Contributors of articles

Irena Borowik is a Professor of Sociology at Jagiellonian University, Cracow, and president of Nomos Publishing House. She is the author of a number of books in both Polish and English. Her publications in English include New religious phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe, co-edited with Grzegorz Babiński, Church-state relations in Central and Eastern Europe, Religion and social change in post-communist Europe, co-edited with Miklós Tomka, Religion, churches and the scientific studies of religion: Poland and Ukraine, and Religions, Churches, and Religiosity in Post-Communist Europe.

Robia Charles is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Robert F. Goeckel is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the State University of New York, Geneseo.  In addition to The Lutheran Church and the East German State, he has authored articles in World Politics, Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Problems of Post-Communism, and contributions in various collected volumes on church and state in Eastern Europe and the former USSR.

Angela Ilić is a Ph.D. candidate and adjunct faculty member at the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. She holds an M.A. in European Studies from Katholijke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium where she wrote her master's thesis, “Church and State Relations in Present-Day Serbia,” parts of which have been published. Her research interests include religion and society in the Balkans, interreligious dialogue, church-state relations in Europe, ethnic minorities, and human rights.

Vyacheslav Karpov is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Group for the Study of Religion, Humanity and Social Change at Western Michigan University. He specializes in comparative sociology of religion and is an expert in cross-national research on religion and tolerance. He has published in Sociology of Religion, Social Forces, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Religion, State and Society, and other leading refereed journals. He is presently writing a book titled Orthodoxy, Islam, and Religious Intolerance in Post-Atheist Russia in co-authorship with Dr. Elena Lisovskaya.

Elena Lisovskaya is a Professor of Sociology and Comparative Education at Western Michigan University. She received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Her research expertise includes cross-national studies of religion, ideologies, education, and social change. She published in Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, Religion, State, and Society and other journals. Presently, she is co-authoring a book Orthodoxy, Islam, and Religious Intolerance in Post-Atheist Russia (with Dr. V. Karpov).

Gerd Inger Ringdal is a Professor of Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Her research interests are the quality of life, stress, coping, grief, and bereavement. She has published articles in a range of journals including: Quality of Life Research, Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, Social Indicators Research, British Journal of Cancer, Palliative and Supportive Care, Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Journal of Loss and Trauma, and Croatian Medical Journal.

Kristen Ringdal is a Professor of Sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, and a Senior Research Associate of the Centre for the Study of Civil War at International Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Oslo. He has published articles in a broad range of journals including: Acta Sociologica, Administrative Science Quarterly, European Sociological Review, Journal of Applied Economics, Management International Review, Quality of Life Research, and Scandinavian Journal of Management. His most recent book is Nordic Social Attitudes, co-edited with Heikki Ervasti, Torben Fridberg and Mikael Hjerm.

Laman Tasch is a lecturer at the Department of Humanities, History and Social Science of the Columbia College, Chicago. She was born and grew up in Baku (Azerbaijan), completed her bachelor and master degree studies at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey), and in 2009 received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, Illinois). She specializes in identity politics, nationalist movements and ideologies, ethnic minorities, and role of cultural groups in Russia and Turkey and in the surrounding region.

Contributors of book reviews

Dilshod Achilov is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on the dynamics of Islamic political and civic institutions and their impact on democratization process and Islamic radicalism. He is the recipient of an IREX fellowship for field research in Central Asia.

John Anderson is a Professor of International Politics at the University of St. Andrews. He has published widely on religion and politics in the former Soviet Union. His latest book is Christianity and Democratization: From Passive Subjects to Active Participants.

John Carlson is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. His current research includes a monograph “Justice This Side of Heaven: Human Nature, Religion, and the Moral Order of Politics” and a collection “Religion, Violence, and America: From Jeremiad to Jihad.”

Jerome Copulsky is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Director of Judaic Studies at Goucher College. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New Republic, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Daily Forward, Religion Dispatches, and in such scholarly journals as The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, The Journal of Religion, and Perspectives on Political Science.

Lucian N. Leustean is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He is the author of Orthodoxy and the Cold War: Religion and Political Power in Romania, 1947–65 and editor of Eastern Christianity and the Cold War, 1945–91, and of Religion, Politics and Law in the European Union (with John Madeley).

Vladimir Matic is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Clemson University. He is a former Yugoslav career diplomat and ambassador who resigned the post of Assistant Federal Minister in 1993 in disagreement on policy and moral issues. After the change of the regime in 2000, he was the first diplomatic representative of the new government in the United States as a Special Envoy of the Yugoslav President.

Melissa Matthes is the Director of the Initiative on Religion and Politics at Yale University. Her publications include The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics: Readings in Livy, Machiavelli and Rousseau.  Her current research project centers on American sermons that have been delivered during periods of national crisis, from the bombing of Pearl Harbor through September 11, 2001.

Sabrina P. Ramet is a Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim, Norway, and Senior Associate of the Centre for the Study of Civil War, of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO). She is the author, editor, or co-editor of 36 books (three of which have been published in Croatian translations), the latest of which is her edited collection, Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989.

Lavinia Stan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Center for Post-Communist Studies at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. A comparative politics specialist by training, she has researched and published on religion and politics, church-state relations, transitional justice, de-communization, file access, lustration, intelligence services, governance, and social capital.

Lee Trepanier is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Saginaw Valley State University. He is author of Political Symbols in Russian History: Church, State, and the Quest for Order and Justice.