Fabio Mattiolli, Faculty Fellow at Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, New York University

Fabio Mattioli is captivated by the paradoxes of social life, especially those generated by financial flows and urban politics in Southern and Eastern Europe. Throughout his nomadic academic career, Fabio has developed an acute personal and theoretical sensibility for economic inequality and peripheralization. Currently, Fabio is developing a book project that explores the connection between finance and authoritarianism at the fringe of Europe. Analyzing the construction industry in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, the book illustrates how non-democratic regimes can hijack urban financialization to produce illiquidity and penetrate the intimate life of their citizens. Prior to joining NYU, Fabio obtained a PhD in Anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center, a MA in Anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris, France), and a BA in Political Philosophy from the University of Florence (Italy). An enthusiastic photographer and capoerista, his secret dream is to learn how to prepare burek.

4:30-6PM

Center for European and Mediterranean Studies

285 Mercer, 7th Floor New York, NY 10003

All are welcome!

Friday, September 16:

Aušra Park

Assistant Professor, Political Science, Siena College

Despite a large number of publications in gender and leadership studies on political executives, scholarship on women presidents remains an understudied field. With few exceptions, research on female political executives is primarily focused on Latin American region, where a number of females have recently achieved the highest political positions, and, especially, on single-case studies in different parts of the world (i.e., German Chancellor Merkel, Finnish President Halonen, South Korean President Park, etc.). Meanwhile, comparative research on women executives is nearly non-existent. My project focuses on a neglected geographic region—post-communist Eastern Europe—where women presidents have become a “new political normal.” Starting with Latvia’s Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, and followed by Lithuania’s Dalia Grybauskaite, Kosovo’s Atifete Jahjaga, and recently Croatia’s Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, this project will compare and offer a more focused and in-depth examination of political circumstances, contextual paths and powers, as well as leadership traits of the four women presidents. My study will seek answers the following key questions: What are the circumstances that allow women in Eastern Europe to reach the highest national positions? Are there any auspicious conditions that females benefit from, which could account for their political successes? As political actors and “glass ceiling breakers” how do they influence the established power hierarchy? What kind of leadership impact do they have, and is it different from their male counterparts? How much of a feminist agenda do these female presidents advance? In answering these questions, this project will fill in existing gaps in gender, political leadership, and area studies’ literatures.

All meetings are held at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, New York University

285 Mercer St., 7th Floor. 4:30 to 6:00pm

September 16

Aušra Park, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Siena College

“Shattering the Glass Ceiling in Eastern Europe: The Rise of Female Presidents (Lithuania, Latvia, Kosovo, Croatia)”

October 7

Fabio Mattiolli, Faculty Fellow at Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, New York University

“Manhood and Authoritarian Financialization in Macedonia”

November 11

Victoria Apostol, Founder, the Group of Feminist Initiatives, Moldova

“The Rise of Religious Populism in Eastern Europe”
December 9

Marina Kingsbury, Lecturer, Political Science, University of AL at Huntsville

“Let’s Have More Russian Babies: How Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Shapes Family Policy in Russia”

Talks are 4:30 to 6.  We usually go out to an informal dinner afterwards.  All are welcome to both.

“Gender and the Crises in Europe”

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: June 27, 2016

The GENDER and TRANSFORMATION: WOMEN in EUROPE Workshop invites speakers to submit proposals for Friday afternoon talks for the academic year 2016-2017 at the NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies.

As is our usual practice, we are looking for speakers to discuss gender, sexuality, or women in Europe  or Eurasia. For the academic year 2015-2016 we are particularly (but not only) interested in speakers addressing theoretically and/or empirically the crises in Europe and the threats of rupture of the European Union: resurgent populism and nationalism, responses to the massive migrations, the rise of so-called anti-genderism, and the impact of these developments on gender policy and practice, including on reproductive rights, gender violence, and gender equality laws.

The workshop’s focus is on the postcommunist countries of East and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, including the Baltic countries and Central Asia, and in Europe and the European Union more widely. Recent workshop included topics such as the women’s court as a new form of feminist justice in former Yugoslavia, the sexuality and agency of the Balkan Roma, feminism on the streets and in art in Ukraine, and intermarriage in divided Germany–and speakers such as Dubravka Ugrešić.

The workshop is an informal and friendly group of about 20 feminist scholars, activists, and journalists who have been meeting for more than 20 years and are knowledgeable about the region. This is the perfect space to present recent theoretical and/or critical work, empirical research, and critical and scholarly reflections on your activism.

We offer a small honorarium. We regret that we cannot cover transportation expenses to New York City or offer assistance for visas or accommodations.

