Dr Iona Ramsay

Overview

I am a historian of religion, and am currently the Keston Research Associate in Religion under Communist Regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Having recently completed my PhD, I am now working on a book project that traces a global history of religious anti-communism from the 1960s to the present day. With a particular focus on ideas of Romanian ‘spiritual resistance’ to communism, this project examines how anti-communist ideas were circulated, reimagined and repurposed through global religious networks. My research bridges both denominational and inter-religious divides, and examines how the alliances and collaborations that developed during the Cold War helped revive and reshape religious politics around the world. In doing so, this project aims to de-centre existing histories of the religious Cold War and to examine how Christians in Eastern Europe became powerful agents and symbols of a new religious challenge to secular liberalism.

I have an interdisciplinary background and work across disciplines including history, theology, religious studies, politics and sociology. My broader research interests cover the fields of political theology, the rise of the global religious right, memory studies and secularism.