Through IU’s Diplomacy Lab, students in Prof. Patrick Michelson’s “Holy Russia, Holy War” course have partnered with the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom. The goal of this partnership is to help government officials better understand the ways in which the Russian Orthodox Church talks to non-Russian audiences about the war in Ukraine and about the West, namely the ways in which the Russian Church portrays the conflict as a “Holy War” and casts Western values as “decadent” and “satanic.” Students submit their final report and oral presentations about their findings December 17, 2025
The College of Arts