Humanities
CANCELED: Putin’s Holy War: Sacred Memory and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
March 31, 2025 at 4:00pm – 5:00pm EDT
Eggers Hall, 341
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| In this talk, Dr. Sean Griffin presents a chapter from his latest book, Putin’s Holy War: Sacred Memory and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, forthcoming from Cornell University Press. In this book, Dr. Griffin traces the career of Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev), the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, and examines his highly controversial role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin’s Holy War explores the myths that governments construct to justify violence and sacralize the mass murder of human beings. |
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Sean Griffin is an Associate Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the history of the Orthodox Church and its role in the sacralization of political power—from the liturgy and chronicles of medieval Kyiv to the arthouse cinema and wartime propaganda of Putin’s Russia. Dr. Griffin’s first book, The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus, was published by Cambridge University Press and won two international book awards: the W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize and the Ecclesiastical History Society Book Prize.
This event was first published on March 18, 2025 and last updated on March 31, 2025.
Event Details
- Category
- Humanities
- Type
- Talks
- Region
- Campus
- Open to
- Public
- Contact
- Byungsam Jung
byjung@syr.edu
- Accessibility
- Contact Byungsam Jung to request accommodations