Biography

Anastazja is a historian of early modern Europe. Her research weds cultural, intellectual, and social histories and explores the intersections of religion, identity, and culture. Anastazja read History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the University of Cambridge. She was a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholar in the Humanities at the Department of History, University College London, where she received her doctorate for a dissertation on the religious formation of Holy Roman Emperor Matthias Habsburg (1557-1619). Anastazja is currently writing a monograph which will offer the first full-length study of Matthias and a new interpretation of Habsburg Catholicism on the eve of the Thirty Years' War.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Anastazja will develop a new project which examines the relationship between peace and piety in early modern Europe. It explores how peace featured in Christian conceptions of piety and what role religion played in the practices of peace, especially in multiconfessional contexts. This project seeks to further our understanding of a potent, yet still little understood, concept of peace and to illuminate an important, though often unappreciated, capacity of religion for fostering peace.

Anastazja has taught courses in historical methodology and European history from the 15th to the 20th century to undergraduate students in History, Economics, and Politics, and mentored masters and doctoral students. Her teaching interests centre around early modern, religious, and Central European history.