Raisa Barash (2011 ISSRPL)
Raisa Barash was born in Sevastopol (Crimea) and graduated from the Moscow State University in Political Science (the diploma thesis was devoted to the problem of Irredentism in the context of the South and North Ossetia relationship). A PhD Candidate in Political Science (Moscow State University, Dissertation topic –“The phenomenon of divided ethnonational groups: politological analysis”) she currently is a scientific officer in the Department of socio-economic research, the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. She is interested in the problem of divided ethnonational groups, phenomena of separatism and irredentism, and the construction of a civic nation in multiethnic communities. She has translated and adapt foreign-language papers on ethnic problems into Russian language.
Anastasia Grib (2011 ISSRPL)
Anastasia Grib is a Ph.D. candidate in Islamic Art and Anthropology in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has graduated from the Russian Academy of Arts and the Graduate School (Aspirantura) of the State Hermitage Museum. Anastasia’s research focus is the material culture of the Qur’an (calligraphy, ornaments, Qur’anic boards); she is the executive editor of the web-based Guide to Islamic Calligraphy (khatt.ru). In the past Anastasia, has worked as an art critic, a curator, a journalist, and a press-attaché to the Mikhailovsky Opera and Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg.
Sergey Kozin (2011 ISSRPL)
Sergey Kozin is the Editor-in-Chief of Germenevtika Press, an independent publisher in religious studies and theology operating out of Tver, Russia. He is also completing his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at Drew University in the United States. In the past, Sergey has been an assistant to a member of the Russian Senate, a religious worker in the U.S., and a director of international programs at a college in St. Petersburg. He and his wife, Anastasia Grib, currently reside in St. Petersburg.
Andrey Levitskiy (2008 ISSRPL)
Andrey Levitskiy graduated from Historical Faculty (The Urals State University, Ekaterinburg) and Theological Faculty (St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Moscow). He was the author and editor of Fr John Meyendorff Memorial Publishing Project, supported by “Kirche in Not” Fund (Germany, 2002–2004). Currently he is a senior member of teaching staff Chair of Theology (Russian State Professional Pedagogical University, Ekaterinburg) and Chair of Socio-Cultural Education (Institute for Development of Regional Education, Department of Ministry of Education). He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ancient and Medieval Studies at the Urals State University, working on his thesis about Christological Debates of the Vth century Byzantium. Also he is a member of resource group, preparing educational programs for Secondary State Schools on religion through the perspective of multiculturalism and tolerance. The main task of this project is to attach pupils to basic socio-cultural terms and ideas (homeland, love, friendship, beauty, respect, rights etc.), through which they comprehend the value of religion, communal identities and loyalties. At the University he teaches courses on Dogmatic Theology, Comparative Theology, and Methodology of Historical Studies. His professional area: Byzantine Church history and theology, comparative religious studies, ecumenical and inter-orthodox dialogue, problems of multiculturalism and tolerance, religious education in State schools, interrelation of State and Church in Ural Region.