Friday, March 14, 2014
Presidential Board Room (Omni Shoreham)
When one compares religious participation in present day Albania with the same in socialist Albania in 1960s, one is left with two remarkably opposing orientations towards religion. The first is about religious liberties under the protection of the growingly pluralistic state in post 1991 Albania. The socialist experience with religion (1945-1991), is the story of a state that mandated and carried out the elimination of religious life and affiliations. The socialist state's agenda towards religion was part the overall efforts by the socialist and authoritarian state to create the socialist subject. Given a documented intensification of the coming back of religion despite a recent push away from it, this research explains the degree to which a resurrection of religion after atheism is taking place in contemporary Albania. The data utilized are historical comparisons between socialist and post socialist religiosities, and data from ethnographic fieldwork between 2007 and 2011 in Albania. While religion is clearly being resurrected, socialist and secularist resurrections are present amidst community building efforts by religious communities. This research joins the growing literature on religion in contemporary European society and a now well established research tradition on religion in Eastern Europe after communism.
