By releasing his latest book “Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus’,” Wittenberg history professor Christian Raffensperger has highlighted the marriage roles between the royal families of Rus’ and surrounding kingdoms throughout eastern Europe.
His book was published by Harvard University Press, and released in March of this year.
“I dedicated the book to two of my professors in graduate school,” Raffensperger said. “They encouraged me to do work like this, and both died soon after I finished graduate school, and thus could not see the finished product.”
This book covers the many roles of women and the events and motivations that happen to surround dynastic marriages. It explains how important Russian women were to their communities.
It also explains “how, in many different ways, they engaged in the politics of their new kingdoms, often to the benefit of Rus’,” Raffensperger said.
However, this new book is not his first rodeo. Before this publication, Raffensperger’s first book came out in 2012 – “Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus’ in the Medieval World.”
He also has another book currently under contract that he will be working on in the summer of 2016.
Raffensperger will be celebrating the release of his book on campus at Founder’s on Thursday, May 5 from 4-5:30 p.m.
Raffensperger is going to talk a little bit about the process behind writing the book and conclude the event with cake.
“I am also going to Harvard in the fall to give a talk about the book, which will be jointly sponsored by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Harvard Early Slavists Seminar,” Raffensperger said.
His book “Ties of Kinship” can be purchased on Amazon and is available online at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
