New Book Release
Becoming Orthodox: Women, Religion, and Ethnicity in the American South
by Elena V. Kravchenko
Senior Lecturer Elena Kravchenko has published a new book, Becoming Orthodox: Women, Religion, and Ethnicity in the American South (Fordham University Press 2026).
Becoming Orthodox is a multi-lingual, ethnographic study of Russian immigrant and American women who converted to Orthodox Christianity. Utilizing participant interviews, observations and participation, Elena argues that the two Orthodox Christian communities in the US 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 through social contexts of immigration and conversion.