Contemporary Pagans in Public Interaction: Constructing Religion in Central and Eastern Europe

deadline for submissions: 
December 31, 2023
full name / name of organization: 
Egle Aleknaite
contact email: 

Call for Papers

Contemporary Pagans in Public Interaction:

Constructing Religion in Central and Eastern Europe

 

We are seeking papers for a peer-reviewed edited volume, to be published by Bloomsbury Press with the editor Eglė Aleknaitė, Vytautas Magnus University (egle.aleknaite@vdu.lt).

With questioning of secularization thesis and recognizing the unceasing public role of religion in modern societies, scholars have observed and analyzed numerous collaborative public interactions between secular and religious actors. In current academic debates, however, contemporary Pagans are rarely seen as religious actors seeking the public role. The proposed volume aims to present case studies analyzing contemporary Pagans’ engagement in public interactions in Central and Eastern Europe.

Pagans of the region differ in their disposition to seek the public role and interact with secular actors. Some of them, for example, engage in identity and heritage politics and interact with other actors through their work at secular heritage institutions, academia, or public event organizing. The landscape within which Pagans act and the actors which they interact with is historically and regionally specific because of a number of pre-Soviet and pre-socialist, Soviet and socialist, and post-Soviet and post-socialist developments in Eastern and Central Europe. The countries of the region share relatively similar experiences of 19th-century nationalism, Soviet and socialist modernization and anti-religious policies, and post-Soviet and post-socialist processes. Some contemporary Pagan communities of the region are building on imageries and conceptualizations of religion, spirituality, and culture and related practices and institutions that have been developed since the nationalist movements of the 19th-early 20th century, or later Soviet and Socialist periods. Post-Soviet and post-socialist developments related to changes in the politics of religion and culture administration also shaped the landscapes and opportunities of Pagans’ interaction with various secular and religious actors. Finally, sharing concerns over globalization, migration, gender politics, and the like, some Pagans recently got involved in discourses, practices, and events of nationalist populism that has been recently on the rise in the region.

Such interactions demonstrate Pagans’ attitudes towards the surrounding society and the nature of their relationships with it, and, on the other hand, the impact of the state, the majority religion, and other relevant actors. They also serve as situations within which essential categories and ideas are constructed, reified, and performed on variously defined terms that depend on the actors' power relations, ideologies, and goals. Collaborations with public institutions are opportunities for establishing and maintaining relationships, embodying, contesting, and negotiating religious, national, ethnic and local identities, and constructing the very Pagan tradition, a category of religion, and boundaries between the religious and the secular.

 

We are looking for papers between 8,000 and 10,000 words from a range of theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary perspectives. Contributors are invited to address such topics as:

  • Interactions with the state and other secular institutions and actors in the context of academia, public culture, identity politics, heritage management, environmental initiatives, and other spheres;
  • Interactions with other religious actors in the context of academia, public culture, identity politics, heritage management, environmental initiatives, and other spheres;
  • The interpretation and use of the legacy of pre-Soviet/socialist and Soviet/socialist narratives and practices by Pagans and against Pagans;
  • Construction of religion, conceptualization, and performance of Paganism as religion and culture, use of secular and religious discourse and authorities in interactions;
  • Participation in discourses, practices, and events of nationalist populism;
  • Interactions in the context of gender politics.

 

Please send an abstract (max 200 words) with name and affiliation (if relevant), a proposal (max 1000 words), and an anticipated word count, to Eglė Aleknaitė at egle.aleknaite@vdu.lt. Please do feel free to contact the editor with any questions.

 

Proposals Due: December 31st 2023

Acceptance Response: January 31th 2024

Contributors’ Chapters Due: August 31st 2024

 

Contact Information

Eglė Aleknaitė, PhD, Vytautas Magnus University

Contact Email

egle.aleknaite@vdu.lt