„Miesto religija ir erdviškumas daugiaetninėje posocialistinėje Ulan Udėje“ Nr.09.3.3-LMT-K-712-19-0059
Postdoctoral fellowship programme. Research Council of Lithuania 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-19-0059). 2021 – 2023.
Postdoctoral fellow dr. K. Jonutytė
Research supervisor prof. D. Brandišauskas
This social anthropology research project explores the dynamics of the interrelation between religion and urban space in the Republic of Buryatia (Russian Federation). Buryatia is significant as a multi-ethnic region in Southeast Siberia, which is strongly affected by centre-periphery tensions, resource extraction and changing geopolitics, as well as rapid urbanisation and the revival of religion (mainly Buddhism but also Christianity and shamanism). The project will explore how these processes shape local society in the changing multi-ethnic urban space as well as how the urban space itself influences identity and sociality. It will pay special attention to the cultural-religious revival of Buryat Buddhists, which has significant social and political consequences on local, state-, and international levels. These questions will be explored through the prism of religion, bearing in mind its link with ethnicity and politics as its role in postsocialist multiethnic contexts is growing. The project will use theories of urban religion and spatiality, and it will aim to make a contribution to this field. The researcher will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia. It will consist of participant observation, interviews, as well as analysis of various sources and of urban space. The postdoctoral researcher will aim at preparing a monograph on urban religion and spatiality in Ulan-Ude and submitting it to an international publisher. She will also prepare and submit an academic article, give two presentations at international conferences as well as a seminar presentation, and will write a popular article. She will conduct a research stay at the University of Cambridge (the UK), at the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit.