About

I am an associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University, where I teach students about Russian Orthodoxy and, more broadly, European Christianity during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My research mainly explores the intersection of Christian theology, Russian public discourse, Orthodox identity, and the contest over what it means to be Russian and Orthodox. My first monograph, Beyond the Monastery Walls (2017), examines the ways in which asceticism became a concept used by Orthodox churchmen, theologians, and lay religious thinkers to chart Russia's development toward (or deviation from) the kingdom of God, distinguish Russia from the "West," and construct national-confessional identities in the century leading up to the First World War. My co-edited volume, Thinking Orthodox in Modern Russia (2014), brought together scholars from a variety of academic disciplines to consider the ways in which Orthodox Christianity shaped modern Russian history and culture.

As a faculty member at Indiana University's Department of Religious Studies, I regularly teach courses related to the history of Russian Orthodoxy, modern European Christian thought, and the history of religious studies. I am also an affiliate member of IU's Department of History, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, and the Russian and East European Institute.

I am very happily married to Martha. We proudly share in the responsibilities and joys of raising a funny, caring, and loving boy named Peter.

Much of my life is now spent teaching and working in Bloomington, Indiana, and hiking and working in the mountains of Colorado.