Webinar Serie
Episode 4: Vera Shevzov

The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the fourth episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christianity.

This episode features an interview with Vera Shevzov, professor of religion and director of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program at Smith College. Trained in Russian history at Yale University, where she received her bachelor’s and Ph.D., as well as at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where she received her M.Div, she has published on a wide range of topics related to Orthodox Christianity in modern, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia. Supported at various stages by the American Academy of Religion, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Mellon Foundation, her publications have engaged lived religion and religious thought and their interface with: history, liturgy, and sacred memory; notions of “the West;” revolution and visual violence; the culture of icons; and the image of Mary.

Her book, Russian Orthodoxy on the Eve of Revolution (Oxford University Press), was awarded the Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History. Most recently, she co-edited a volume of essays on Mary in modern, Revolutionary, and Post-Soviet Russian culture. She is a former co-chair of the steering committing for the Eastern Orthodox Studies unit of the American Academy of Religion, and is currently co-editor of the Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press). This past year, she was a fellow at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University.