Eastern European Studies Commons^™

European Spaces And The Roma: Denaturalizing The Naturalized In Online Reader Comments, Theresa Catalano, Grace E. Fielder

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

With the entry of several Eastern European nations into the European Union (EU), a “third” space has developed in the discourse for nations perceived as not fully integrated “inside” the EU system. This article investigates the construction of this “third space” in the resultant “moral panic” about undesired immigration from other EU countries and its potential drain on the social services of the United Kingdom and links it to Euroskeptic discourse in British media. The article uses construal operations from cognitive linguistics combined with critical discourse studies as a way of denaturalizing the discourse in online comments that focus on …

Orthodoxy And Protestantism Through The Centuries, Gjoko Gjorgjevski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim of this paper is to describe the history and actual relations between the Orthodox East and the Protestant West. This paper will both examine and show the beginning, the continuation and the present situation of the Protestant-Orthodox dialog, communication, influences, convergences and differences, as well as the disputes and attempts to overcome disagreements. It will give an overview of the most important dialogues and scholarly exchanges over the centuries.

The Theological And Geographical Origins Of Protestantism In Albania, David Hosaflook

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Albanian Protestant Movement has both a theological and a geographical origin. Theologically, the movement could only begin after parts of the Bible were translated into Albanian, because the Protestant doctrine of “Sola Scriptura” demands that believers understand the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, in Protestant missions to the Ottoman Empire, Bible translators usually preceded evangelists and the founding of churches. In 1827, the publication of the first Albanian New Testament was a significant achievement, but it was practically useless to most Albanians, who were illiterate (especially in their mother tongue). Hence, the Protestant missionary endeavor included linguistic and educational efforts to …

Announcement Of Changes, Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Ever since this publication transitioned from printed to electronic copies a remarkable upsurge in readership occurred. Readers need only to access http:digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/ to see both the geographical distribution and the number of downloads on a monthly and yearly basis, going back to the year when our web editor, Alex Rolfe placed us on the Digital Commons platform. Alex, who is a librarian at George Fox University, has also provided his library as the mailing address of OPREE.

Special Issue: Protestantism In The Balkans (Macedonia, Serbia, And Albania), Ruzhica Cacanoska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This issue of Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe is published as part of the celebration of the 500-years of the Protestant Reformation. In fact, this issue contains the works presented by its authors at the scientific gathering organized within the anniversary by the Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research, a branch of “St. Cyril and Methodius University” in Skopje, Macedonia). The program, Scientific Wednesday, was held on November 1 , 2017. The scholarly gathering was titled Protestantism in the Balkans. Prof. Ruzica Cacanoska, as a member of the advisory editorial board of this journal, and also as …

The Use Of Zingari/Nomadi/Rom In Italian Crime Discourse, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study examines the use of the metonymies zingari/nomadi/rom [Gypsies/Nomads/Roma] in Italian media discourse, in order to critically reflect on their relation to the perception of Roma. The author analyses the frequency of these terms in general discourse and crime discourse, as well as the way they are used in context. The findings reveal that nomadi and rom are used to directly and indirectly index Roma, and have a sig­nificant impact on their ethnicization and criminalization. In addition, the episodic framing of crime events, combined with the use of these metony­mies, erases the Italian government’s responsibility for the conditions of …

Nationalism, Soft Annexation And Hybrid Warfare: Putin's Recipe For Russian Resurgence, Brian E. Szlenk Straub

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, The Russian Federation has struggled to reclaim its grasp over Eastern Europe and re-establish itself as a major player on the international scene. Increased NATO expansion towards its borders, and the “Westernization” of Eastern Europe has led to the country feeling it has been boxed into a corner. The feeling that the Russian nation has been encroached upon by the Western world has led to the rise of Vladimir Putin as President of Russia, and the marked rise in nationalism within the country. In this Master’s Thesis, I intend …

Looking Beyond Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony, Juana Granados

CMC Senior Theses

The objective of this thesis is to explain how Dmitrii Shostakovich used Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poetry to create the Thirteenth Symphony. This collaboration between two arts, poetry and music, reflects more than just separate ideas. The five movements of the symphony bring to public conscience the political opinions of Shostakovich regarding life in the Soviet Union.

Protestantism In Macedonia Today, Ruzhica Cacanoska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Protestantism arrived in Macedonia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Since then, a number of Protestant communities were established and their current membership is relatively small. The United Methodist Church in the Republic of Macedonia is considered to be traditional and is listed as such in the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia. The contemporary Protestant structure is composed of 12 Evangelical-Protestant churches. The subject matter of this paper is a sociological research on the Protestant communities in Macedonia and it will focus on key issues related to the structure and functioning of their communities, their mutual cooperation, …

Congretional/Methodist Church In Macedonia, Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Prior to the end of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and during portions of World War I, the territory of Macedonia was served by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (hereafter ABCFM) with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The form of Protestantism promoted by ABCFM was Congregationalism but in the Balkans, they called their churches Evangelical, which is often used as a synonym for Protestants. After the end of World War I, the ABCFM was unable to continue to financially support and staff this mission field outside of Bulgaria as proper and turned their work in Macedonia (which had …

Protestantization Of The Roma From Southeastern Serbia, Dragan Todorović

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Protestantization of the Roma refers to the recent process of mass involvement of Serbian Roma in small religious communities of Protestant provenance.

