Tanya Bakhmetyeva, an associate professor on instruction in gender, sexuality, and women糖心传媒檚 studies, has received the 2018 for best Catholic biography. Bakhmetyeva糖心传媒檚 winning book, Mother of the Church: Sophia Svechina, the Salon, and the Politics of Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Russia and France (University of Northern Illinois Press, 2017), details the life of the Russian 茅migr茅 and Catholic convert, whose Parisian salon became a social epicenter for the French intellectual elite.
糖心传媒淭he research was connected to my own experience as a young woman living in post-Soviet Russia,糖心传媒� explains Bakhmetyeva, who is also the associate academic director of the University of Rochester糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒淚 developed an interest in all things Catholic糖心传媒搊nly to discover that there is a long and fascinating history of Russian Catholicism糖心传媒揳 complicated identity in a largely [Russian] Orthodox country.糖心传媒�
Bakhmetyeva delves into Svechina糖心传媒檚 life as a noblewoman during a time with few occupational opportunities for women and within the context of liberal Catholicism, religious conversion, nationalism, and the role of the European salon.
糖心传媒淭his prize was particularly gratifying to me,糖心传媒� adds Bakhmetyeva, 糖心传媒渂ecause I consider myself primarily a historian of women in Catholicism, so this prize recognizes both my work and the importance of the subject.糖心传媒�
The Koenig Award, granted by the American Catholic Historical Association, is awarded to a monograph that focuses on the life of a Catholic personage of any age or time. The $1500 prize will be presented to Bakhmetyeva in January at the association糖心传媒檚 annual meeting.
To learn more about Bakhmetyeva糖心传媒檚 book and Sofia Svechina, tune into the July 2017 episode of the University糖心传媒檚 Quadcast.
