Public lecture

Press release –– 6 March 2014

Dr. Anastasia V. Mitrofanova from the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) will give a public lecture on

RELIGIOUS RADICALISM AND ANTI-EUROPEAN SENTIMENT IN CONTEMPORARY MOLDOVA

on 19 March 2014 at 16:15 at the UT Institute for Cultural Research and Fine Arts, Ülikooli 16, room 214.

The lecture will provide an overview of Orthodoxy-based anti-European activities in Moldova, discussing the sources of such activities, and analyzing the role of radicals in the landscape of Moldovan Orthodoxy. Orthodox radicals believe that although Anti-Christ has not come yet, his reign on Earth has already started. Moldova’s moves in the direction of the European Union are seen as apostasy. The increase in religious radicalism directly followed regime change and transition to more consistently pro-European policies in Moldova in April 2009. The lecture  will also shed light on specific issues such as the use of enumerated identity cards, freedom of press and blasphemy, as well as the rights of religious and sexual minorities. Dr. Mitrofanova has done extended fieldwork in Moldova and thus provides a unique insight into the latest developments in the area.

Anastasia V. Mitrofanova is Chair of Political Science, Church-State Relations and the Sociology of Religion at the Russian Orthodox University as well as Professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU). Anastasia Mitrofanova’s research interests include: religious politicization, fundamentalism, Orthodox Christianity and politics, nationalism in post-Soviet states, religiopolitical movements. Main publications: Politizatsiia ‘pravoslavnogo mira’ (Moskva: Nauka, 2004); The Politicization of Russian Orthodoxy: Actors and Ideas (Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2005).

Anastasia Mitrofanova is currently a visiting research fellow at the Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS), University of Tartu.