070261 GR Guided Reading [GR] (2016S)

In recent decades, the problem of the relation between ethnicity, nationalism and religion has been explored from a range of disciplinary perspectives and has become a central subject of both academic and non-academic debates. In Europe, such debates tend to address the consequences of the fall of communism and the war in the former Yugoslavia, the problem of mass migration and the crisis of the multicultural project, and the relation between the European Union’s enlargement and the growth of far-right nationalist movements.

This course investigates the intersections of religion and ethnicity in Eastern Europe by highlighting long roots of present-day phenomena and it inquiries into the possibility of drawing comparisons between past and present configurations of ethno-religious diversity. In this way, the course will provide students with conceptual tools for understanding and engaging in contemporary discussions on religion, nationality, and citizenship in Europe. It will explore the complex relation between ethnicity and religion with reference to other aspects of social identities and social institutions, such as gender, class, language, and political ideologies. The course draws on a diverse set of works, including studies of historically diverse settlements and past East European diversity and more current contributions on multiculturalism and immigration.

In proposing a historical-anthropological perspective on these issues, the course invites students to think comparatively, situating Eastern Europe within the broader global context in order to highlight commonalities and distinctive characteristics; to think critically, engaging not only with the arguments advanced in the readings but also with the philosophical and geographic perspectives that inform the authors' approaches; and to think ethnographically, inquiring into the implications of discussed phenomena and large historical events on people's everyday lives.