I am an Associate Senior Lecturer in European Studies and an Associate Professor (Docent) in Sociology of Religions. 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 Lund, I was a Research Fellow in Ukrainian Studies at Harvard University, Ukraine Research Institute. 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. 
I was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project Coronavirus: A New Test(ament) of Orthodox Christianity, which examined the responses of Orthodox churches to the global pandemic (resulting in my second edited book, titled Orthodox Christianity and the COVID-19 Pandemic ). The book explores the dynamics between Orthodox Christianity and the COVID-19 pandemic, unraveling a profound transformation at institutional and grassroots 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. My third book, Sentimental Orthodoxy in Ukraine (in revision) dives into the organizational ecology of Orthodox churches, their operational tactics and geopolitical assertions in Ukraine. I am part of the Christianity and Nationalism research platform and steering committee member. 

 

I led a collaborative project with St. Gallen University, Religion and the Wars of the 21st Century: Mapping the Narratives, Examining the Causal Factors, Understanding Teleology in which with a team of researchers we created an open data repository ReWars21. This data repository is dedicated to understanding the relationship between religion and recent military conflicts in Georgia, Ukraine and Karabakh. The project explores the ways in which religious ideologies and leaders have intersected with these conflicts. Enhanced with an interactive timeline, the platform visually unfolds the evolution of religious narratives around war and peace, justification strategies, and the role of religious figures across various themes, including theological perspectives, cultural memory, peace initiatives, military dynamics, and interfaith relations, among others. I was a PI of the project Territoriality of the Georgian Orthodox Church, resulting in an open database of religious narratives and the first-ever geospatial account of all Orthodox churches in Georgia (www.toc.ge) for what I received EU Prize for Journalism. Check out my Google Scholar page for my academic publications. Last update: 1 May 2024.