A society's evolution toward openness and democracy is typically measured through the quality of the freedoms that it affords: freedoms of expression, speech, assembly, and the press for example. Those working in areas such as public policy, security studies, and development regard the establishment of enduring systems of democracy as essential to our national security, and to the establishment of terms of trade that allow for economic growth and economic competitiveness. Scientists analyzing such dynamics have established preliminary conclusions about what emergent forms of expression have meant, but they have done so without an empirical data set that is exhaustive to establish generalizable scientific knowledge. This project provides much needed empirical data on emergent forms of expression in postsocialist contexts.

In this project, Dr. Anya Bernstein of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University explores the intersection of religion and politics in contemporary Russia with the objective of expanding current Euro-American understandings of secularism. Since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Orthodox Church has effectively been establishing itself as Russia's state religion. Recent highly publicized trials, such as the well-publicized "blasphemy" trials, received global press coverage that was quick to describe the conflict in classic terms: believers against atheists, nationalists against internationalists, the liberal intelligentsia against the conservative narod (people). The project asks why certain symbols and representations possess a certain affective charge that drives political action. The researcher will employ a range of classic ethnographic data collection techniques, including participant observation, interviews and retrospective interviews, visual research methods, media and content analysis, and juridical research. The project challenges the dominant interdisciplinary claim that we are currently in a period characterized as "the global return of religion", citing Pentecostal and Islamic movements as their evidence. This project provides much needed empirical evidence to scholarly discussions that have tended to exclude postsocialist contexts or relegate the appearance of religious themes in postsocialist contexts (the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China and Central Asia) as suggestive of the reemergence of repressed forms of expression that were denied under socialist regimes. The project asks what other social phenomena could account for their emergence. The broader impact of this research lies in its implications for informing our understanding issues critical to national security. The project provides insights about international relations are influenced by internal cultural and political debates that will be valuable to policymakers and other foreign policy analysts.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1420937
Program Officer
Jeffrey Mantz
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2014-07-01
Budget End
2018-06-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$183,831
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138