Category: Presentations

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Announcement Presentations

Sept 13: Petrović and Bobičić on Anti-Genderism in Serbia

Join us Friday, September 13, 2pm to 3pm (New York Time) for our first meeting of the Fall 2024 semester, on Zoom, when we welcome

Vanja Petrović and Nađa Bobičić (University of Belgrade) on

The Never-ending 90s in Serbia: What Came before the Phantasm of Gender

Abstract: Many of the same conservative politicians, intellectuals and clergy members of the Serbian Orthodox Church have been dominating Serbia’s political landscape for the better part of the past 35 years and have played a central role in the formation of the local anti-gender movement. Here, we seek to contribute to the ongoing efforts of making sense of how and why anti-gender mobilization is making such steady headway in our society. Using archival documents, we map actors and showcase the ideological imaginary held by the conservative elite during the 1990s. We argue that this ideological imaginary serves as the foundation of anti-gender mobilizations today. As right-wing actors did not act in a vacuum, we also highlight the unwavering feminist and pacifist left-wing opposition.

Nađa Bobičić (PhD) is a literary critic, socialist feminist and queer ally who lives and works in the region of the former Yugoslavia. She has been the co-editor of several collective volumes on the topic of gender-based violence, including Non/violence and responsibility: between structure and culture(Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe, 2020). Recently, she was a member of several research projects concerning unpaid housework, the position of women cultural workers in Serbia, and countering gender backlash in Serbia and Montenegro.   

Vanja Petrovic is an organizer, activist, and PhD candidate in social policy and social work at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science. Her research is interdisciplenary, spanning across gender studies, social policy, and ethnography. They are a founder of the Novi Sad Summer School for Abolition Feminism.  

Workshop format: We ask that participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, the presenters will share a brief overview, followed by an open discussion. We invite participants to ask questions based on the paper and the discussion.

To register for the Zoom link and receive the paper use this link

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Presentations

Seditious Bodies: The Subversive Aesthetics of Vulnerability in East European Feminist Performances

Aniko Szucs

(Queen’s College, CUNY)

Friday April 12 2024

2pm to 3pm (New York Time)

In person at CUNY Graduate Center CUNY Graduate Center (room 5203, Ralph Bunche Institute)

and Zoom

REGISTER HERE FOR ZOOM LINK AND DRAFT PAPER

Workshop format: We ask that participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, Dr. Szucs will give a brief presentation, after which we invite discussion with the in-person and online audience.

Aniko Szucs is a theater and performance studies scholar, dramaturg, and curator. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Drama, Theater, and Dance at Queens College. Dr. Szucs completed her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at New York University and earned an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest. She has worked as a resident and a production dramaturg in theaters across the US and Hungary. Dr. Szucs’s research interests include Central and East European political theater, feminist protest movements and performances, politics of memory, and the genealogy and critique of state surveillance.

Abstract:

 Seditious Bodies: The Subversive Aesthetics of Vulnerability in East European Feminist Performances 

In the recent transnational crisis of neoliberal austerity and rising neo-authoritarianism, there has been increased scholarly attention placed on forms of cultural resistance and social protest that—through performative gestures—foreground bodily vulnerability, mobilizing it as a site of connection and potentiality. Vulnerability, in this context, is a socio-political predicament that is perceived as a condition of resistance. This talk, however, considers vulnerability as an affective-aesthetic quality that distinctively characterizes contemporary East European feminist performances. Building on the genealogy of feminist body art and theory of the region, performance artists Maria Kulikovska (Ukraine) and Mikolt Tózsa (Hungary) yet again turn the female body and feminine corporeality into a vehicle of feminist resistance. The vulnerable body at the center of these performances is not merely a product of the precarious social and material conditions but a matrix of affective forces, symbolic gestures, and performative routines, one that liberates the artists from the ontological precarity of their existence. 