The research was conducted using the deep interview method on the basis of a structured questionnaire with baptized believers of Roma nationality belonging to the Christian Baptist Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Adventist Church, and Evangelical Pentecostal Church in the territory of Southeastern Serbia. The sample included both Roma and non-Roma high clergy of the abovementioned religious communities, as well as religious leaders of major religions of the region (Serbian Orthodox Church and Islamic Community).

This paper describes …

The Independent Churches And Proselytism In The Balkans, Kostake Milkov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The emergence of the new churches in the Balkans is a relatively recent phenomenon, and it is mainly connected with the Evangelical wing of Protestantism. Apart from the Congregationalist missions within the Ottoman Empire from the mid-nineteenth century including the Methodists and to a much smaller extent, the Baptists and the Pentecostals., and their spinoffs, mainly resulting from geopolitical shifts post-World War I, most of the Evangelical missionary endeavors on the territory of Former Yugoslavia began after the fall of Communism, These aspects are the focus of my essay, although some of the conclusions are also applicable to the Protestant …

Medieval Heresis And Protestantism, Maja Angelovska-Panova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In addition to the current social and political circumstances, the appearance of heresies and reform movements during the Middle Ages. was largely determined by the educational tendencies and movement of humanism, which concentrated on the matter of the human being. Thisarticle offers a digressive analysis that examines the appearance, essence, and significance of Bogomilism, Catharism, Waldensians and their implications for later reform movements—more specifically Protestantism. It should be emphasized that in this context, such ideas, characteristic of medieval heresies, impacted Protestantism, as seen in the works of John Wycliffe (1328-1384) and Jan Hus (1369-1415). In fact, they were qualified to …

Gendered Market Subjectivity: Autonomy, Privilege, And Emotional Subjectivity In Normalizing Post-Socialist Neoliberal Ideology, Katherine Sredl

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Most prior studies of marketplace ideology foreground consumer agency as identity co-creation or opposition to ideology. In this research, I consider how the logics of the dwindling state and global neoliberalism discursively form consent in post-socialist Zagreb, Croatia. I use recollections and small group discussions to compare women’s class and generationally based experiences of the daily family meal and work, during Yugoslav exceptionalism and privatization. Changing social relations normalize the gendered subjectivity of neoliberalism in post-socialist Zagreb, characterized by autonomy, the privilege of the younger generation, and the emotional subjectivity of anxiety and loss. Linking consumer experiences to the changing …

Stasi Brainwashing In The Gdr 1957 - 1990, Jacob H. Solbrig, Jacob Hagen Solbrig

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the methods used by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), more commonly known as the Stasi, or East German secret police, for extraction of information from citizens of the German Democratic Republic for the purpose of espionage and covert operations inside East Germany, as it pertains to the deliberate brainwashing of East German citizens. As one of the most efficient intelligence agencies to ever exist, the Stasi’s main purpose was to monitor the population, gather intelligence, and collect or turn informants. They used brainwashing techniques to control the people of the GDR, keeping the populace paralyzed with fear …

How Patriotic Are Albanians? The Comparative Study Of Patriotic Attitudes In Albania And The Albanian Diaspora, Anxhela Spahiu

Master's Theses

In today’s post-modern digital world, patriotism may not be as prevalent as in the past. In this thesis, my principal aim is to investigate to what extent Albanians, a nationality to which I belong, identify with a patriotic attitude toward Albania. I chose to focus not only on Albanians who live in the diaspora, like myself, but also on Albanians who live in Albania. I believe that to understand national pride to its fullest, you must study the attitudes of those who live in the country of origin as well as of those who live in the diaspora. Many people …

When Rules And Common Sense Collide: Expressions, Roots, And Impact Of Informal Civil Society In Ukraine, Svitlana Krasynska

Dissertations

Western donors have dominated third sector developments in contemporary Eastern Europe in efforts to replicate their own institutional models as a way of reconstructing the region’s post-totalitarian civil society. These efforts resulted in limited success, frustrating the donor community and puzzling scholars. Civil society in the region has long been labeled as weak based on a general lack of citizen participation in formal organizations. This dissertation argues that such assessment of civil society fails to recognize the role of below-the-radar civic engagement in contexts where informal practices permeate economic, political and social spheres.

Based on 70 in-depth interviews with civil …

There And Almost Back Again, Holley Adcock

Occasional Paper Series

Adcock reflects on and asses her thirty years of experience living and teaching overseas in places all over the globe. This essay focuses on the changes to both individual and national identity that take place when immersing oneself in other cultures.

