-A A +A

Contact

Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology 
University of Warsaw

Żurawia 4, 00-503 Warsaw
tel. +48 22 55 316 11/ fax. 22 55 316 12
etnologia@uw.edu.pl

+ more

Dr habil. Magdalena Lubańska

adjunct professor

Contact

magdalena.lubanska@gmail.com
+48 22 55 31 658

Area of interest

anthropology of religion, anthropology of  cultural borderlands, Islam and Christianity in the post-ottoman territories, religious (anti) syncretism, neighborhood, shared shrines, postsecular studies, anthropological theories, (post)memories of World War II and postwar years in Polish Subcarpathia,  non-western ontologies and their representations in anthropological theory, 

fieldwork: polish-ukrainian borderland, Bulgaria.

 

Biography

 

 

Selected publications

 

Books

2019              Praktyki lecznicze w prawosławnych monasterach w Bułgarii. Perspektywa antropologii postsekularnej [Healing Practices in Orthodox Christian Monasteries. The Perspective of (Post)secular Anthropology], Warsaw University Publishing House - WUW, Warsaw.

2015              Muslims and Christians in the Bulgarian Rhodopes. Studies on Religious Anti(Syncretism); Berlin, Warsaw: De Gruyter Open

2012              Synkretyzm a podziały religijne w bułgarskich Rodopach [Syncretism and Religious Divisions in Bulgarian Rhodopes], WUW, Warsaw;

2005              Народна сотириология на мюсюлманите (помаците) и православните от района на Чепеларе в България [National Soteriology of Muslims (Pomaks) and Orthodox Christians from the Chepelare Region in Bulgaria], IMIR, Sofia;

EDITED VOLUME

2007              Religijność chrześcijan obrządku wschodniego na pograniczu polsko-ukraińskim [Religious Life of Eastern Rite Christians on Polish-Ukrainian Borderland],DiG, IEiAK UW, Warsaw;

Chosen articles

2018           Religious Boundaries, Komsholuk, and Sharing Sacres Spaces in Bulgaria, In: Everyday Life in the Balkans, ed. David Montgomery, Indiana University Press, 311-321.

2017(2018)    Postmemory of Killings in the Woods at Dębrzyna (1945-1946): A Postsecular Anthropological Perspective, „Ethnologia Polona” vol. 38, 15-45.

2018              Religious Imageries of Pilgrims from Przeworsk: Making Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation at Jodłówka, „Journal of Global Catholicism” 2/2,  88-123.

2017              Life-Giving Springs and The Mother of God Zhivonosen Istochnik / Zoodochos Pege/Balikliyska. Byzantine-Greek-Ottoman intercultural influence and its aftereffects in iconography, religious writings and ritual practices in the region of Plovdiv, “Slavia Meridonalis” 17, 1-27.

2017              „We do it for health!” Sensational Forms Related to the Cut of Healing Springs (ayasma) in Orthodox Christian Shrines in South-Western Bulgaria, „Anthropology of East Europe Review” nr 35/1

2016              Healing Chains, Relationships of Power and Competing Religious Imageries in the Monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen (Bulgaria), “Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics” 10/1, 71-99;

2013              Muslim Pilgrims at the Orthodox Christian Monastery in Hadzhidimovo: Studies on Religious Anti-syncretism in the Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria, “Anthropological Journal of European Cultures”, 22/2, 91-110;

2013              Losy sacrum w „świeckiej epoce”. Emile Durkheim versus Philip Rieff o „sakralnym” i „świeckim porządku”, „Stan Rzeczy”, 2013, s. 215 – 233

2013              Prawosławie-“chrześcijaństwo peryferyjne”? O teologicznych uwikłaniach teorii antropologicznej i stronniczości perspektyw poznawczych antropologii chrześcijaństwa [Is Orthodox Christianity a Peripheral Christianity? Theological Entanglements of Anthropological Theory, Biased Epistemologies in Anthropology of Christianity], „LUD” 97, 195-219;

2007              Narratives about Dissenter Neighbours and Their Place in the Cultural Strategy of Coexistence in the Western Rhodopes, “Ethnologia Balkanica”, 11,  185-203.


Documentary movies

2017              Co-director and screenwriter of  ethnographic documentary movie “Nie sądzić” [Not to Judge]; (funds: National Science Centre - DEC-2011/03/D/HS3/0162)

2020              together with Ina Carlucci-Sforza a screenwriter of documentary movie “Wielki strach” [Great fear], director: Ina Carlucci-Sforza];  in post-production; funds: Munk Studio. Polish Filmmakers Association

Chosen articles

2018           Religious Boundaries, Komsholuk, and Sharing Sacres Spaces in Bulgaria, In: Everyday Life in the Balkans, ed. David Montgomery, Indiana University Press, 311-321.

