Research
Anhropology of Religion, Armenian Studies, Diaspora Studies, Pilgrimage Studies
Publications
Books
2019, Ormianie katolicy w Armenii i Gruzji: historia, pamięć, tożsamość [Armenian Catholics in Armenia and Georgia: History, Memory and Identity], Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka (with Krzysztof Stopka and Jakub Osiecki)
Edited journal issues
2021, “Religion and Pandemic: Shifts in Interpretations, Popular Lore, and Practices”, Entangled Religions: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer, 12 (3), (with Alexander Agadjanian)
Edited volumes
2016, Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Bohlau Verlag (with Stefan Troebst)
2014, Armenia: kultura współczesna w ujęciu antropologicznym [Armenia: A Modern Culture from Anthropological Perspective], Warszawa: DiG (with Levon Abrahamian)
Journal articles
2021, “Religion and Pandemic: Shifts of Interpretation, Popular Lore, and Practices. An Introduction,” Entangled Religions: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer, 12 (3), https://doi.org/10.46586/er.12.2021.9907 (with Alexander Agadjanian)
2021, “Scripts, Saints, and Scientists: The Social Life of Gospel Books in an Armenian Museum,” Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, 4 (1): 93-114.
2020, “Kissing the Book, Making a Vow: An Illustrated Story of an Armenian Religious Practice,” Folklife, https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/illustrated-story-of-armenian-religious-practice
2018, “Charismatic Renewal and Miracular Sensitivity at a Catholic Marian Apparition Site in Poland,” Catholics & Cultures: Journal of Global Catholicism, 2 (2): 124-146.
2018, “Faith and Fatigue in the Extreme Way of the Cross in Poland,” Religion, State & Society, 46 (2): 108-122.
2016, “Пора покончить с этой религией комфорта!» Текст и тело в Экстремальном крестном пути” [It’s Time to Quit with Religion of Small Comforts!”: Body and Text in the Extreme Way of the Cross], Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 3 (34): 132-147.
2016, “Промежуточная церковь»: армянские католики в Армении и Грузии в постсоветское время” [The Church In-Between: Armenian Catholics in Post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia], Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 2 (34): 310-330.
2013, “The Armenian Apostolic Church and Vernacular Christianity in Soviet Armenia,” Keston Newsletter, 18: 15-20.
2012, “Catholics in the Holy Spirit: The Charismatic Renewal in Poland,” Religion, State & Society, 40 (1): 145-161.
2009, “Nation and Faith, Past and Present: The Contemporary Discourse of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia”, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, 18 (2): 99-109.
Book chapters
2024, “Looking West: The ‘Ergirian Microworld’ in Armenia and Its Diasporic Horizon,” in: H. Matevosyan, V. Sahakyan (eds.) Layers of Diasporic Belonging, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Bohlau Verlag (forthcoming)
2024, “Returning to the Roots: Transgenerational Trauma, Diaspora Community, and the Armenian Pilgrimage to the Lost Homeland,” in: L. Kromják, A.Karamehic-Muratovic (eds.) Intergenerational Trauma in Refugee Communities, London, New York: Routledge (forthcoming)
2021, “Apparitions of the Mother of God in Socialist Poland in the Early Years of the Cold War,” in: P. J. Margry (ed.) Cold War Mary: Ideologies, Politics, Marian Devotional Culture, Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 189-210. (with Agnieszka Halemba)
2021, “Armenians in Romania Today: Diasporic Institutions and Interventions”, in: A. Yilmaz (ed.) Critical Approaches to Armenian Identity in the 21st Century: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Transformation, Istanbul HDV Publications, pp. 114-124.
2020, “Gospel Books as Sacred Objects: The Veneration of Religious Manuscripts in Armenian Christianity,” in: B. Kovács, V. Tachjian (eds) Inspiration of God: The One-and-a-Half Millenia of the Armenian Bible and Religious Practice, Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, pp. 68-75.
2016, “Studying Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe: Problems and Perspectives,” in: K. Siekierski, S. Troebst (eds) Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Bohlau Verlag, pp. 13-25.
2016, “Completing the Story: Armenians in Other Countries of Post-Communist Europe,” in: K. Siekierski, S. Troebst (eds) Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe, Bohlau Verlag, pp. 205-219.
2014, “‘One Nation, One Faith, One Church’: The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Ethno-Religion in Post-Soviet Armenia,” in: A. Agadjanian (ed.), Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics, Popular Practices and Social Functions, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 9-34.
2014, “The Chronotopes of the Armenian Diaspora in Romania: Religious Feasts and Shrines in the Making of Community,” in: A. Agadjanian (ed.), Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics, Popular Practices and Social Functions, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 197-213.
2014, “Armenia: Kultura współczesna w ujęciu antropologicznym. Wprowadzenie” [Armenia: A Modern Culture from an Anthropological Perspective. An Introduction], in: L. Abrahamian, K. Siekierski (eds), Armenia: kultura współczesna w ujęciu antropologicznym [Armenia: A Modern Culture from an Anthropological Perspective], Warszawa: DiG, pp. 11-18.
