Jerry Pankhurst

Professor Emeritus of Sociology and of Russian and Central Eurasian Studies, Wittenberg University

Jerry Pankhurst earned his PhD at the University of Michigan in 1978 and specializes in sociology of religion, politics, and family. His doctoral dissertation addressed Christian Orthodox and Baptist life and dissent in the Soviet Union, and he has maintained related interests throughout his career. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tartu in 2012 and a visiting professor there in 2015. It was at that university that he met his frequent coauthor, Alar Kilp. Dr. Pankhurst’s  current research and writing focus primarily on questions of religion and politics and sociology of family in Russia and Eurasian societies; his most recent publications assess the implications of the leadership and ecclesiology of the Russian Orthodox Church for Russia and Ukraine.