October Colloquium: Alexander Panchenko

Alexander Panchenko joins the Society for a colloquium exploring alien abduction narratives through the lenses of folklore, vernacular religion, and the cognitive science of religion. Drawing on decades of research into popular belief and religious culture, his lecture examines how reports of alien encounters function within broader systems of meaning and what they reveal about the relationship between UFO belief, religion, and contemporary popular culture.

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Dr. Panchenko is a professor at the European University at St. Petersburg and research fellow at the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on vernacular religion, contemporary folklore and popular culture, new religious movements, New Age spirituality, and the anthropology of conspiracy theories. He has published extensively on religious practice, popular belief, and the cultural dynamics of extraordinary experience, making him one of the leading scholars of religion and folklore in Eastern Europe.

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In "Gods or Vivisectionists?…