2025 Workshop: Religion and spirituality in the sacred geography of the (post-)communist worlds
Seventh international workshop, October 20–22, 2025
Religion and spirituality in the sacred geography of the (post-)communist worlds
Venue: Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Vasari Room, Paris
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Programme
Monday, October 20 |
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Opening Session: Welcome address & Keynote speech |
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| 9.30 | Welcome Address by Stéphane DUDOIGNON (CNRS/GSRL) & Marie-Paule HILLE (EHESS/CCJ, Paris) |
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Session 1
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| 10.00 | Pascal BOURDEAUX EPHE/GSRL, Paris pascal.bourdeaux@ephe.psl.eu |
A historical reflection on the gradual reintegration of religious South Vietnam into Vietnamese national discourse since the end of the war in 1975 |
| 10.30 | NAKANISHI Tatsuya Kyoto University, Institute for Research in Humanities |
Khaṭāʾī sanctifies Khaṭāy: The Hui legend of ʿAlī Bābā and the Forty Mendicants |
| 11.00 | Coffee break | |
| 11.15 | Nodirjon ABDULAHATOV Ferghana Pedagogical Education Centre |
Resurrecting and nationalising Muslim sainthood in the Ferghana Valley, since 1991 |
| 11.45 | Aurore DUMONT EHESS/CCJ, Paris |
Negotiating territorial and ethnic belonging, through the construction and worship of sacred sites in Inner Mongolia |
| 12.15 | Benoît FILOU EPHE, Paris |
Absheron, from periphery of Shia Islam to centre of Azerbaijani national identity? |
| 13.00 | Luncheon | |
Session 2
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| 14.30 |
Valeria GAZIZOVA |
Memories of the Soviet Buddhist (under)ground: |
| 15.00 |
Jeanne (Zhanna) KORMINA |
Taming charisma: |
| 15.30 |
Coffee break |
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| 15.45 |
Yulia SAVOSTINA |
Politicising sacred space: |
| 16.15 |
Agnieszka HALEMBA |
Degrees of martyrdom, degrees of holiness: |
| 17.00 |
Closure of the session |
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| 19.30 |
Dinner |
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Tuesday, October 21 |
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Session 3
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| 10.00 |
Tomas KAČERAUSKAS |
Vilnius saints from anthropological and phenomenological points of view |
| 10.30 |
Thierry ZARCONE |
Sainthood and oasis identity: |
| 11.00 |
Coffee break |
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| 11.15 |
Sergei SHTYRKOV |
Saint Anastasia of Vladikavkaz: |
| 11.45 |
Virginie VATÉ |
Herman of Alaska: A Saint at the Heart of Multiple Claims |
| 12.15 |
Stéphane DUDOIGNON |
‘Discourse of place’ as a polyphony: |
| 13.00 |
Luncheon |
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Session 4
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| 14.30 | Marie-Paule HILLE EHESS/CCJ, Paris |
Re-sacralising territory: Spatial transformations and Sufi heritage in post-Mao China (through a Sinophone Muslim community of Southern Gansu, 1979–2014) |
| 15.00 | Clément JACQUEMOUD GSRL, Paris |
The divine Altai or the Earth-Water: The construction of a sacred territory in the early Soviet period |
| 15.30 | Coffee break | |
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15.45 |
Dmitriy OPARIN Montaigne University of Bordeaux |
Memories of Shamanic miracles in Soviet Chukotka: Ritual fragmentation and nostalgia in the post-Soviet era |
| 16.15 | Jesko SCHMOLLER Humboldt University, Berlin |
Garifulla Kiekov (1861–1918) on the screen: A nationalist reading of the Bashkir Muslim sacred landscape |
| 17.00 | Closure of the session | |
| 19.30 | Dinner | |
Wednesday, October 22 |
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Session 5
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| 10.00 | Anne DALLES-MARÉCHAL Jean Monnet University of St Étienne & GSRL |
Conversion of places and circulation of religion: Religion and territory in Russian-speaking Evangelical Churches of the Amur region |
| 10.30 | Tim GROSE R. Hulman Inst. of Technology, Terre Haute, MN |
Re-consecration after revolution: Building and restoring sacred Islamic space in the Uyghur homeland during the Reform Era |
| 11.00 | Coffee break | |
| 11.15 | Aleksandr LVOV Independent researcher, Jerusalem |
From sacred text to sacred site: Descendants of Russian Judaisers from Azerbaijan in search of a usable past |
| 11.45 | Detelina TOCHEVA CNRS/GSRL, Paris |
Saint Seraphim the miracle worker of Sofia: At the crossroads of clashing spiritual-political agendas |
| 12.15 | Shamil SHIKHALIEV Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna |
Muslim sacred geography and its transformation in post-Soviet Daghestan |
| 13.00 | Luncheon | |
Session 6
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| 14.30 | Tommaso PREVIATO Friedrich-Alexander U., Erlangen–Nuremberg |
Lunar asterism, self-purification and immortality in the mystical poetry of a Chinese branch of Qadiri Sufism |
| 15.00 | Isabelle CHARLEUX CNRS/GSRL, Paris |
New rituals in contemporary Mongolian pilgrimage: Harnessing Energi from natural elements |
| 15.30 | Coffee break | |
| 15.45 | Allen J. FRANK Independent scholar, Takoma Park, MD |
Mari sacred groves, deforestation and forced labour during the Second World War |
| 16.30 |
Closure of the workshop |
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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Red Gold (October 17, 2025). 2025 Workshop: Religion and spirituality in the sacred geography of the (post-)communist worlds. RedGold. Retrieved February 18, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14z9c