 

 

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Presentations

Defending women’s and Ukrainians’ rights in Poland

Friday, February 23, 2pm to 3pm (New York Time)

on Zoom with

Olena Morozova (V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University/University of British Columbia)

Ania Switzer (University of British Columbia)

Please join us for our second session of Spring 2024, with Professors Morozova and Switzer on “Collective mobilisation in defence of women’s rights and Ukrainian displaced persons in Poland”

The presentation discusses the impact of sexual and reproductive health policies in Poland in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. While Ukraine’s sexual and reproductive health policies align with dominant European standards of care, Poland, with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, is an outlier. Women who fled the war in Ukraine to Poland entered the field of Poland’s contentious bio-politics. The paper examines two of their emergent positions: (1) as unexpected beneficiaries of social mobilisation set in motion during large-scale protests resulting from the 2020 tightening of Poland’s abortion laws, and (2) as agents of change, since their medical needs spurred re-formulation of strategies employed by women’s rights advocates and led both to the broadening of local third-sector coalitions and expanding of transnational ties of activism. The paper examines the intersectional effect of social mobilisation and the agency of women in this context.

Olena Morozova is linguist and a Full Professor at the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. She is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia. Broadly interested in cognitive linguistics, discourse studies, media linguistics, political linguistics, Morozova’s current research projects include analysis of the mechanisms of deception and manipulation in public spheres in the time of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Ania Switzer is a sociologist and a historian, graduate of Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) and University of London (UK). She is a past Chevening Scholar and a recipient of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award. Her areas of specialisation include nationalism, production of knowledge and memory, and political change in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Holocaust studies. Currently, her research explores the intersections of women’s rights and social mobilisation in the context of war in Ukraine. Switzer has been teaching at the University of British Columbia since 2015.

Format: We ask that participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, the speakers will give a brief introduction, after which participants are invited to ask questions and make suggestions based on the paper and presentation.

To receive the paper and Zoom link, Register here

This presentation is also part of the
Brooklyn College 
Women’s & Gender Studies Endowed Chair 
Miniseries on “Russia’s Continuing War against Ukraine”  

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Presentations

Memes in Ukrainian and Russian Social Media

Friday, February 9, 2pm to 3pm (New York Time)

on Zoom with

Alina Mozolevska

Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Mykolaiv, Ukraine)

Please join us for our first session of Spring 2024, with Prof. Mozolevska on “Unveiling the War and Constructing Identities: Exploring Memes in Ukrainian and Russian Social Media during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.”

The paper examines the generation and deployment of visual narratives in Ukrainian and Russian digital participatory cultures, with a specific focus on internet memes in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It analyzes the form, content, and functions of these memes and highlights their similarity in mobilizing and conveying political messages despite variations in their visual components. The study indicates that Ukrainian memes are used not only to promote political agendas but also serve as trauma coping and collective identity construction mechanisms in times of crisis, helping to promote new war narratives that are engaged in the construction of the self and the other.

Alina Mozolevska is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philology, Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Mykolaiv, Ukraine). She holds a PhD in Linguistics with a major in Romance Languages from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, Ukraine (2015). Her research interests include media studies, discourse analysis, and border studies, and she has published on borders and identity in literary and political discourses.  Alina Mozolevska was a visiting professor at the UniGR-Center for Border Studies, Saarland University (Volkswagen Foundation project “Borders in Crisis”, Saarbrücken, Germany). Currently she is a ZOiS UNET Ukraine-based Fellow 2023-2024.

Format: We ask that participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, Prof. Mozolevska will give a brief introduction, after which participants are invited to ask questions and make suggestions based on the paper and presentation.

