On March 14-16, 2024, the conference “Religion and war in Ukraine: The political, the public, and the possible” took place at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). The conference was hosted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in cooperation with the Working Group on Lived Religion in Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
The organizers emphasized that “Religion, as a critical marker of identity, heritage, and history, has been instrumentalized by all parties. Religion has served as a basis for nation-building and decolonization, state-building, and humanitarian relief. It has also been the source of social and political polarization”.
The conference was attended by the scholars who came directly from Ukraine and researchers who, due to the war, were forced to leave Ukraine and now work in different countries of the world. In particular, these are Olena Bohdan, Oleg Kyselov, Denys Brylov, Cyril Hovorun and Pavlo Smytsnyuk. There were also other researchers specializing on the theme of religion in Ukraine such as Nicholas Denysenko and Regina Elsner. The researchers discussed various aspects of the problem: political instrumentalization of religion, respect for the rule of law and human rights, issues of neutrality and impartiality in attempts to reconcile the conflicting parties.
More information about the conference can be found on the website of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, which is part of the University of Alberta – https://app.groupize.com/e/international-conference-religion-war-in-ukraine?fbclid=IwAR0VKx5K70wQk30xTkBwBjwRwHObBelT3i-IoMBpFRzTlgoPq2JQMwbVdTg