Heather Coleman, University of Alberta

Profile photo of Heather Coleman, expert at University of Alberta

Associate Professor Department of History and Classics Department of Religious Studies Edmonton, Alberta heather.coleman@ualberta.ca Office: (780) 492-3922

Bio/Research

My first book made use of newly available archival material to examine the Baptists, the fastest-growing non-Orthodox religious group among Russians between 1905 and 1929, when Russians enjoyed greater religious freedom than anytime before 1991. This was a period of religious opportunity, of expl...

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Bio/Research

My first book made use of newly available archival material to examine the Baptists, the fastest-growing non-Orthodox religious group among Russians between 1905 and 1929, when Russians enjoyed greater religious freedom than anytime before 1991. This was a period of religious opportunity, of exploration of the possibilities of pluralism in Russian society and culture. The Baptists’ own experiences, and the widespread discussion that they generated, illuminate the emergence of new social and personal identities in early twentieth-century Russia, the creation of a public sphere and civic culture, debates over citizenship, and the way in which religious ideas were implicated in the modernization process.

My current research is centred on a book project, “Holy Kyiv: Priests, Communities, and Nationality in Imperial Russia, 1800-1917,” which investigates the relationship between the ethno-religious diversity of Kyiv diocese and the lively pastoral mission of the Orthodox clergy there.


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