2017(2018)    Postmemory of Killings in the Woods at Dębrzyna (1945-1946): A Postsecular Anthropological Perspective, „Ethnologia Polona” vol. 38, 15-45.

2018              Religious Imageries of Pilgrims from Przeworsk: Making Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation at Jodłówka, „Journal of Global Catholicism” 2/2,  88-123.

2017              Life-Giving Springs and The Mother of God Zhivonosen Istochnik / Zoodochos Pege/Balikliyska. Byzantine-Greek-Ottoman intercultural influence and its aftereffects in iconography, religious writings and ritual practices in the region of Plovdiv, “Slavia Meridonalis” 17, 1-27.

2017              „We do it for health!” Sensational Forms Related to the Cut of Healing Springs (ayasma) in Orthodox Christian Shrines in South-Western Bulgaria, „Anthropology of East Europe Review” nr 35/1

2016              Healing Chains, Relationships of Power and Competing Religious Imageries in the Monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen (Bulgaria), “Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics” 10/1, 71-99;

2013              Muslim Pilgrims at the Orthodox Christian Monastery in Hadzhidimovo: Studies on Religious Anti-syncretism in the Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria, “Anthropological Journal of European Cultures”, 22/2, 91-110;

2013              Losy sacrum w „świeckiej epoce”. Emile Durkheim versus Philip Rieff o „sakralnym” i „świeckim porządku”, „Stan Rzeczy”, 2013, s. 215 – 233

2013              Prawosławie-“chrześcijaństwo peryferyjne”? O teologicznych uwikłaniach teorii antropologicznej i stronniczości perspektyw poznawczych antropologii chrześcijaństwa [Is Orthodox Christianity a Peripheral Christianity? Theological Entanglements of Anthropological Theory, Biased Epistemologies in Anthropology of Christianity], „LUD” 97, 195-219;

2007              Narratives about Dissenter Neighbours and Their Place in the Cultural Strategy of Coexistence in the Western Rhodopes, “Ethnologia Balkanica”, 11,  185-203.


Documentary movies

2017              Co-director and screenwriter of  ethnographic documentary movie “Nie sądzić” [Not to Judge]; (funds: National Science Centre - DEC-2011/03/D/HS3/0162)

2020              together with Ina Carlucci-Sforza a screenwriter of documentary movie “Wielki strach” [Great fear], director: Ina Carlucci-Sforza];  in post-production; funds: Munk Studio. Polish Filmmakers Association

 

Research projects

 

  1. participant in the project Unmemorialized Genocide Sites and Their Impact on Collective Memory, Cultural Identity, Ethical Attitudes and Intercultural Relations in Contemporary Poland (Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the National Programme for the Development of Humanities); head of the project: prof. Roma Sendyka, Jagiellonian University2014 – 2018
  2.   Principal Investigator  in the project Multisensory Religious Imageries in Selected Catholic Shrines in South-Eastern Poland (headed by me and financed by Polish National Science Centre, DEC-2011/03/D/HS3/0162); https://www.etnologia.uw.edu.pl/wir-en
  3. 2012 – 2016   Principal Investigator in the project Anthropological Theories and Social Religious Life of Orthodox Believers in Local Communities of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Working team: Centre for Anthropological Studies on Orthodox Christianity project (headed by me and financed by Polish National Science Centre, DEC-2013/11/B/HS3/01443); https://etnologia.uw.edu.pl/en-cbanp
  4. 2008-2010     Main Investigator in the PhD project Religious syncretism and anti- syncretism from the perspective of coexistence of Muslims and Orthodox Christians in the West Rhodope Mountains (financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education grant NN10917633)

Conferences and visiting lectures

 

