Becoming Orthodox : Women, Religion, and Ethnicity in the American South / Elena V. Kravchenko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kravchenko, Elena V., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in the Orthodox Eastern Church--Southern States.

Women in the Orthodox Eastern Church.

Sex role--Religious aspects--Orthodox Eastern Church.

Sex role.

Sex role--Southern States--Religious aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY Fordham University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-333) and index.

Summary:

An exploration of an embodied, practice-centered, and continuous process through which Orthodox Christian women in the American South cultivate a compelling religious womanhood Becoming Orthodox is a multi-lingual, ethnographic study of two Orthodox Christian communi ties in the US. Utilizing interview material, participant observation, and participant participation, Kravchenko argues that Russian women who immigrate to the United States and American women who convert to Orthodox Christianity engage with the materiality and visuality of the Orthodox Church to embrace conservative gender roles of a patriarchal tradition in a way that propels them to actively advocate for the equality, freedom, and empowerment of women. Becoming Orthodox adds a new angle to the literature on the conservative religious women because of its attention to the intersection of religion, gender, and ethnicity. By attending to how Russian immigrant and American convert women-in the midst of their simultaneously sympathetic and antagonistic relationships-made choices about what icons to venerate, what prayers to use, how to dress, what food to cook, and how to raise their children, the book demonstrates that the project of becoming a good Orthodox woman was entangled in the project of defining what it means to be authentically "Russian" and "American." Through performative ethnographic writing, the book illuminates how, in the social context of immigration and conversion, Russian and American women commonly sought to create a place of belonging by constructing meaningful ethno-religious homes and producing their respective Russian Orthodox and (Un)Russo-American Orthodox identities.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: Becoming Orthodox as Russian Immigrant and American Convert Women in the American South

1 Becoming Orthodox by Building a Church

2 Becoming Orthodox in the Sanctuary

3 Becoming Orthodox Women in the Kitchen (and Other Spaces)

4 Telling Stories of Becoming Orthodox

5 Becoming Familiar with the Saints

6 Becoming Obedient Advocates for Women

7 Disciplining Children into Becoming Orthodox

Conclusion: Thoughts and Feelings about Ethnography and Orthodox Christianity

Acknowledgments

Notes

Works Cited

Index

About the author

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed July 08 2026)

ISBN:

9781531513900