Vlad Naumescu

Vlad Naumescu is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University (CEU), with additional affiliations as Faculty at the Social Mind Center and Executive Committee Member of the Center for Religious Studies. Based in Vienna, he is currently on sabbatical for Winter and Spring 2025. His interdisciplinary work bridges anthropology, religious studies, cognitive science, and visual ethnography.

His educational background includes an MA in Social Anthropology from the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest, Romania, and a PhD jointly awarded by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and Martin Luther University Halle, Germany.

Naumescu’s research centers on the anthropology of religion, particularly focusing on Eastern Christianity, religious transmission, ritual, time and temporality, ethics, and the interplay between religious and secular formations in postsocialist contexts. His fieldwork spans Western Ukraine, Romanian Old Believers, and Syrian Christians in Kerala, South India. A key recent focus is on pedagogies of prayer and the sensory training involved in Orthodox spiritual life.

His recent publications reveal a strong trend toward interdisciplinary inquiry, combining cognitive anthropology, visual methods, and political theology. Themes include the theopolitics of canonical territory, diaspora, monasticism, and the sensory dimensions of religious practice. He frequently engages with visual anthropology, producing and supervising documentary films such as Bread of Life, Birds' Way, and Material Religion: Silent Encounters.

• A new ‘Great Schism’? Theopolitics of communion and canonical territory in the Orthodox Church (2020)
• Pedagogies of prayer: teaching Orthodoxy in South India (2019)
• Old Believers’ passion play: the meaning of doubt in an Orthodox ritualist movement (2013)

He has played a pivotal role in developing interdisciplinary research and training initiatives, including the SMASH and SMASH PRO doctoral programs on the Social Mind, which integrate cognition, culture, and sociality. He founded the Visual Studies Platform and the Advanced Certificate Program in Visual Theory and Practice, reflecting his commitment to innovative ethnographic methods and multimodal scholarship.

While no formal scientific awards are listed, his leadership in program development and high-impact publications in journals like Anthropology Today and CSSH underscores his scholarly influence. He has supervised students and mentored visual projects, including photo essays and interactive media, though specific advisee names are not provided.

Naumescu’s work is deeply collaborative, often involving cross-institutional and interdisciplinary teams. His ongoing exploration of new media for ethnographic storytelling suggests a future trajectory integrating digital tools with anthropological practice. The labs and teams he contributes to—such as the Social Mind Center and Visual Studies Platform—foster experimental, boundary-crossing research on religion, cognition, and visual culture.