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From ‘the ordinary recklessness of girls’ to #MeToo:

Tracing changes of legal and discursive practices around sexual violence in Poland

4:30pm to 6:00pm
53 Washington Square South

Agnieszka Kościańska received her PhD in 2007 and habilitation in 2015 in ethnology/cultural anthropology from the University of Warsaw, Poland. She is an associate professor in the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw and a senior researcher in a Humanities in the European Research Area research project (Cruising the 1970s: Unearthing Pre-HIV/AIDS Queer Sexual Cultures, http://www.crusev.ed.ac.uk/). Her research interests include gender, sexuality, sexual violence, sexology, sex education, religion, and race in Central Europe. In the past, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard University (2010-2011, Marie Curie fellowship), the New School for Social Research (2006, Kosciuszko Foundation grant), the University of Copenhagen (2005, Danish Governmental scholarship), Edinburgh College of Art (2017, European Visiting Research Fellowship by the Caledonian Research Foundation and the Royal Society of Edinburgh), and the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena (2016, 2017-2018).

She is the author of Zobaczyć łosia (To See a Moose. The History of Polish Sex Education from the First Lesson to the Internet, 2017), Płeć przyjemność i przemoc (Gender, Pleasure and Violence: The Construction of Expert Knowledge of Sexuality in Poland, 2014, English version under contract with Indiana University Press, to be published in 2020), Potęga ciszy (The Power of silence: Gender and Religious Conversion. The Case of a New Religious Movement, the Brahma Kumaris, 2009) and (co-)editor of several volumes and journal special issues on gender and sexuality – the most recent being ‘The science of sex in a space of uncertainty: Naturalizing and modernizing Europe’s East, past and present’ Sexualities, no. 1-2 2016 (with Hadley Renkin). Two of her book projects were generously supported by the Network of East-West Women: Gender. Perspektywa antropologiczna (Gender. An Anthropological Perspective, co-edited with Renata Hryciuk, the first Polish handbook in the anthropology of gender, 2 volumes, 2007), and Kobiety i Religie (Women and Religions, co-edited with Katarzyna Leszczyńska, 2006).

More: https://www.etnologia.uw.edu.pl/en/about-us/people/academic-and-non-academic/agnieszka-koscianska

All are welcome, but please RSVP to [email protected] so that we can leave your name at the door.

Join us Friday October 12: Christopher Edling,“Bride Kidnapping in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan: Parallels and Divergences”

Christopher Edling received his MFA from Columbia University and worked in Kyrgyzstan as a Fulbright Creative Writing Fellow and as a communications and editing consultant for the United Nations office in Bishkek.

Presentation abstract:
According to survey data, more than half of women in rural areas of Armenia experience some form of bride kidnapping during their lives. But ask representatives of civil society organizations and prominent women’s NGOs about the widespread practice, and the response is perplexing: “We do not have this in Armenia.”

Contrast this with public response to bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, where recent years have seen federal legal reforms, nationwide initiatives, international media coverage, condemnation by religious leaders, and grassroots activism, including a protest of more than one thousand people in Bishkek on June 6, 2018.

Drawing on original fieldwork and other research for the speaker’s book in progress, this talk will explore the cultural, social, economic, and political complexities surrounding bride kidnapping and attendant public responses in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. What similarities and differences are there in bride kidnapping practices between these two countries? What factors drive and perpetuate these practices? What accounts for the differences in public response? How is this issue mobilized by local and international agencies? What has changed in recent years, and what seems likely to change in the future?

Join us for our first meeting of the Fall 2018 workshop series

Friday, September 28, 2018
4:30pm to 6:00pm
53 Washington Square South, 3rd Floor East

Betul Eksi (Robert G. James Scholar Fellow,
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study,
Harvard University)

and

Elizabeth A. Wood (Professor, Department of History, M.I.T.)

Charismatic Masculine Leadership and Right-Wing Populism in Turkey and Russia: The Cases of Vladimir Putin and Recep T. Erdoğan

Recep T. Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin stand out as two populist leaders who came to power at the turn of the 21st century and continue to rule their countries with ever-increasing power and apparent popular support. Embracing distinctive forms of political masculinities, the two leaders have proved to be strong populist leaders who have appropriated democratic institutions and consolidated their support base through rhetoric that emphasizes their iconic masculine status while demeaning the masculinity of their opponents. This presentation will attempt to understand and explain this political performance of masculinity in the context of populism and the rise of the illiberal right.

Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute, with support from a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York)

All are welcome, but please RSVP to Mara Lazda [email protected]

Welcome to our Fall 2018 workshops
at NYU Center for European & Mediterranean Studies
Fridays 4:30 to 6:00pm

September 28
Betul Balkan Eksi
Robert G. James Scholar Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University
and
Elizabeth A. Wood
Professor, Department of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Charismatic Masculine Leadership and Right-Wing Populism in Turkey and Russia: The Cases of Vladimir Putin and Recep T. Erdoğan

 (This event is co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University as part of its Russian Studies & Policy series and supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.)

October 12
Christopher Edling
Lecturer, Expository Writing Program, New York University
Bride Kidnapping in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan: Parallels and Divergences​

November 2
Agnieszka Kościańska
Associate Professor,  Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw
From ‘the ordinary recklessness of girls’ to #MeToo: 
Tracing changes of legal and discursive practices around sexual violence in Poland

December 14
Pavel Vasilyev
Polonsky Academy Fellow, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Red Days on the Calendar:
The Politics of Menstruation in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

 (This event is co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University as part of its Russian Studies & Policy series and supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.)

We meet at the Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, NYU, 53 Washington Square South, 3rd floor, 4:30-6 p.m. After the workshop, we usually continue the discussion over an informal dinner, and all are welcome.