2014, “Spotkanie pod drzewem: Dąb Wardana Mamikoniana i polityka symboli we współczesnej Armenii” [A Meeting under the Tree: Commander Vardan’s Oak and the Politics of Symbols in Contemporary Armenia], in: L. Abrahamian, K. Siekierski (eds), Armenia: kultura współczesna w ujęciu antropologicznym [Armenia: A Modern Culture from an Anthropological Perspective], Warszawa: DiG, pp. 109-118.
2014, “A Neopagan Movement in Armenia: The Children of Ara,” in: K. Aitamurto, S. Simpson (eds), Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, London, New York: Routledge, pp. 266-282. (with Yulia Antonyan)
2011, “The Armenian Diaspora in Romania: Roots, Routes, Re-Creations”, New Europe College Yearbook, Bucharest: New Europe College, pp. 379-402.
2010, “Religious and National Identities in Post-Soviet Armenia”, in: I. Borowik, M. Zawiła (ed.), Religions and Identities in Transition, Kraków: Nomos, pp. 149-162.
2010, “Księża i komisarze: Ormiański Kościół Apostolski w czasach władzy radzieckiej” [Priests and Commissars: The Armenian Apostolic Church under the Soviet Regime], P. Adamczewski (ed.), Konflikty na Kaukazie Południowym [Conflicts in the South Caucasus], Poznań: Wydawnictwo UAM, pp. 17-35.
Book reviews
2023, A House in the Homeland: Armenian Pilgrimages to Places of Ancestral Memory, by Carel Bertram, Memory Studies, 16 (3): 657-660.
2021, Orthodox Christianity, New Age Spirituality and Vernacular Religion: The ‘Evil Eye’ in Greece, by Eugenia Roussou, Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 3 (39): 338-343.
2020, Sacred Places, Emerging Spaces: Religious Pluralism in the Post-Soviet Caucasus, by Tsypylma Darieva, Florian Muhlfried, and Kevin Tuite (ed.), Canadian Slavonic Papers, 62 (2): 222-223.
2019, The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice, by Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, \\Journal of Medieval Worlds, 1 (4): 65-67.
2018, The Making of the New Martyrs of Russia. Soviet Repression in Orthodox Memory, by Karin Hyldal Christensen, Europe-Asia Studies, 70 (10): 1718-1720.
2017, Negotiating Marian Apparition: The Politics of Religion in Transcarpathian Ukraine, by Agnieszka Halemba, Religion, State & Society, 45 (2): 160-162.
Qualifications, degrees
PhD in Social Anthropology, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College London, 2023
MA in Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology), Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw, 2007
BA in Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology), Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw, 2003
Workplaces, positions
Fellowships and scholarships
September 2021 – August 2022. Orthodox Christian Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Fordham University, New York.
October 2017 – May 2021. London Arts and Humanities Partnership Fellowship, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London.
February – March 2020. Visiting Fellow at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
October 2016 – October 2019. Calouste Gulbenkian Armenian Studies Scholarship, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London.
January – April 2015. Visiting Scholar at the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas at Austin; Recipient of the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Fellowship.
September – October 2011, September – October 2012, June – August 2013, and March 2014. Visiting Scholar at the Centre for the History and Culture of East Central Europe (GWZO), Leipzig University.
October 2012 – March 2013. Kazan Visiting Scholar, Armenian Studies Program, University of California at Fresno.
October 2007 – June 2010. Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.
Research projects
From October 2023 – Lost-but-found: Armenian Capital Ani at Contested Crossroads, post-doctoral research position, Free University, Berlin.
September – October 2021 and July – August 2022. Gospel Books as Home Saints: Between Vernacular Christianity and Armenian National Heritage, National Association of Armenian Studies and Research.
May 2015 – June 2018. Multisensory Religious Imageries in Selected Catholic Shrines in South-Eastern Poland, research team member, University of Warsaw.
October 2016 – January 2017. Living with Uncertainty: Strategies of Daily Life and Life Decisions in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, University of Southern California, Dornsife.
August 2013 – February 2015. Armenian Catholics in Armenia and Georgia: History, Memory and Identity, head of the project, Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow (head of the project).
June – August 2012. Pilgrimage, Sacred Places, and the Chronotopes of the Armenian Diaspora in Romania, Romanian Cultural Institute.
March – July 2011. Religion, Politics and Diaspora: The Case Study of Armenian Community in Modern Romania, New Europe College.
September 2010 – June 2011. Reinvented Traditions versus New Communities of Meaning: The Religious Situation in Post-Soviet Armenia, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.
Teaching positions
2023- Institute of History, Department of Armenian Studies, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest
Membership in Academic Organisations
Society for Armenian Studies
International Association of Armenian Studies
Awards, honors
The Arthur Maurice Hocart Prize for the essay titled Scripts, Saints, and Scientists: The Social Life of Gospel Books in an Armenian Museum, awarded by the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2021.
The Award of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland for Outstanding Achievements in the Academic Year 2012-2013.
Organization of scientific conferences, exhibition management
Situating the Lost City of Ani, 7-8 December 2023, Free University, Berlin
Photo exhibition “Among the Mountains of the Lesser Caucasus. The Forgotten World of Armenian Catholics”, Museum of Jagiellonian University in Cracow, 29 May – 16 August 2015.
Photo exhibition “Armenia Christiana”, Library of the University of Warsaw, August – September 2006.
