SFI Professor Evgenia Smagina Defends her Doctoral Dissertation

On October 28, at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SFI Professor Evgenia Smagina successfully defended her doctoral dissertation.  The dissertation topic was “The Evolution of Biblical Motifs in Early Christian Apocrypha (Based on Coptic Texts).” Smagina did her work at the Department of History and Culture of the Ancient East of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The official examiners were:

• Professor Mikhail Seleznyov, PhD in Philology, Institute of Classical Orient and Antiquity, Faculty of Humanities, Higher School of Economics;
• Professor Alexander Bratukhin, PhD in Philology, Department of World Literature and Culture, Perm State National Research University;
• Leading Research Fellow Anton Voytenko, PhD in History, Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Smagina’s dissertation is devoted to the reflection of biblical narratives in Coptic texts. The main goal of her research was to identify the origins and stages of development of a whole series of legends preserved in Coptic literature. Thanks to many years of work in this field, Evgenia Borisovna has introduced more than twelve Coptic texts into scholarly circulation, complete with translations and corresponding commentaries. 

“Coptic literature, like other literatures of the Christian East, has reached us far from complete, yet even what has been preserved contains the richest material for the study of early Christianity in Egypt. The dissertation's author, a specialist in this field with many years of experience, has now chosen one of the most important topics — and at the same time a topic that is well supplied with sources — namely, the study of those Coptic manuscipts in which biblical images and motifs play a central role. The novelty and relevance of this topic are indisputable,” noted Alexander Khosroev, PhD (History), Chief Research Fellow of the Department of the Near and Middle East at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the leading organisation's review. 

“The study of Coptic Manichaean texts is extremely valuable. At first glance, Manichaeism seems to have very little to do with biblical sacred history, but the author has convincingly demonstrated that the cosmogony of Manichaeism in its original form — not yet heavily adapted to Zoroastrianism and Buddhism — represents what in Western scholarship is called a ‘re-written Bible,’” noted examiner Mikhail Seleznyov in his review. 

"Based on the results of the defense and a secret ballot, the Dissertation Council resolved — for the solution of a scientific problem of great importance for the development of research in Coptic literature — to award Evgenia Borisovna Smagina the academic degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences in the specialty 5.9.2 — Literatures of the Peoples of the World."

We heartily congratulate Evgenia Borisovna upon the occasion of her awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences!