Tanya Bakhmetyeva, an associate professor on instruction in gender, sexuality, and women鈥檚 studies, has received the 2018 for best Catholic biography. Bakhmetyeva鈥檚 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.
鈥淭he research was connected to my own experience as a young woman living in post-Soviet Russia,鈥� explains Bakhmetyeva, who is also the associate academic director of the 人妻少妇专区鈥檚 鈥淚 developed an interest in all things Catholic鈥搊nly to discover that there is a long and fascinating history of Russian Catholicism鈥揳 complicated identity in a largely [Russian] Orthodox country.鈥�
Bakhmetyeva delves into Svechina鈥檚 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.
鈥淭his prize was particularly gratifying to me,鈥� adds Bakhmetyeva, 鈥渂ecause I consider myself primarily a historian of women in Catholicism, so this prize recognizes both my work and the importance of the subject.鈥�
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鈥檚 annual meeting.
To learn more about Bakhmetyeva鈥檚 book and Sofia Svechina, tune into the .
