| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, March 28, 2014 | 2:00PM - 4:00PM | Seminar Room 208N, Munk School of Global Affairs 1 Devonshire Place |
Modern Ukrainian Pagans strive to revive beliefs and practices from the past millennia. They offer an alternative vision for a nation based on the rediscovery of ethnic roots in the contexts of socio-political turmoil. Modern Paganism spread among the urban Ukrainian intelligentsia in the North American diaspora after World War II, and developed actively in Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, although experiencing a great decline in the diaspora, it is rapidly growing in Ukraine, involving many different Pagan communities and thousands of believers. Pagans resist both the external political oppression of Ukraine and the prominent position of Christianity in that country. Since Christianity dominates the spiritual discourse in Ukraine, Pagans are marginalized, and their ideas are perceived as radical and hostile by the larger society.
Drawing upon her book The Return of Ancestral Gods: Modern Ukrainian Paganism as an Alternative Vision for a Nation recently published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, Mariya Lesiv will discuss modern Ukrainian Paganism in relationship to nationalist politics and aesthetics. The majority of researchers of Slavic Paganisms concentrate predominantly on official Pagan discourse, namely, the voices of leaders as presented through official media such as publications, websites, and public presentations. These media indeed often reveal nationalist, racist and anti-Semitic sentiments expressed by some Ukrainian Pagans. However, Lesiv finds it important to consider not only how Paganism is preached but also the way that it is embraced on a private level. She will show that Paganism attracts a growing number of Ukrainians largely because of its aesthetic aspects rather than its associated politics, and will discuss the role that aesthetics may play in the further development of Ukrainian Paganism.
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