To receive the paper and Zoom link REGISTER HERE

This presentation is also part of the
Brooklyn College 
Women’s & Gender Studies Endowed Chair 
Miniseries on “Russia’s Continuing War against Ukraine”  

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Presentations

Simic on Gender Policies toward Muslim Men in Socialist Yugoslavia and Bulgaria

Friday November 10

2pm to 3pm

(New York standard time)

Zoom registration link

Professor Ivan Simic, Charles University

This talk explores how Muslim men were targeted by a series of interventions aimed to change gender relations within Muslim communities. Yugoslav and Bulgarian communists were led by stereotypes about Muslim men, Muslim families, and Muslim communities, driven by socialist modernity notions. Heavily influenced by Soviet models from Central Asia, Yugoslav and Bulgarian communists aimed to create a homogenous and mobile population that would participate in the socialist project. Some policies that affected Muslim communities were universal for all, whilst some targeted Muslims explicitly. Namely, a series of interventions into Muslim communities started by introducing mandatory elementary education for girls, a ban on underage marriage, and the replacement of the Sharia law with the universal family law. Interventions continued with ban on circumcision, fez, and forced migrations. Muslim men were targeted and blamed for years for any failure of the communist modernising process, although interests of Muslim men were often fragmented – some eagerly supported new gender policies, some just wanted to be left in peace to their lives, and some found ways to resist the changes.

We ask that participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, Prof. Simic will make a short presentation, after which participants will be invited to ask questions based on the paper and presentation. Registered participants will receive a draft of the paper.

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Presentations

First Fall 2023 meeting September 8, 2pm on Zoom

Please join us Friday, September 8, 2pm to 3pm (NY Time) when we welcome:

Bénédicte Santoire, University of Ottawa

Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Long-term Protracted Conflicts: Exploring the Cases of Moldova and Georgia

Bénédicte Santoire is a PhD Candidate and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She researches and teaches in the areas of feminist international relations theories and feminist security studies. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the post-Soviet space, more specifically in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia.

This meeting will take place on Zoom. Register here

We ask that registered participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, Santoire will provide a brief (20 min) presentation, after which attendees are invited to share questions and suggestions based on the presentation and paper. The paper will provided one week in advance.

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Presentations Schedule

May 12: Kanjuo Mrčela on Gender Pay Gap in Slovenia

Join us Friday, May 12, 2pm to 3pm (New York time)

in person and online when we welcome

Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrčela

professor at the Department of Sociology of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, on:

“Which invisible hand makes Slovene women earn less than men?”

This presentation is based on a longer project co-authored with Alena Křížková, Andreja Poje, and Andrew Penner.

The transition to the full flagged market economy didn’t bring the best results for the highly educated and experienced female labor force in Slovenia. On the contrary, from 2010 to 2018 the gender pay gap rose from 0,9 to 9,3 %. The contribution seeks to understand the impact of intertwining structural and individual factors on the economic situation of women and men in a small, transitional, globally embedded economy. The paper is based on data that show negative trends, especially in terms of increasing differences in wages of women and men. In the analysis, in addition to theoretical discussions on the position of women and men on the labor market, we analyze the results of a survey conducted in 2016 (in time of the rising gender pay gap) on a representative national sample and some recent smaller research endeavors that gave us insight in the placement of women and men in different organizational/sectoral environments, as well as in the individual strategies of men and women in the labor market. We analyzed experiences of workers regarding working conditions, employment, wage and promotion as well as opinions and experiences of employers regarding the recruitment, promotion and rewarding of female and male workers.

We ask that participants read the paper in advance. After a short presentation, we will invite participants to discuss.

In-person attendees: Register & receive paper here

On-line attendees: Register & receive paper here

In-person location:
European Union Studies Center

CUNY Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue

Room 5203

Questions? Workshop co-coordinators

Mara Lazda (mara.lazda@bcc.cuny.edu) and Janet Johnson (johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu)

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Presentations

April 21 (online) Zaharijević on Debunking Myths on/in the East of Europe

Join us for our April 21 meeting at 2pm to 3pm (New York time) on Zoom, when we welcome Adriana Zaharijević, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade.

In this presentation, Zaharijević examines a myth within East/West feminist venues. By addressing it, she tackles several issues that are marring feminist scholarship and also feminist public life. The first will refer to hierarchies within feminist postsocialist scholarship, the second to the incompatibility of myth to different feminist realities, and the third to the entrenching of divisions within feminisms, this time thriving on recognition/redistribution, economy/culture, class/gender divides.

