Outliers of Orthodoxy: Traditionalist Critics of the Church in the U.S. and the Russian Federation

Over the last several years, traditionalist bloggers and public activists have become increasingly critical of the leadership and policies of the Orthodox Church in the United States and the Russian Federation. This talk will examine the shifting and occasionally contradictory advocacies of commentators, such as Rod Dreher, Dmitry Tsorionov (“Enteo”), and Andrei Kuraev. These figures represent a new category of Orthodox intelligentsia whose understandings of faith often defy the traditionalism that they vow to defend.

This webinar will feature Alexandar Mihailovic, a visiting lecturer in American studies at Williams College and emeritus of Russian and comparative literature at Hofstra University. He has written about a range of subjects, including theology and literary theory, 19- and 20-century Russian and Ukrainian literature, the criminal subculture in Russia, cultural relations during the Cold War, popular music, African American studies, LGBTQ issues, art history, music, and cinema studies. He has also translated Russian literature and literary criticism.

His books include Corporeal Words: Mikhail Bakhtin’s Theology of Discourse (Northwestern University Press, 1997) and The Mitki and Art of Postmodern Protest in Russia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019), which has recently been re-released as an updated Russian translation published by the New Literary Review in Moscow. Together with Helga Druxes and Karolin Machtans, he has also edited the collection Navid Kermani: Contemporary German Writers, about the Iranian-German fiction writer and respected scholar of Islam who has positioned himself as a forthright critic of xenophobia and the resurgent far-right within Germany.

He is working on a book about the confluence of American and Russian far-right groups and movements titled Fearful Symmetries: The American and Russian Traditionalist Intelligentsia Looks at Gender and Race. With Druxes and Patricia A. Simpson, Mihailovic is also co-authoring Resilient Subjects: Contemporary Cinema and Fiction Confront Neoliberalism.

In addition to teaching at Williams and Hofstra, Mihailovic has taught as visiting faculty at Bennington College and at Columbia and Brown universities.