion-state relations in Georgia and argues that competition betw... more This policy paper focuses on religion-state relations in Georgia and argues that competition between the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church and the Muslim community have had an impact on state involvement with humanitarian programmes. The Georgian case stands out as the country experienced three waves of internal forced displacement. Each wave has shown that religious identity and state building processes have been interlinked.
On the one hand, this chapter is informed by the content analysis of the pastoral letters issued... more On the one hand, this chapter is informed by the content analysis of the pastoral letters issued by the Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia during the 40 years since his enthronement. On the other, data gathered through textual analysis is contextualised through political events the GOC directly participated in. The chapter focuses on three protests led and organised by the GOC during the last 10 years (2008–18), namely the debates on the Law on Registration of Religious Minority Organizations (2011) and the Anti-Discrimination Law (2014), as well as and the violent rally against LGBTI activists on the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on 17 May 2013.
The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Sh... more The article is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818-1861) as national poets and anti-tsarist intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (in Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century), both Ukraine and Georgia were under tsarist imperial rule (albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian imperial history). Through their major works, each called for their communities to awaken and revolt against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by tsarist subjugation, and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. By comparing the works and activities of the two poets and examining their impact on national mobilization in tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, this article argues that (lyric) poetry rather than prose (novel) constituted the agency of common national imagining. It was lyric and not epic poetry or novel, this article shows, that laid the foundation of nationalist mobilization as it framed the revolt of the "I" against colonialism as a revolt of the "I" against an oppressive society under which the cultural grounds for common imagining had been constructed.
On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on... more On 6 January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) of Constantinople Bartholomew signed a decree on autocephaly that allowed Ukraine to have its canonical independent church a separate from the Russian one. This marked a monumental event for Orthodox Christianity in general and the beginning of a new era for religion in Ukraine in particular. This article briefly examines the process of the making of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as reflected in the politicization of religion in Russo-Ukrainian relations and conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and EP. Before moving to the contextual part and an argument, however, it worth defining a few central terms and concepts used during this article.
This book probes into the dynamics between Orthodox Christianity and the COVID-19 pandemic, unrav... more This book probes into the dynamics between Orthodox Christianity and the COVID-19 pandemic, unravelling a profound transformation at institutional and grassroot levels. Employing a multidisciplinary approach and drawing upon varied data sources, including surveys, digital ethnography, and process tracing, it presents unprecedented insights into church-state relations, religious practices, and theological traditions during this crisis. The chapters in this book analyse divergent responses across countries, underscore religious-political interplay, and expose tensions between formal and informal power networks. Through case studies, the book highlights the innovative adaptability within the faith, demonstrated by new religious practices and the active role of local priests in responding to the pandemic. It critically examines how the actions of religious and political figures influenced public health outcomes. Offering a fresh perspective, the book suggests that the pandemic may have permanently influenced the relationship between Orthodox Christianity, public health, and society.
This book discusses in detail how Orthodox Christianity was involved in and influenced political ... more This book discusses in detail how Orthodox Christianity was involved in and influenced political transition in Ukraine, Serbia and Georgia after the collapse of communism. Based on original research, including extensive interviews with clergy and parishioners as well as historical, legal and policy analysis, the book argues that the nature of the involvement of churches in post-communist politics depended on whether the interests of the church (for example, in education, the legal system or economic activity) were accommodated or threatened: if accommodated, churches confined themselves to the sacred domain; if threatened they engaged in daily politics. If churches competed with each other for organizational interests, they evoked the support of nationalism while remaining within the religious domain.
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