Chosen conferences

  1. conference Discourses and practices of space sharing: Christians and Muslims in the Balkans (7-9.12.2019, Berlin) organized by South Slavic Studies at the Institute for Slavic and Hungarian Studies at Humboldt University. Key-note speaker, title of a  lecture: Religious (anti)syncretism and agonistic tolerance. Anthropological reflections on space-sharing in multireligious milieux";
  2. conference Sites of Violence and their Communities: Critical Memory Studies in the Post-human Era, 23-25.09. 2019  organized by: Research Center for Memory Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow; paper Postwar killings in the woods at Dębrzyna. A Potsecular Anthropological Perspective and presentation of a movie Not to Judge (2017);
  3.  workshop Seeking the Sacred: Socialist Legacies and the Holy in Russia and Eastern Europe (1.04.2019, University of Leicester), organized by the Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe Study Group and supported by the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies and the School of History, Politics & International Relations at the University of Leicester. paper: Healing Textiles: Case Studies from Orthodox Christian Churches in Bulgaria
  4. conference Memory and Religion. Central and Eastern Europe in a Global Perspective (16-17.10.2018, Warsaw), organized by the European Network of Remembrance and Solidarity,  presentation Religion, Suffering and Inconvenient Past in the Postsecular Perspective and presentation of a movie Not to Judge (2017)
  5. Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (13-15.04.2018, Cambridge); presentation 1:Sensational Forms Related to the Cult of Live-Giving Waters in South-Western Bulgaria in a frame of a panel Religious Heterodoxies in Contemporary Bulgaria, Transylvania& Siberia financed by Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe Study Group
  6. The Experience of Faith in Slavic Cultures and Literatures in the Context of Postsecular Thought (16-17.11.2017, Warsaw); organized by the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, paper: Postmemory of the Suffering of the Homo Sacer in the Region of Subcarpathia, Poland: A Post-Secular Anthropological View, presentation of a movie Nie sądzić (2017).
  7. Alternative and Religious Healing in the Modern World: 12th SIEF Working Group Ethnology of Religion (21-24.09.2016, Amsterdam); paper: Alternative and ‘Orthodox’ Christian Religious Healing. Case studies of ‘Healing Energies’ at the Kuklen Monastery (Bulgaria).
  8. Anthropological Legacies and Human Futures, organised by: European Association of Social Anthropologists (20-23.07.2016, Milano); paper Christ Child and Maternal Identity.
  9. I Anthropological Congress in Poland (23-25.10.2013, Warsaw); panel: Anthropology of religion, paper: Kategoria "sensualizmu" i "nierozróżnialności" w kontekście praktyk religijnych związanych z uzdrowieniami w prawosławnym monasterze św. Miny (Bułgaria).
  10. Material Religion (9-11.04. 2013, Durham), organized by: British Sociological Association; together with Magdaleną Zatorską paper: Religious Healing Practices at Orthodox Christian Monasteries in Bulgaria and Ukraine.
  11. Religions: Fields of Research, Methods and Perspectives (12-14.09.2012, Krakow), organized by: Institute of Religious Studies,  together with Agatą Ładykowską paper Orthodox Christianity: on the peripheries of Christianity, Anthropological Theory, and the Persistence of the Protestant Bias.
  12. British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (05-07.04.2014, Cambridge); paper Healing Practices at the St Kosma and Damian Monastery in Kuklen (Bulgaria).
  13. Uncertainty and disquite (10-13.07.2012, Paris); organized by: European Assocciation of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense; paper Religious Syncretism and Cultural Misunderstandings in Muslim-Christian Local Communities in Western Rhodopes (Bulgaria).
  14. Migrating Ideas in Southern and Western Slavs. The Beginning and End of the Times, organized by the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences and Slavistic Fundation. paper. The beginning of the world: Lives of the prophets as a source of religious distinctions in the narratives of Bulgarian-speaking Muslims

Awards and Scholarships

 

2017              Award  for the movie “Nie sądzić” (Not to Judge, 2017) in the category the best documentary movie – Grand Off Festival of Independent Cinema, Warsaw, 11th edition
Nomination in the category of “the best polish movie” – Grand Off Festival of Independent Cinema (Warszawa, 2017).
Nomination for the Janusz Machulski Awards of Polish Independent Cinema in best direction category

2013 – 2014  Stipend from the University of Warsaw - project Modern University (Nowoczesny Uniwersytet) for the best PhD students and young doctors,  

2012              Clio Award of the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw for the book Synkretyzm a podziały religijne w bułgarskich Rodopach [Syncretism and Religious Divisions in Bulgarian Rhodopes], 2012, Warsaw:WUW;

2008              START scholarship awarded by Foundation for Polish Science = Stipends for young, talented researchers – employees or doctoral students at an institution of higher learning in Poland or other Polish institution whose chartered purposes include conducting scientific research – at the outset of their career, who have already achieved some success in their field.

2008: scholarship Foundation for Polish Science – Start programme (for the achievements in ethnology). Because of the maternity leave I did not apply for the renewing the scholarship for the next year.

2004-2008: scholarship in the Graduate School for Social Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences awarded on the ground of the competition every year;

2003: diploma with a reward on the grounds of the defence of master thesis National Soteriology of Muslims (Pomaks) and Orthodox Christians from the Chepelare Region in Bulgaria (reviewer: prof. Janusz Danecki).

Member of scientific organizations

 

The European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), SIEF, PTL