Results

Scientific Publications:

 

  • Ališauskienė, Milda. 2023. “Sun the Mother and Moon the Father: Gender Roles and Family Practices in Romuva.” Nova Religio 27 (1): 79-98. doi.: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.79
  • Vidūnaitė, Morta. 2023. “The Agency in Islam or (and) Human Rights? The Case of Pious Baltic Muslim Women.” Religions 14: 937. doi.: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070937
  • Juchnevičiūtė, Evelina, Milda Ališauskienė and Gintarė Pocė. 2023. “The Christian Right in Contemporary Lithuania: Key Actors and Their Agendas” in The Christian Right in Europe: Movements, Networks, and Denominations, ed. Gionathan Lo Mascolo, 265-277. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. doi.: 10.14361/9783839460382-015
  • Balode, Dace and Marianne Bjelland Kartzow. 2023. “Intersectional Grassroots Reception: The Use of the Bible in Discourses of Gender Equality.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe 16 (1): 5-24. doi.: https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2023.16.1.5-24
  • Babash, Anastasiia and Anne Hege Grung. 2023. “Conceptualisations of Gender Equality and Gender Justice in the Baltic and the Nordic Regions: Estonia and Norway Compared.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe 16 (1): 25-38. doi.: https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2023.16.1.25-38
  • Pocė, Gintarė and Ilva Skulte. 2023. “Religious Voices Against ‘Gender Ideology’ in the Discourse on the Ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Latvian and Lithuanian Media.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe 16 (1): 39-60.
    doi.: https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2023.16.1.39-60
  • Aleknaitė, Eglė. 2023. “Taking Part in Transnational Martyrdom: Construction of Interdenominational and Interreligious Relations in Lithuanian Christian Persecution Discourse.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe 16 (1): 61-76. doi.: https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2023.16.1.61-76
  • Balode, Dace and Egdūnas Račius. 2023. “Experience and Expectations of Muslim Gender Roles in the Baltics: The “Subaltern” Voices in the Face of Public Discourse.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe 16 (1): 77-92. doi.: https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2023.16.1.77-92
  • Schihalejev, Olga, Laima Geikina, Rimgailė Dikšaitė and Kätlin Liimets. 2023. “The Intersection of Religion and Gender in Textbooks in the Baltic States States.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe 16 (1): 93 112. doi.: https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2023.16.1.93-112
  • “Where do the Religious and the Secular Meet in the Implementation of Gender Equality? Religion and Gender Equality in Post-Soviet Societies and Beyond.” Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe journal special issue. Guest editors Milda Ališauskienė and Anne Hege Grung. 2023 vol. 16 (1).

 

Conference Papers:

 

  • Balode, Dace, and Marianne Bjeland Kartzow, “Intersectional Grassroot Reception: the Use of the Bible in the Discourses on Gender Equality,” the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Grung, Anne Hege, “Negotiating Religious Gender Politics in Norway: Gender Equality vs Freedom of Religion?” the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Putnina, Aivita, “Conservatism and Technological Embrace: Meanings of Life and Gender in Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Discourse,” the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Račius, Egdūnas, “Gender as a (non) Factor in Female Muslims Lives in Lithuania Lithuania,” the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Kull, Anne, “Modelled on Nature, Culture or Religion? Violence against Women and Domestic Violence: the Baltic special,” the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Rozners, Girts, “Fear of Chaos: Arguments against Female Ordination in the Age of Technologies,“ the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Vidūnaitė, Morta, “Agency without a Conflict: the Secure Way the Pious Baltic Catholic, Lutheran, and Muslim Women Find Their Agency as Individuals, in Family and Religious Community,“ the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Ališauskienė, Milda and Liina Kilemit, „Gender Roles and Family Practices among Pagan Women in Lithuania and Estonia: between Reconstruction of Tradition and Memories from the Soviet Past?“ the 2023 Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions “Religions and Technologies,” September 4-8, 2023, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Ališauskienė, Milda, “Gender Roles and Family Practices among Religious Women in the Baltic States: the Generational Approach”, the 37th Biennial ISSR conference “Religion in Dialogue: Transformations, Diversity, and Materiality”, July 4-7, 2023, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
  • Ališauskienė, Milda and Liina Kilemit “Gender Roles and Family Practices among Pagan Women in Lithuania and Estonia: Between Reconstruction of Tradition and Memories from the Soviet Past?”, the 37th Biennial ISSR conference “Religion in Dialogue: Transformations, Diversity, and Materiality”, July 4-7, 2023, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
  • Grung, Anne Hege “Religious gender politics in Norway: Are women negotiated away?”, Conference of the University of Oslo NORA (Session Religion, Gender and Citizenship), June 20-22, 2022, Oslo, Norway.
  • Vidūnaitė, Morta and Anastasiia Babash “Tarp lyčių lygybės ir religijos: Baltijos valstybių religingų moterų musulmonių “tikrojo” Islamo paieškos” (Between Religion and Gender Equality: the Search for the ‘True’ Islam between Religious Female Muslims in the Baltics), 14th Conference of the Lithuanian Sociological Association “Universitetai, sociologija ir pilietinė visuomenė krizių akivaizdoje” (Session Religion, Philosophy and Social Relations), December 2, 2022, Kaunas, Lithuania.
  • Kull, Anne, “Morphings of gender equality in the post-Soviet context: politics, religion and “terrifyingly destructive” gender: an example of the reception of the Istanbul Convention in Estonia”, EASR 2022 (Religions and States of Freedom),  27 June – 1 July 2022, Cork, Ireland.
  • Ališauskienė, Milda, “Does Gender Equality exist among Pagans? Diversity of Notions of Gender Equality among Lithuanian Pagan Women”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Aleknaitė, Eglė, “The Binary between the Religious and the Secular in Lithuanian Catholic Women’s Discourses on Gender Relations”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania. 
  • Balode, Dace, “Between Two Worlds: Women on Gender in Latvian Churches”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania. 
  • Kull, Anne, “National and International Activism against the Istanbul Convention: the Myths and Consequences”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania. 
  • Putnina, Aivita, “Fading Visibility of Women: Understanding of Gender in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania. 
  • Skulte, Ilva and Sofija Kozlova, “Polarization of Discourse about Gender Roles, Family and Violence in Discussions about Istanbul Convention in Latvian Internet Media”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania. 
  • Rozners, Girts, “Fundamentalism and Women: Report on the Understanding of Gender Roles in Latvian Evangelical Churches”, International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC 22) international conference  “Religion, Politics and Uncertainty: Shifting Boundaries”, November 11-13, 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania. 