We ask that participants read the author’s short paper in advance. Zaharijević will give a short presentation at the workshop, and then participants will be invited to share their comments and suggestions.

Please email mara.lazda@bcc.cuny.edu for the paper.

Register for Zoom link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtce-qrDotHND52CDOruKwi7SpF0MMSY5U

Questions: Mara Lazda (mara.lazda@bcc.cuny.edu) or Janet E. Johnson (johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu)

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Presentations Schedule

Spring 2023 schedule

Feb. 3 (online)

Framing Gender-based Violence in the Period of Anti-genderism: case studies of Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland

Alexandria Wilson-McDonald, Professorial Lecturer | School of International Service

American University | Washington D.C.

Feb 24 (online and in person: Room C 201) 

HOLDING SPACE FOR UKRAINE AFTER ONE YEAR OF FULL-SCALE WAR

“Here is our front”: Hybridization of Normative Femininity During Russia’s War on Ukraine

Oksana Kis, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, visiting professor, the New School of Social Research

in discussion with Olena Nikolayenko, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University, and Karyn Grossman Gershon, CEO, Project Kesher

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcuduuprjMpEtZne19X-xropy6oVhBs0HRh

Mar 17 (online)

“Strong family makes strong Russia:” Maternity and “traditional values” in a militarizing state

Yulia Gradskova, Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden

Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkf-2gpzouHNEsgfas1sMEfLfM9ZsnTK14

April 21 (online)

Debunking Myths on/in the East of Europe

Adriana Zaharijević, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Zoom registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtce-qrDotHND52CDOruKwi7SpF0MMSY5U

May 12 (online and in person: Room 5203)

Which invisible hand makes Slovene women earn less than men?

Aleksandra Kanjuo-Mrčela, Professor Chair for Organizational and Human Resource Management and Development, Centre for Organisational and Human Resources Research,  University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcscO2urTMvHt0gcmMAPI4J1ua0cbTUvz2I

RSVP required. For Zoom participants, register with the link. For In-Person participants, email mara.lazda@bcc.cuny.edu to register

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Presentations Schedule

Friday Feb 24th: Reflecting on the War on Ukraine with Oksana Kis

Feb 24 (Hybrid session: online and in person at the CUNY Graduate Center: Room C 201). 2pm to 3pm (New York Time)

 CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, New York

HOLDING SPACE FOR UKRAINE AFTER ONE YEAR OF FULL-SCALE WAR

“Here is our front”: Hybridization of Normative Femininity During Russia’s War on Ukraine

Oksana Kis, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, visiting professor, the New School of Social Research

in discussion with Olena Nikolayenko, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University, and Karyn Grossman Gershon, CEO, Project Kesher

Register for Zoom link here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcuduuprjMpEtZne19X-xropy6oVhBs0HRh

Ukrainian women’s responses to the Russian full-scale military aggression against Ukraine as well as the Ukrainian society’s perception (reaction) to those responses are striking. Women’s self-mobilization for defense efforts manifested itself in two seemingly different ways: on the one end – large scale voluntary enrollment to the military to serve at the battle front, on the other end – simultaneous massive grass-roots volunteer movement of humanitarian nature at the home front. As different (or even opposite) as they may appear at first glance, these two women’s ways of engaging with defense efforts share an important common feature: both claim their rootedness in Ukrainian normative femininity with direct references to national historical legacy and folk traditions. Instead of considering these women’s wartime roles as mutually exclusive, I argue that they represent different modalities of a hybrid femininity that offers a broad spectrum of socially acceptable social roles for modern women, with women’s active citizenship defining a value attached to respective activities.

Note for in-person: Effective January 25, 2023, non-CUNY visitors will no longer need to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter the building. Instead, they will be required to show a government-issued photo ID to the security officers at the lobby’s front desk.