Iona Ramsay
Department: History
Discipline: History
Project Summary
My thesis examines the role of religious anti-communism in the growth of transnational illiberalism. It investigates religious memory practices that emerged during the late Cold War – in particular, anti-communist martyrologies and stories of ‘spiritual resistance’ to communism – and traces the ways in which such memories of Christian suffering and resistance have been repurposed transnationally to critique secular liberalism. The thesis does this by focussing on the case study of Romania in a European and global context, highlighting how religious memories and memory practices centred on communism have been entangled with anti-liberal and illiberal politics at local, national and transnational levels.
Supervisory Team
Professor James Mark (Exeter) and Professor David Clark (Cardiff)
Wider Research Interests
My wider research interests centre on the relationship between religion and politics and their entanglements at local, national and global levels. Particular research interests include theories of secularity and politics of the ‘religious’, the politics of memory and temporality, histories of anti-communism, and the spatial politics of Christianity.
