Sanami Takahashi

Education:

2011 Ph.D., Slavic Studies, Hokkaido University
2006 M.A., History, Kyoto University
2003 B.A., History, Kyoto University

Field of Study:

In October 2003, I visited the Solovki islands for the first time. The Solovki islands are well-known as the location of a former Soviet labor camp, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in “The Gulag Archipelago.” Crossing the stormy White Sea, I found not the historical site of a gulag but a revived famous monastery in Northern Russia. This trip stirred up my interest in Russian Orthodoxy.
I have paid attention to Russian Orthodoxy as a cultural resource. In late socialist Russia, many museums were opened on the sites of closed churches and monasteries. I have studied the roles and influential powers of those “vanguards of propaganda war.” I was also interested in the revival of academic studies in pre-revolutionary Russian history and the arts in post-war Russia. Soviet patriotism and Russian nationalism are also my research targets.
Recently, I have been exploring the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Émigré Church, especially the canonization of the last Tsar and the new martyrs (novomuzheniki). Moreover, I study the social activities of Orthodox churches in contemporary Ukraine.

Recent Publications (Selected):

Monographs:

Sacred Landscape in Soviet Russia: Religious Heritage, Tourism, and Nationalism under Socialism. Sapporo: Hokkaido University Press, 2018 (in Japanese).

Journal Articles

Два типа религиозности времен позднего социализма: православные верующие во Владимирской области. // Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 30:3-4, pp. 327–347, 2012.
«Андрей Рублев» А. Тарковского: Интерпретация русской истории в контексте советской культуры. // Acta Slavica Iaponica 29, pp. 65–86, 2011.
“Church or Museum? The Role of State Museums in Conserving Church Buildings, 1965–1985.” Journal of Church and State 51:3, pp. 502–517, 2009.
Образ религиозного ландшафта в СССР в 1965–1985 годы (на примере Соловецкого музея-заповедника). // Вестник Евразии 4: 42, C. 9–26, 2008.
“Bolshevik Policy against the Russian Orthodox Church and Its Results: The Relationship between State and Church, Church Diplomacy, and ‘Lived Religion.’” Russian History 101, 2018, pp. 47–60. (in Japanese)
“Blessed Ksenia in Leningrad: Veneration of saints under socialism.” Religious Studies 91:3, pp. 25–48, 2017. (in Japanese)
“Reexamining the Myth of the Last Tsar’s Family as a Religious Resource.” Russian Studies, Institute for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies 26: 2, pp. 399–413, 2016.
“Russian Speakers in Latgale and the ‘Socialist Rituals’ under Socialism.” Vēsture: avoti un cilvēki. XXIII zinātniskie lasījumi. Vēsture XVII, pp. 443–447, 2014.
Два типа религиозности времен позднего социализма: православные верующие во Владимирской области. // Государство, религия, церковь в России и за рубежом, 30:3-4, pp. 327–347, 2012.
«Андрей Рублев» А. Тарковского: Интерпретация русской истории в контексте советской культуры. // Acta Slavica Iaponica 29, pp. 65–86, 2011.
“Church or Museum? The Role of State Museums in Conserving Church Buildings, 1965–1985.” Journal of Church and State 51:3, pp. 502–517, 2009.
Образ религиозного ландшафта в СССР в 1965–1985 годы (на примере Соловецкого музея-заповедника). // Вестник Евразии 4: 42, C. 9–26, 2008.

Book Chapters:

Социология религии в Японии. // Энциклопедический словарь социологии религии/ под ред. М. Ю. Смирнова—СПб., Платоновское философское общество. С. 389–391, 2017.
Понятие о религии и религиозных феноменах в Японии. // Феномен религии и религиозности: концептуализация в академическом философском религиоведении/ под. ред. Е.И. Аринина. Владимир. С. 90–107. 2015.
(With Noriko Maejima, and Hiroshi Kobayashi) “UNESCO World Heritage in Regional Powers: Changing Representation of Cultural Heritage of Religious Interest.” In Shinichiro Tabata ed., Eurasia’s Regional Powers Compared: China, India Russia. Routledge, pp. 222–239, 2015.
Особенности проявлений религиозности в период позднего социализма (на материалах Владимирской области) // Религия и религиозность во Владимирском регионе. Т. 2. / под ред. Е.И. Аринина. Владимир. С. 51–85. 2013.
Туризм и паломничество во Владимирской области послевоенного периода. // Паломничество и религиозный туризм: многообразие интерпретаций / отв. ред. И.Е. Викулова. Владимир: изд-во ВлГУ. С. 179–186. 2011.

Academia:

https://hokudai.academia.edu/SanamiTakahashi

Courses Taught:

- Introduction to the Slavic and Eurasian Studies
- Collapse of the USSR and Post-Soviet Society
- Religions and Contemporary Russia

Grants and Fellowships:

- Genealogy of Monarchism in the Russian Churches: From the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to Tsarebozhniki (JSPS Fostering Joint International Research, 2018–2020)
- Grant-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results, 2017
- Canonization and Veneration for Saints in the Contemporary Russian Churches from a Foreign Relations Perspective (JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists B, 2016–2018)
- Saints and Memory of the Motherland: Canonization and Veneration for Saints in the Russian Churches from a Foreign Relations Perspective in the Late Twentieth Century (The Mitsubishi Foundation Research Grant in the Humanities, 2015–2017)
- Chernobyl as a “Sacred Site”: Roles of Religion in the Post-Socialist Society (The Konosuke Matsushita Memorial Foundation Research Grant, 2015)
- Saints of Our Time: Canonization and Veneration for Saints in the Russian Orthodox Church (JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Startup), 2013–2014)
- On Scientific Atheism and Russian Orthodoxy in the Late Socialist Russia (JSPS Grants-in-Aid for JSPS Fellow, 2011–2015)

Awards:

2018 The Japan Consortium for Area Studies Award for Budding Project
2012 The 8th International Institute for the Study of Religions Encouragement Award
2008 Japan Association for the Study of Russian Language and Literature Award

Professional Service:

- Working Group Member, Long-term Plan for Arctic Environmental Research - Japan Consortium for Arctic Environmental Research: JCAR (2017-2018)
- Researcher, Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples (2016-present)
- Researcher, National Museum of Ethnology (2016-present)
- Executive Member, The Japan Society of Island Studies (2015-present)