Grazina Bielousova

I am a PhD candidate in Religious Studies. In my scholarly endeavors I focus on the intersections of critical race theory, feminism, and religion, with particular attention to the way they apply to Eastern European context.  I credit these academic interests to having grown up in Eastern Europe (Lithuania) during its turbulent transition from the Soviet Union occupied territories to independent, nationalist states, and to my first-hand experience of the role of religion in geopolitical and state building processes.  
My dissertation focuses on the role of religion in the emergence of the idea of "Eastern Europe" during the Enlightenment. I draw on the travel narratives and cartographic evidence of the period to trace the intellectual history of Eastern Europe and argue that the region was constructed as an intra-European colonial space patterned on a broader, global racial logic.