Towards Postsecular Memory Studies - (Mobilizing Memories) (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

What do dominant approaches to memory studies overlook when they treat religion as marginal or obsolete? Towards Postsecular Memory Studies addresses this gap through ethnographic research, archival sources, and discourse analysis. Focusing on Central and Eastern Europe, and analysing how churches become museums, national heroes turn into saints, and mourning takes ritual form, the contributors reveal memory as a field wherein the religious and the secular are inseparable--sometimes cooperating, sometimes clashing, always shaping one another. The volume advances a postsecular approach to memory studies, showing how it opens new analytical paths for understanding why religion still matters in processes of remembrance.

About the Author

Zuzanna Bogumil works at the University of Warsaw's Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. Her research focuses on memory, religion, Soviet repression, decolonization, and migration in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. She has published several books, and had recently co-authored More than Alive. The Dead, Orthodoxy and Remembrance in Post-Soviet Russia (2023).

Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska works in the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology PAS in Warsaw. She studied ethnology and Latin American Studies, and her main areas of interest are the anthropology of religion and performance studies. She has written several books: The Crucified: Contemporary Passion Plays in Poland (2017) and World War II Historical Reenactment in Poland: The Practice of Authenticity (2021) and Ambient History: Material Traces of World War II in Contemporary Warsaw (2025).