All are welcome, but please RSVP:
Mara Lazda [email protected]

Proposals are due July 15.

FOR RUSSIANISTS: the Harriman Institute at Columbia has offered to help pay for applicants’ travel, if a significant part of your research is on Russia and you are willing to also give a talk at Columbia University.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JULY 15, 2018

The GENDER and TRANSFORMATION: WOMEN in EUROPE Workshop—a project at New York University with support from the Network of East-West Women—invites speakers to submit proposals for Friday afternoon talks for the next academic year 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 2018-2019, we are particularly (but not only) interested in speakers addressing gendered dimensions of such issues as ageing, employment, immigration, environment, technology, health, reproduction, sexuality, education, and violence.  The rise of illiberal populism and “anti-genderism” has rolled backed progress on many issues, but women and feminist groups have also fought back, including with their own #MeToo movements and against full criminalization of abortion in Poland. What impact have both feminist and anti-feminist movements had on political practices and institutions? What are the moral and ethical implications of these issues and related policies?

The workshop’s focus is on the postcommunist countries of East, South and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, including the Baltic countries and Central Asia, and their relationship to Europe and the European Union. Recent workshops have included such topics as critique of law faculties in Eastern Europe, women’s protests in Poland against banning abortion completely, and anti-genderism in Germany, Moldova, Armenia, and Russia.  Recent speakers have included Mieke Verloo and Julie A. Cassiday.

The workshop is an informal and friendly group of about 20 feminist scholars, activists, and journalists who have been meeting for more than two decades 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, 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 on to the spring coordinators Nanette Funk and Sonia Jaffe Robbins)

Join us for our final workshop this semester, on April 27

Olena Nikolayenko
associate professor of political science,
Fordham University

“Women on the Maidan:
Gender and the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine”

Olena Nikolayenko is associate professor of political science at Fordham University. She is also an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. Nikolayenko received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Toronto and has held visiting appointments at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University; the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Princeton University; and the Department of Sociology, the National University of Kyiv–Mohyla Academy, Ukraine. Her research interests include comparative democratization, social movements, political behavior, women’s activism, and youth, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. In her recent book, Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2017), she examined tactical interactions between nonviolent youth movements and incumbent governments in five post-communist states: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, and Ukraine. Her articles have appeared in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Comparative Sociology, Europe-Asia Studies, The International Political Science Review, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Youth and Society, and other journals.

It is ESSENTIAL that you RSVP to Sonia Jaffe Robbins so that we can leave your name with security at the front desk.
We meet at the Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, NYU, 53 Washington Square South, 3rd floor, 4:30-6 p.m. (unless otherwise noted). After the workshop, we usually continue the discussion over an informal dinner, and all are welcome.

**Please Note:
The following meeting, March 26, will be on Monday!!**

 Join us for the fourth workshop this semester, on Monday, March 26

Mieke Verloo
professor of Comparative Politics and Inequality Issues,
Radboud University, The Netherlands
director of the multidisciplinary research hotspot Gender and Power in Politics and Management; affiliated with Gender and Diversity Studies

“Understanding Varieties of Opposition to Gender Equality in Europe”

Professor Mieke Verloo is an expert in the fields of gender and politics. She is professor of Comparative Politics and Inequality Issues at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and nonresidential Permanent Fellow at the IWM, Institute for Human Sciences, in Vienna. In 2015, she won the ECPG (European Conference on Politics and Gender)’s Gender and Politics Career Achievement Award. As scientific director of large research projects on gender equality policy making in Europe, she headed the team that produced the final report for the Quality in Gender+ Policy Project, and has edited Multiple Meanings of Gender Equality: A Critical Frame Analysis of Gender Policies in Europe as part of the MAGEEQ Project. She has extensive consultancy and training experience on gender mainstreaming and intersectionality for several European governments and institutions. Her current research is on feminist politics, the meaning of gender in gender policy, and on the opposition to intersectional gender equality in Europe.

*It is ESSENTIAL that you RSVP to Nanette Funk <[email protected]> or Sonia Jaffe Robbins <[email protected]> so that we can leave your name with security at the front desk.
We meet at the Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, NYU, 53 Washington Square South, 3rd floor East, 4:30-6 p.m. After the workshop, we usually continue the discussion over an informal dinner, and all are welcome.

Join us for our third workshop this semester, on March 9.*

Natalie Cornett
Ph.D. candidate in Modern European History
Brandeis University

“TV-PiS: The Right Wing Takeover of Polish Media
from a Feminist Perspective”

Natalie Cornett is a Ph.D. candidate at Brandeis University, in modern European history. Her work focuses on women’s groups in 19th-century Europe and the provisional title of her dissertation is “The Politics of Love: Narcyza Żmichowska and the Enthusiasts of Nineteenth-Century Poland.” After intensive study of the Polish language in 2005, she got her B.A. in history at the University of Toronto, a master’s in cultural studies at Jagiellonian University 
in Krakow, Poland, and began her Ph.D. studies at Brandeis in 2014. She has presented talks at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) conference and last year’s Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, as well as being a panelist at the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, and co-organizing and being at panelist at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute’s seminar “Women as Agents of Change? Fresh Perspectives on Gender and Religion.” Her research and teaching interests include nationalism, social power dynamics and the history of women and sexuality. Living in Warsaw, Poland, while completing the research for her dissertation, has prompted her to examine her topic for today’s talk.

*It is ESSENTIAL that you RSVP to Sonia Jaffe Robbins <[email protected]> so that we can leave your name with security at the front desk.
We meet at the Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, NYU, 53 Washington Square South, 3rd floor, 4:30-6 p.m. After the workshop, we usually continue the discussion over an informal dinner, and all are welcome.