https://www.marcloustau.org/home daily 1.0 2024-10-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/fd6b5a18-4e47-4fac-98f4-d3d5d5a2c872/IMG_2541.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635212147574-P2GLG1Y9CON0UG9YHFSV/IMG_9526.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635212108605-IXLZLT9EW6FG198GD7SD/Punkosd-2010-118.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1636055105864-9UURD5CPNPYV821OBKIX/Radio+Maria_2016-12-12_at_11.09.57_am.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635204811296-I1AP8BB0H4RMEZ16II1N/Tall-Marc-7410-2.jpeg Home - I’m a cultural anthropologist and journalist reporting on religion and nationalism in Eastern Europe. I live in Budapest, Hungary. I’m fluent in English and Hungarian and proficient in Romanian. My reported features and commentary have appeared in major U.S. and European newspapers and magazines. I use my academic research to give smart and surprising fact-based commentary on contemporary events. I’ve given invited lectures at European and North American universities and presented at numerous international conferences. My book Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Romania: Reforming Apostles explores how contemporary Hungarian Catholic intellectuals are forging an ethical concept of nationhood. Subscribe to my email newsletter, “At the Edges with Marc Loustau,” for on-the-ground reporting from Hungary and Eastern Europe. https://www.marcloustau.org/materiality daily 0.75 2021-11-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847736004-JNS9D00D9KH3FTOSIGO3/image-asset.jpeg Materiality - Hospitable Materialities “Because researchers in religion and society often focus on ‘abnormal’ religious experiences – ecstatic visions of God or miraculous healings – they can overlook how the normal and the abnormal are interrelated concepts. By focusing on debates about normal domestic materialities, I highlight the way class differences and pilgrimage home hospitality destabilize performances of national kinship.” https://www.marcloustau.org/media daily 0.75 2021-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1636055105864-9UURD5CPNPYV821OBKIX/Radio+Maria_2016-12-12_at_11.09.57_am.jpeg Media - Catholic media In Transylvania, Radio Maria has attracted numerous volunteers, mostly middle-aged and relatively affluent women. Like their mothers, they are devoted to Hungary’s patron saint, but they discover that work can have new and different meanings in this fast-growing global media organization. https://www.marcloustau.org/intellectuals daily 0.75 2021-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/fd6b5a18-4e47-4fac-98f4-d3d5d5a2c872/IMG_2541.jpeg Intellectuals - Catholic intellectuals Csíksomlyó hosts a variety of secular and religious educational institutions. I studied how Catholic intellectuals use these institutions to school Hungarians in the virtues with the goal of making not only a strong but also a virtuous nation. https://www.marcloustau.org/commentary daily 0.75 2026-03-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/e0dfda2a-c9ef-4133-a0ba-18df0f967ba8/Logo_The_Brussels_Times.svg.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/bce146d9-38c4-41b4-a1ac-93b6bbc13e4f/newsweek-logo.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635188375673-DES8Y5KT4MK1S84PQ2AE/pentecost3.jpeg Commentary - Commentary I am a skilled commentator and expert on Eastern European politics and religion. I live in Budapest, Hungary and report from around the region. Contact me for interviews or background on these topics: Hungary’s 2026 national election Hungary politics, foreign policy Ukraine politics, NATO and EU membership Catholic Church, abortion and LGBTQ issues Far-right extremism, radicalization I publish commentary from a liberal perspective, but criticize both left and right when need be. https://www.marcloustau.org/scholarship daily 0.75 2024-04-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635188375673-DES8Y5KT4MK1S84PQ2AE/pentecost3.jpeg Scholarship - Scholarship I present regularly at academic conferences in Europe and North America. I am a member of the American Anthropological Association and the American Academy of Religion. I’m active in the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, and the Anthropology of Religion Group (AAR) where I served on the board for two terms. I actively publish in Anthropology and Religious Studies journals. My book Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania: Reforming Apostles has just been published in the Contemporary Anthropology of Religion series from Palgrave MacMillan. For a comprehensive list of my publications, see my Curriculum Vitae. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1657288002316-4S415OR0XPLCJVK35923/Hungarian+Catholic+Intellectuals.jpeg Scholarship - Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania: Reforming Apostles Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. https://www.marcloustau.org/teaching daily 0.75 2023-03-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635188375673-DES8Y5KT4MK1S84PQ2AE/pentecost3.jpeg Teaching - Teaching I teach courses in four main areas: (Click on the links for sample syllabi) Catholic Studies, including Global Catholicism and Catholicism and the Media. New Religious Movements including Global Charismatic Christianity and Pentecostalism Ethnographic Research Methods Theological and Social Scientific Reflection on Human Questions I also provide commentary on teaching methods in religious studies. https://www.marcloustau.org/marian-devotion daily 0.75 2021-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/a6d97577-db84-4eed-aa47-1e81986b5448/IMG_8879.jpeg Marian Devotion - Marian devotionalism Most Eastern European social scientific research reduces the Virgin Mary to a symbol and studies her religious and political meanings. I go a step further by examining the writings of Catholic ethnologists’ and the poetic strategies that make the Virgin Mary’s present on the page as she is in petitionary prayer. https://www.marcloustau.org/pilgrimage daily 0.75 2021-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/1635212108605-IXLZLT9EW6FG198GD7SD/Punkosd-2010-118.jpeg Pilgrimage - Multi-sited pilgrimage research While most research on pilgrimage hews to the conventional one scholar, one site fieldwork model, I examine how pilgrims’ to Csíksomlyó have their views changed by visits to other major religious sites like Medjugorje, Lourdes, and the Holy Land. https://www.marcloustau.org/book daily 0.75 2022-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/9bacf6f6-8f9f-4510-842c-61c51bed9877/Hungarian+Catholic+Intellectuals.jpeg Book https://www.marcloustau.org/uu-studies-convocation daily 0.75 2023-03-18 https://www.marcloustau.org/editorial-services daily 0.75 2025-09-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6176e5284e93410bac8a7ad8/cc33a0e5-9600-46dd-960f-8007d9a7ada7/image-from-rawpixel-id-5958785-jpeg.jpg Editorial Services - Write like you want to. I am a Harvard-trained developmental editor and publishing consultant. I help scholars prepare their research to submit to top journals and presses. https://www.marcloustau.org/new-page daily 0.75 2025-07-20