Contact
Expertise Summary
I can supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students with research interests in the following areas:
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Book and library history, especially the history of the printed book up to 1800;
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Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century religious literature;
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The European Reformations;
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Religion and politics in early modern Europe;
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History of early modern European witchcraft;
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Ukrainian history, esp. in the early modern period;
- Polish, Russian, and East European history.
Teaching Summary
I teach in two areas of early modern continental European history:
(1) The European Reformations and related subjects, such as the history of Protestantism and Catholicism in the era of religious change, 1500-1773, the life and work of Martin Luther, and the Thirty Years' War;
and
(2) Ukraine/ Russian Empire in the early modern period, 1500-1786.
In addition, I contribute to the teaching of several survey modules as a lecturer and seminar tutor.
Research Summary
I am working on a project that seeks to explore the immediate impact of the European Reformations: Protestant and Catholic alike, on the reforming processes within the Orthodox Church in the early modern period. Plagued by the same problems that affected the late mediaeval Catholic Church, but devoid of proper educational facilities and handicapped by the archaic structure of decision-making at the top, some Orthodox leaders looked to the West in search of inspiration and examples of church reform. Various attempts at reviving the church and its constituent parts were undertaken between 1551 and 1686, but the end result was eventually to split the heretofore nominally united Eastern Orthodox Church into a number of national churches professing similar dogma, but otherwise grown apart in terms of ecclesiastical organisation and culture.
Parallel to this, a monograph entitled " Angelic women": Eastern Orthodox female monasticism in an imperial context (1686-1786), is work in progress. Applying comparative historical perspectives through the use of an interdisciplinary methodology and drawing on gender studies and anthropology, the project seeks to fill considerable gaps in the existing knowledge of Eastern Orthodox women's monasteries as important early modern institutions that allowed women a semi-autonomous existence within the patriarchal framework of East Slavic societies. An award of a grant in the 2010 round of the British Academy Small Grants Scheme made it possible for me to spend one month exploring the rich archival holdings situated in the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine.
Supervision
I can supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students with research interests in the following areas:
- Book and library history, especially the history of the printed book up to 1800;
- Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century religious literature;
- European Reformations;
- Religion and politics in early modern Europe;
- History of early modern European witchcraft;
- Ukrainian history, esp. in the early modern period;
- Polish, Russian, and and East European history.
Conferences, invited papers, and public presentations
'Angelic women: writing a history of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in an imperial context (1686-1786)' (invited lecture), Warwick University Historical Society, 14 May 2025 (UK)
'The Orthodox nun: microhistories in an imperial context' (invited paper), Early Modern World History Seminar, Cambridge, 7 March 2024 (UK)
'Geography of faith: a nun's journey through Central and Eastern Europe', International Conference "Connected Central Europe", University of Kent, Canterbury, 1 July 2023 (UK)
'Mazepa's women before and after Poltava: to save and to keep', Virtual Conversations on History, Art, and Cultural Heritage: From Kyivan Rus' to Modern Ukraine, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, 7 July 2022 (USA)
'Religious toleration in the Ukrainian Rus' lands: from Beras'tse to Uzhhorod, 1596-1646', Ukraine Teach In in the Cambridge Union, Cambridge, 30 April 2022 (UK)
'Writing the history of Eastern Orthodox female monasticism: promises and challenges', International Conference "Defining the Identity of the Younger Europe", Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań, 7 April 2022 (Poland)
'The printed editions of works by members of Catholic monastic orders in the library of Peter Mohyla' (in Ukrainian), Ad fontes: an International Conference Commemorating the 405th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, 27 October 2021 (Ukraine)
'On the survival of double monasteries in the Eastern Church', the International Conference "From the Scriptorium to the Library", IE University, Segovia, 11 June 2019 (Spain)
'Brothers and sisters: kinship, property relations, and the survival of double monasteries in the Eastern Church' (keynote address), "Women and Religion", International Womens' Day Conference, Queen's University Belfast, 9 March 2018 (UK)
'The troubled career of Sister Asklipiodata, a convert nun in eighteenth-century Kiev' (invited lecture), 59th Meeting of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia, Hoddesdon, Herts, 4 January 2018 (UK)
