Lecture Series Russia´s war, Ukraine’s resistance | “The role of religion in Russia’s war against Ukraine” – Kristina Stoeckl
The current lecture series is aimed at revealing some of the aspects that pre-defined and framed the current occasions. On the one hand, the lectures will present the development of Ukrainian identity, nation and sovereignty in different historical context and under various, often contradicting factors. On the other hand, important part of the series is to show how Russia attempted to influence the country from several angles, often using media, culture and religion as tools of spreading narratives harmful for Ukrainian nation-building.
Religion plays an often overlooked role in Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Religious arguments have been put forward by the Kremlin as a justification for the war, and the military aggression has been supported by the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian actors have presented the war in Ukraine as a quasi-religious war of a traditionalist Russia against the secular "godless" West. At the same time, religion is also an important factor inside Ukraine that exemplifies the complexity of Ukrainian society. Prof. Dr. Stoeckl will talk about the role of religion in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Drawing on her recent publication (together with Dmitry Uzlaner) Moralist International. Russia in the Global Culture Wars (Fordham 2022), she will also discuss the developments that have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a steady supporter of the autocratic regime in Russia.
Kristina Stoeckl is full professor of sociology at LUISS – Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (Rome). Prior, she worked at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) since 2015 and became full professor of sociology in 2019. Her main areas of research are sociology of religion, political sociology and social and political theory. In 2015, she received an ERC Starting Grant and FWF Start Prize for the project "Postsecular Conflicts", which she directed as principal investigator from 2015 until 2022. She has published The Russian Orthodox Church and Human Rights (2014) and (together with Dmitry Uzlaner) Moralist International. Russia in the Global Culture Wars (2022) as well as numerous journal articles in Religion, State and Society, Global Networks, Journal of Contemporary Religion and others.
Webex Link for the lecture series: https://uni-flensburg.webex.com/uni-flensburg/j.php?MTID=m23bf7fc163fbf2a04766ae6edc1fb67e