Professional Background
Dr. Anna Mariya Basauri Ziuzina is the coordinator of undergraduate research and an instructor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. She earned a PhD in religious studies from the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kyiv in 2015 with a dissertation on the formation and development of modern Jewish theological education. She also received a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, as well as a specialist degree in English and Italian from Kyiv National Linguistic University. Her academic training in Jewish studies, languages, and religious studies laid the foundation for her interdisciplinary research at the intersection of Holocaust studies, Jewish studies, and Soviet intellectual history.
Dr. Basauri Ziuzina’s research explores Soviet scientific atheism and its representations of Judaism, work that contextualizes Jewish identity formation in the Soviet Union. She has authored numerous publications on Judaism, Soviet atheism, gender and religion, and the religious dimensions of war, and has presented her work at international conferences across Europe and the United States. She taught courses on Judaism and religious studies for over a decade at the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University and from 2019-2020 she served as coordinator of educational programs at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. She has also participated in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum seminars and summer schools. Since 2022, she has contributed to the Religion on Fire project, which documents the destruction of religious buildings and the transformation of religious communities during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Fellowship Research
While at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Broadening Academia Initiative Hybrid Fellow, Dr. Basauri Ziuzina will examine how Holocaust survivors from Soviet Ukraine, who immigrated to the United States between the 1970s and 1990s, conceptualized Judaism after navigating prewar Jewish traditions, Soviet atheism, and American Jewish religiosity. Through analysis of survivor testimonies, her work investigates how these individuals understood religion, articulated their identities as “religious” or “non-religious,” and negotiated their place within American Jewish communities. This project contributes to Holocaust and religious studies by uncovering survivors’ diverse relationships with Judaism and advancing scholarly understanding of how displaced populations reconstruct cultural and religious meaning across historical and social contexts.
Fellowship Period: November 1, 2025 – April 30, 2026