 

Project Events:

 

Research Seminars 

The international methodological seminar “How do we study Gender and Religion in Diverse Social Contexts?” was held online on May 28, 2021. 

Symposiums, Conferences

The international symposium “Religions, Gender, and ‘Genderism’: Interactions Shaping Gender Equality” was held in Vilnius on October 6-7, 2022. In total, 28 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, and Poland attended the symposium. 

Events for social partners

An open event for social partners was held on 4 December 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The type of event was a discussion with short presentations on the ReliGen project results by project Chair Milda Ališauskienė and project members Eglė Aleknaitė, Artūras Tereškinas, Egdūnas Račius, Gintarė Pocė, Rimgailė Dikšaitė and Morta Vidūnaitė. Representatives from religious organizations, NGOs, European institutions, students, academics, and researchers attended this event.

The seminar for the social partners of the ReliGen project was held on November 22, 2023 in Riga, Latvia. The seminar took place on the premises of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Latvia. The researchers invited their social partners and potential beneficiaries of the research results from non-governmental, religious organizations, Riga City Council and the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, and students to present the project results and discuss the findings. 

The local seminar with stakeholders in Norway took place on December 13, 2022, at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. Participating was the organization Hikmah-huset, a stakeholder organization working for women’s human rights in Muslim organizations in Norway and progressive Islamic thought and theology, and the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights, the oldest and most prominent organization in the Norwegian Women’s Movement. The mission organization Areopagos, working for mission in Christian Dialogue, was also present. The research group Interreligious Studies and Islamic Theology was facilitating and participating. ReliGen project researchers Anne Hege Grung presented a brief introduction to the ReliGen project and her research on Gender Regimes and current challenges in Norwegian Religion Politics, focusing on the plan from the current Norwegian government to implement a requirement for 40% from each gender in the executive boards of Norwegian faith communities. There were discussions and interesting perspectives shared among the participants. 

An open event for social partners was held on 29 November 2022 at Tartu University, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies. Type of the event – a discussion with short presentations by project members Anne Kull and Olga Schihalejev. Participants –  representatives of the Lutheran church and its weekly newspaper, students, and researchers. The topics of the discussion: are the socialization of people by textbooks and violence against women (particularly in the context of the Istanbul Convention).

Project partners’ meetings

On April 20-21, 2023, the ReliGen project team, consisting of researchers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Norway, met in Tallinn to discuss the research and publication plans. This meeting was organized by the University of Tartu. The main aim of this meeting was to discuss the results of theoretical and empirical research, as well as to discuss the forthcoming collective monograph, which will focus on the relationship between religion and gender, the ideologies of religion and gender, the interpretation and application of these ideologies in the everyday lives of religious women, and on the influence of religion on the policy of gender equality in the Baltic States and Norway.

On 10-11 February 2022, the meeting of the ReliGen (Religion and Gender Equality: Baltic and Nordic Developments) project team took place at the University of Latvia in Riga. The meeting focused on the discussion of the project research progress in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Norway, its future directions and other project activities planned in 2022 and 2023. The meeting also included a discussion with local guests – Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga, the first Evangelical Lutheran bishop in the UK who has returned to Latvia and works for the changes in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Muslim woman Safija who shared her experience of living and practicing Islam in Latvia, and Agnese Logina a member of Riga City Council. Discussion overviewed the arising issues in the intersections between religions and gender equality.

On 19 February 2021, the online kick-off meeting was held of the project ReliGen, “Religion and Gender Equality: Developments in Societies of Baltic and Nordic Countries” team members. During the meeting, the project’s researchers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Norway introduced themselves to one another, discussed the research plans and methodology, and exchanged ideas and experiences between the project’s different countries and situations on gender equality and religious landscape.

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