Portraitfoto Eva Arnaszus

Eva Arnaszus

Legitimizing Religion: Romuva’s Struggle for Legal Recognition as a Religion in Post-Independence Lithuania

2020 marked a decisive moment for religious minorities when the pagan community Romuva went before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to overturn Lithuania’s parliamentary decision to deny them state-recognized status. A country-wide discussion on religion, legitimacy and law surrounds the issue with contradictory historic narratives while Romuva’s status isn’t yet confirmed. My research seeks to investigate how the negotiation of the concept of religion is reflected in law and in the practices of Romuva.

Research interests
  • Transcultural studies
  • Minority studies
  • Nation Building
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Transhumanism
Vita
  • 2017 – 2022
    Technical writer at SAP
  • 2013 – 2016
    M.A. Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University
  • 2011 – 2012
    volunteer at Women Empowerment Through Self-Help Groups in Ahmedabad, India
  • 2008 – 2011
    B.A. Philosophy at Bonn University
Talks, Workshops, and Events
  • 12.10.2023
    Talk Romuvas Kampf um die rechtliche Anerkennung als Religion im unabhängigen Litauen im Rahmen des Kickoff-Workshop des WoC-Labs Religion glokal, University of Bremen
  • 22. – 24.10.2015
    Symposium Histories of Japanese Art and their Global Contexts: New Directions, University of Heidelberg
  • 31. – 02.11.2014
    Conference Transcultural Framing(s): Materials and Metaphors, University of Heidelberg
city

“The city is a laboratory not only of modernity, but also of contradiction.”

Julia Lossau
limits

“Resistance is a democratic right, sometimes a duty. With literature we can find models for this right and think about its limits.”

Gisela Febel
articulate

“Contradictions need to be articulated in order to exist.”

Martin Nonhoff
relational

“At first I thought contradiction was always a relational thing; but the more I ponder it, the more I think contradiction creates relation.”

Ingo H. Warnke
problem to be solved

“Contradiction is not primarily a problem to be solved but a motor we cannot do without.”

Martin Nonhoff