Integration Policy And Outcomes For The Russian-Speaking Minority In Estonia, Silviu Kondan, Mridvika Sahajpal

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Estonia’s integration policy vis-à-vis its Russian-speaking residents was developed and reformed several times since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. While comparative data from the international community certainly indicates that Estonia has progressed in the realm of social, political and societal integration, the ‘success’ for each individual policy is now increasingly measured—and contested— within broader considerations of geopolitical security and minority rights. The authors converge interview-based data compiled from various representatives and scholars of nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, and think tanks with secondary research on the topic of Russian minority integration in Estonia. The report will seek to …

Frontmatter, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Readers of OPREE are likely to consider different articles to be of importance to them and perhaps to the wider readership. Generally, I avoid trying to influence the readers as to the importance of the content of this publication as I rely on the intelligence and goodwill of the readers. In this issue, I am making an exception. Often I have heard friends in the USA and abroad complaining that so-called moderate Muslims do not publically condemn Islamist terrorism and do not provide alternative voices to the militants. From my extensive contacts with Muslims, I know this not to be …

Review Of Makrides, Wasmuth, And Kube's "Christentum Und Menschenrechte In Europa. Perspektiven Und Debatten In Ost Und West., Dr. Regina Elsner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Review Of Akšamija's "Letter Pismo, Brief, List, Risālah", Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Invitation: A Declaration Of European Muslims, Mustafa Cerić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The tragic events of September 11, 2001 in New York, March 11, 2004 in Madrid and July 7, 2005 in London leave no one indifferent. Of course, one should be aware of other attacks, such as in Riyadh in 1995, Dhahran in 1996, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, Yemen in 2000, Bali in 2002, and Istanbul in 2003. The attacks in New York, Madrid, and London are the most disturbing to Islam-West relations however. Muslims around the world, especially, have been shocked by the fact that the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks claimed to have acted in the …

A Time To Laugh: Religious Humor In Contemporary Russia, Mikhail Sergeev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Contemporary Russian religious humor continues the tradition of this spiritual and selfsacrificial laughter. The anecdotes that are gathered here make fun not only of religion and its characteristic attributes, but of human imperfections and shortcomings, which manifest themselves in relation to various aspects of worship. Everything is good in moderation, including religious zeal that is not the goal by itself, but the instrument of spiritual and moral development. There is a proverbial saying in Russia—force a fool to pray to God and he will beat his forehead. Many anecdotes portray in a comic light this certain pseudo-piety, the eternal human …

Lessons Learned In Eurasia Ministry: Mostly The Hard Way, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The present article is based on a speech delivered at a conference of the United Methodist Church: “Eurasia-Central Asia – In Mission Together,” Fulton, Maryland, May 5, 2017.

Spectacular Politics And Everyday Performance: Tracing Music From Ceauşescu’S Romania To Multicultural America, Benjamin Dumbauld

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing from fieldwork conducted throughout the United States and Canada, this dissertation examines the continued performance of socialist-era music within the Romanian-American community. It addresses why a community largely made up of people who sought to leave the country during the authoritarian regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu continue to perform music tied to that period by tracing the historical performance and reception of multiple genres, ranging from traditional peasant music to folk rock. The dissertation begins by examining the nationalization of Romania’s music industry under the early socialist regime (1944-1965), and locates the difficulties Communist Party members confronted in delineating a …

The Orthodox Church And Religious Minorities In Shida Kartli Region In Georgia In The First Quarter Of The Twentieth Century, Giorgi Sosiashvili, Phd

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"We think that it is of utmost importance to disclose the facts about the uncommon treatment that took place during Soviet rule in the 1920s towards the Georgian Orthodox Church and all the other religious confessions."

Review Of Kotiranta's "The Finnish And Estonian Churches During The Cold War", Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Final Report Ay 2017-2018: Initiative For The Development Of Global And International Studies In Social Science Courses At Parkland College, Isabel Scarborough Ph.D.

Global Studies Initiatives in Social Sciences 2017-2018

This project set out to provide social science faculty at Parkland College with instructional design training tools and aid them in infusing their courses with global studies materials. It also wished to promote the addition in these same courses of current case studies from underrepresented world areas such as the European Union, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, and Russia. Lastly, it hoped to add pedagogical sample assignments and class activities on global studies to Parkland College’s open access repository, as well as acquire scholarly works on globalization for the college’s library collection. This project was successfully completed during the Fall semester of …

Žumberak: A Sixteenth-Century Refugee Settlement Zone, Nicholas J. Miller

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the movement of Orthodox Christian refugees from Bosnia to the Habsburg Monarchy in the 1530s and their settlement in a district called Žumberak. The movement of these Uskoks has never been examined in the context of refugee studies. This study of a refugee movement and settlement over a five-century period offers the possibility of reaching a better understanding of the long-term outcome of refugee movements. Ultimately, this article suggests that the refugees affected the land they settled as much as the settlement zone affected them, and that, in this case, the refugees were able to define their …