To propose a talk for 2016-2017, please email the following to Janet Elise Johnson ([email protected]) and Mara Lazda ([email protected]):

1. a title for your talk
2. an abstract of less than 200 words describing your proposed talk
3. a one-page curriculum vitae or resume.
4. your schedule clarifying which weeks or months you plan to be in or near New York City and would like to present (proposals for the Spring semester will be passed onto Nanette Funk and Sonia Jaffe Robbins)

All proposals are welcome from the region and experts from the U.S. or elsewhere, activists or scholars.  We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Carol Silverman,

  “Gendered Migration of Muslim Balkan Roma:
    Work, Sexuality, and Ritual in New York and Germany”

   Please join us April 15 for our fourth meeting of the Spring 2016 semester.

Carol Silverman, Professor, University of Oregon, Department of Anthropology, and Folklore Program.

  Dr. Carol Silverman has written extensively on Balkan Roma culture, particularly “Gypsy” music and its gendered nature. She published Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora (Oxford, 2012). She has written on Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and the Balkans more widely. Her work has been widely recognized, and has appeared in many journals and collections. Her awards include a Guggenheim Award. Her talk compares Muslim Romani women’s agency in Germany and NYC as reflecting women’s negotiations in the gendered politics of power. and as responses to different socioeconomic contexts and migration policies. Her analysis illustrates how culture strategically changes in relationship to gendered issues of independence, family size and class status.  Her talk is based on ethnographic fieldwork in NYC, Macedonia, and Germany.

. All meetings take place at NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, 285 Mercer Street (between Waverly and Washington), 7th floor from 4:30pm to 6:00pm.

Jessica Zychowicz,

“Why Art Now? Kyiv Artists’ Visual Narratives of Identity, Gender, and Conflict in Ukraine”

Please join us March 11 for our third meeting of  the Spring 2016 semester.

Jessica Zychowicz, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’, Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies

Dr. Jessica Zychowicz received her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan in 2015. She is now working on her manuscript, Superfluous Women: Gender, Art and Activism After Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Ongoing research interests include the global media production of discourse on women, the idea of collectivity in avant-garde movements, the state and its relationship to art, and culture industries in the context of public diplomacy. Recent publications include articles in the Anthropology of East Europe Review; Krytyka: The Journal for Ukrainian Politics and Society. Dr. Zychowicz also translates creative works by contemporary Ukrainian and Polish authors.

All meetings take place at NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, 285 Mercer Street (between Waverly and Washington), 7th floor from 4:30pm to 6:00pm.

Diana Mincyte

“Gender Politics in the Shadows: The Racialization of the Rural/Urban Divide in Europeanizing Lithuania?”

Please join us February 19 for our second meeting of the Spring 2016 semester.

Before joining CUNY, she has held research and teaching fellowships at Harvard University, New York University, Yale University, and the Rachel Carson Center of Ludwig Maximilian University, Germany. Her research examines environmental and justice dimensions of agro-food systems in eastern Europe and the United States. Mincyte’s publications include articles in Environment and Planning D, Agriculture and Human Values, Sociologia Ruralis, Slavic Review, among others, book chapters, and several guest-edited special issues.

Diana Mincyte, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Science. New York City  College of Technology, CUNY.

All meetings take place at NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, 285 Mercer Street (between Waverly and Washington), 7th floor from 4:30pm to 6:00pm.

Julia Woesthoff, ” Race, Religion, Nation: Debating Intermarriage in 1960s West Germany”

Please join us January 22 for our first meeting of the spring semester, 2016.

Julia Woesthoff, Associate Professor of History, DePaul University  on debates on intermarriage in 1960s West Germany.

Her talk is part of her ongoing research on ethnicity, migration, and gender after 1945 in Germany. She is currently working on a book on intermarriage debates in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).

All meetings take place at NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, 285 Mercer Street (between Waverly and Washington), 7th floor from 4:30pm to 6:00pm.

We have an exciting program planned for this SPRING! Come join us beginning January 22!

Spring Schedule 2016

January 22. Julia Woesthoff, Associate Professor of History, DePaul University

“Race, Religion, Nation: Debating Intermarriage in 1960s West Germany”

February 19. Diana Mincyte, Assistant Professor, Department of Social
Science. New York City College of Technology, CUNY.

“Gender Politics in the Shadows: The Racialization of the Rural/Urban Divide in Europeanizing Lithuania?”

March 11. Dr. Jessica Zychowicz, Postdoctoral Fellow, Munk School,
University of Toronto.

“Why Art Now? Kyiv Artists’ Visual Narratives of Identity, Gender, and Conflict in Ukraine”

April 15. Carol Silverman, Professor, University of Oregon,
Department of Anthropology and Folklore Program

“Gendered Migration of Muslim Balkan Roma: Work, Sexuality, and Ritual in NY and Germany”

May 20. Dr. Indira Kajosevic Skoric, Ph.D. Adjunct, Kingsborough
Community College, CUNY and SUNY/Plattsburg

“The Women’s Court and Gender Justice after the Last Wars in the Western Balkans”

Continue reading “SPRING 2016 Workshop Schedule”