Gender and sexuality in the context of post-Soviet states

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction to gender and sexuality in the Post-Soviet states (07.10.2021)  

Required reading:  

·                   Ghodsee, Kristen. 2004. ‘Feminism-by-Design: Emerging Capitalisms, Cultural Feminism, and Women’s Nongovernmental Organizations in Postsocialist Eastern Europe’. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29 (3): 727–53. https://doi.org/10.1086/380631.      

PART I Central and Eastern European post-Soviet states      

Week 2: Gender, LGBTQI+ and feminism in Russia and Ukraine (14.10.2021)

Topics: gender, feminisms, anti-gender, patriarchy  

Discussion Leaders: students    

Required reading:  

·                   Hrycak, Alexandra. 2006. ‘Foundation Feminism and the Articulation of Hybrid Feminisms in Post-Socialist Ukraine’. East European Politics and Societies: And Cultures 20 (1): 69–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325405284249.

·                   Kizenko, Nadieszda. 2013. ‘Feminized Patriarchy? Orthodoxy and Gender in Post-Soviet Russia’. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38 (3): 595–621. https://doi.org/10.1086 /668516.

·                   Kondakov, Alexander. 2010. ‘Heteronormativity of the Russian Legal Discourse: The Silencing, Lack, and Absence of Homosexual Subjects in Law and Policies’. Sortuz: Oñati Journal of Emergent Socio-Legal Studies 4 (2): 4–23.

·                   Shevtsova, Maryna. 2020. ‘Fighting “Gayropa”: Europeanization and Instrumentalization of LGBTI Rights in Ukrainian Public Debate’. Problems of Post-Communism 67 (6): 500–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2020.1716807.        

Further reading:  

·                   Zychowicz, Jessica. 2011. ‘Two Bad Words: FEMEN & Feminism in Independent Ukraine’. Anthropology of East Europe Review 29 (2): 215–27.

·                   Hrycak, Alexandra, and Maria G. Rewakowicz. 2009. ‘Feminism, Intellectuals and the Formation of Micro-Publics in Postcommunist Ukraine’. Studies in East European Thought 61 (4): 309–33.

·                   Johnson, Janet Elise, and Aino Saarinen. 2013. ‘Twenty-First-Century Feminisms under Repression: Gender Regime Change and the Women’s Crisis Center Movement in Russia’. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38 (3): 543–67. https://doi.org/10.1086 /668515.

·                   Temkina, Anna, and Elena Zdravomyslova. 2014. ‘Gender’s Crooked Path: Feminism Confronts Russian Patriarchy’. Current Sociology 62 (2): 253–70. https://doi.org/10.1177 /0011392113515566.    

Week 3:  Women’s and LGBTQI+ roles in Belarus and Moldova (21.10.2021)

Topics: gender, migration, anti-gender, LGBTQI+, gender education, LGBTQI+/QUEER hate  

Discussion Leaders: students    

Required readings:  

·                   Abiala, Kristina. 2014. ‘11. Young Moldovan Women at the Crossroads: Between Patriarchy and Transnational Labour Markets’. Huddinge: Södertörn University, 269–89.

·                   Bortnik, Viachaslau. 2007. ‘Hate Crimes against Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People in Belarus’. Mirovni Institute, 363–75.

·                   Shchurko, Tatsiana. 2018. ‘“Gender Education” in the Post-Soviet Belarus: Between Authoritarian Power, Neoliberal Ideology, and Democratic Institutions’. Policy Futures in Education 16 (4): 434–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210317719779.

Further readings:  

·                   ‘Study on Homophobia, Transphobia and Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Sociological Report: Moldova’. n.d. The Danish Institute for Human Rights. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.coe.int/t/Commissioner/Source /LGBT/MoldovaSociological_E.pdf.

·                   Denny, Edith. 2020. ‘The Silencing of Women in Belarus’. The IWI: International Women’s Initiative. https://www.theiwi.org/gpr-reports/women-in-belarus.      

Week 4: No class (Czech Independence Day 28.10.2021)        

Week 5: Gender and sexuality in post-Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (4.11. 2021)

 Topics: anti-gender, anti-LGBTQI+, gender roles, feminism, patriarchy  

Discussion Leaders: students  

Required readings:  

·                   Koobak, Redi. 2018. ‘Narrating Feminisms: What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Feminism in Estonia?’ Gender, Place & Culture 25 (7): 1010–24. https://doi.org/10.1080 /0966369X.2018.1471048.

·                   Vizgunova, Elizabete, and Elīna Graudiņa. 2020. ‘The Trouble with “Gender” in Latvia: Europeanisation Through the Prism of the Istanbul Convention’. Baltic Journal of Law & Politics 13 (1): 108–39. https://doi.org/10.2478/bjlp-2020-0005.

·                   Jurėnienė, Virginija. 2010. ‘Gender Roles in Lithuanian Society’. Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research 10 (6).https://socialscienceresearch.org/index.php/GJHSS/article/view/90.    

Further readings:  

·                   Kaskla, Edgar. 2003. ‘The National Woman: Constructing Gender Roles in Estonia’. Journal of Baltic Studies 34 (3): 298–312.

·                   Pelz, