[Asec] Fully Funded PhD Fellowship. Deadline: 6 February. University College Cork

[Eugene Clay]

Call for Applications
Fully Funded PhD Fellowship
University College Cork invites applications for a fully funded PhD Fellowship as part of the SFI-IRC
Pathway project:
History Declassified: The KGB and the Religious Underground in Soviet Ukraine
Closing Date for Applications: February 6, 2022
Department: Study of Religions / Future Humanities Institute
College: College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences
Position to be filled: March, 1 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter
Contract Type: Fixed Term Full-Time
Job Type: Research
Salary: €18,500 per annum + fees (maximum 4 years)
The PhD Fellowship Scheme
The PhD student will be located in the Study of Religions Department, which has vibrant postgraduate
programmes in the study of religions and anthropology. The PhD will be co-supervised by the
project’s Principal Investigator Dr Tatiana Vagramenko and the project’s Mentor Dr James Kapaló.
Application Process
In addition to meeting the general UCC admissions requirements, applicants should submit:
- CV;
- a motivation letter explaining how Applicant’s studies and research interests relate to the
project aims;
- two letters of recommendation from two referees familiar with the Applicant’s postgraduate
work.
Please, send your applications to Tatiana Vagramenko at vagramenko at ub.edu
Interviews may be held.
If successful a PhD application on PAC will have to be made www.pac.ie
Applicant Profile
Applications are welcomed from candidates with Master's degree in anthropology, history, study of
religions, political science or related disciplines. Fluency in Ukrainian and English (both written and
spoken) is essential. Knowledge of qualitative methods (ethnography, observations, interviews) and
digital humanities will be an advantage.
The topic of the PhD research should fall within the broad thematic focus of the project and can
address (but not limited to) the following research fields: the politics of religion in Ukraine, religious
minorities (of Christian, Jewish and Muslim origins) in Ukraine, lived religion in Soviet and/or post-
Soviet Ukraine, transitional justice and historical memory in Ukraine, religious dimension of the
EuroMaidan conflict. The Doctoral Researcher is expected to conduct ethnographic field research
and archival work in Ukraine. She/he will also participate in workshops and conferences, training
sessions and other collaborative events as part of the project.
About the Project
Europe rests on the legacy of totalitarian regimes. Ukraine’s European integration has highlighted
the significance of the historical experience of Soviet-era repression, regime surveillance and human
rights violations for processes of democratization and pluralism in society today. The turmoil of the
last decade, including the Euromaidan revolution and the ongoing Russian aggression, have led
Ukraine to a profound reckoning with its recent past, which has included the opening of previously
closed archives and a painful airing of the most traumatic legacies of the Soviet experience.
History Declassified: The KGB and the Religious Underground in Soviet Ukraine [HIDE] offers the first
concentrated study of this process of transitional justice based on an innovative, in-depth
reconsideration of recently declassified Soviet-era political police (KGB) archives in Ukraine focusing
on the Soviet repression of religious minorities. The approach is explicitly interdisciplinary, combining
methodologies drawn from the anthropology of religion, oral history, intelligence history and digital
humanities. Recognizing the opening of previously classified archives as a critical element of
transitional justice, the project focuses on the most sensitive issues in post-Cold war Europe: state
control, the role of secret police surveillance and collaboration in shaping cultures of dissent,
marginalization of minority communities and creative responses to power and domination of nonconformist
groups. These issues are addressed through the re-contextualization of one of the most
controversial historical sources in 20th century East Central Europe – the secret archives of the
political police.
HIDE develops a novel perspective on religious-political dialogue in the Soviet context by focusing on
the non-institutionalized negotiations that unfolded between state authorities and nonconformist
religious groups (of Christian, Jewish and Muslim origins) that were denied official recognition and
targeted by the Soviet secret police. The work pursues two inter-related thematic objectives: (1) To
uncover the history of KGB secret operations, agent networks and the practices of agent penetration
of the religious underground; and (2) To investigate the still largely hidden forms of agency that
religious communities developed within the context of surveillance or forced collaboration with the
secret police. The in-depth analysis and digitization of recently declassified KGB materials in Ukraine
that represent central components of the project will be enhanced through a program of communitybased
ethnographic and oral history research.
Informal enquiries should be sent to Dr. Tatiana Vagramenko, Study of Religions Department,
University College Cork, Ireland; vagramenko at ub.edu
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