'"That little golden book": Eastern Slavic translations of the Imitation of Christ, 1628-1799', The Printed Book in Central Europe Conference, 1 July 2017 (UK)
'Brothers and sisters: on the survival of double monasteries in the Eastern Church', Meeting of the Slavonic and Mediaeval Studies Group, 5 November 2016, Oxford (UK)
'Polonisation and all that, or religious identity and cultural change in Ruthenia: the Union of Lublin and the myths of "polonisation"', Culture and union: a comparison of the British/ Irish and the Polish-Lithuanian unions, 1386-1863: an international symposium, The Burn, Edzell, Aberdeenshire, 6 September 2014 (UK)
'Evil women and other women: a case of political witchcraft in early modern Ukraine' (invited lecture), Palacký University, Olomouc, 22 April 2014 (Czech Republic)
'"Revolting sisters": guarding traditional clerical privileges in the late Ukrainian Hetmanate', paper presented to the 45th Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Washington, DC, 24 November 2013 (USA)
'A curious omission? Monasticism and Orthodox reform in the Metropolitanate of Kiev in the seventeenth century', Between religious conflict and reform: new approaches to late medieval and early modern confessional culture in Central European towns, c. 1400-1700. Workshop, Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen, in co-operation with the Palacký University of Olomouc, Czech Republic, 4 October 2013 (UK)
'Earthly mother, holy witch: social perceptions of Maria-Magdalena Mazepa (1687-1707)', paper presented to the 43rd Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Washington, DC, 15 November 2011 (USA)
'A balancing act: the Eastern Orthodox women's monasteries in early modern Ukraine (1566-1786)', Meeting of the Slavonic and Mediaeval Studies Group, 19 March 2011, London (UK)
'A saint or not a saint: A late eighteenth-century life of Peter Mohyla', paper presented to the 41st Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston, MA, 13 November 2009 (USA)
'"Calves into oxen"? The dilemmas of Orthodox education in the Ukrainian lands of Poland-Lithuania', Competing for souls: Religion and Education in a multi-confessional society. East Central Europe, 1550-1700: Symposium organised by the Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen, 5 December 2008 (UK)
'A book that never was? Some considerations about the hypothetical publication of Peter Mohyla's translation of the Imitation of Christ', paper presented at the 39th Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, New Orleans, LA, 15 November 2007, New Orleans, LA (USA)
'Do books cause revolutions? A problem revisited', paper presented to the History Society, University College Dublin, 4 April 2005, Dublin (Ireland)
'Reformations, reforms, and reformers: Europe in the Confessional Age', Anna Bidder Talk, 3 February 2004, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge (UK)
'Latin books and the reform of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church: Two catalogues of books purchased by Peter Mohyla in 1632 and 1633', paper presented at the Maurice Kennedy Research Centre, University College Dublin, 9 April 2003, Dublin (Ireland)
'Ukrainian higher education and libraries: An historical perspective', invited lecture presented to the Essex Branch of the English-Speaking Union, 26 June 2002, Manningtree (UK)
'Latin books and the reform of the Russian Orthodox church: Two catalogues of books purchased by Peter Mohyla in 1632 and 1633', invited lecture presented to the Bibliographical Society, 19 March 2002, London (UK)
'Peter Mohyla and his Kniga dushy narytsaema Zloto', paper presented to the Slavonic and East European Mediaeval Studies Group, 3 November 2001, London (UK)
'The library of the Kiev Academy: the surviving books evidence', paper presented to the Slavonic and East European Mediaeval Studies Group, 15 November 1997, London (UK)
'Seeds "being sown up and down", or A story of a lost library and the perennial Russian question: Who is to blame?', Lucy Tuesdays Seminar, 27 May 2001, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge (UK)
'The work of the Ukrainian philosopher Hryhory Skovoroda: The twilight of liberty', paper presented at the Workshop of the Concepts and Symbols Group of the International Society for the Eighteenth-Century Studies, 26 February 1996, Naples (Italy)
'The transformation of a library: The library of the Kiev Mohyla Academy in the eighteenth century and the library of the Kiev Theological Academy', paper presented at the 1995 Congress of the International Society for the Eighteenth-century Studies, 27 July 1995, Münster (Germany)
Recent Publications
2025. Ukraine in the long eighteenth century: Historiographical journeys from the terra incognita to a postcolonial future: Review article Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 26(2), 421-29
2024. Beyond toleration: the Eastern Orthodox Church in Reformation Europe. In: HENRY A. JEFFERIES, ed., Reformations Compared: Religious Transformations Across Early Modern Europe 1st. Cambridge University Press. 104-123
2021. "That little golden book”: Eastern Slavic translations of the Imitation of Christ, 1628-1799. In: ELIZABETH DILLENBURG and HOWARD LOUTHAN, eds., Print Culture at the Crossroads: The book and Central Europe 1st. Brill. 494-512
2021. Igor Fedyukin, The enterprisers: the politics of school in early modern Russia, New York, 2019: Book review The English Historical Review. 136, 432-3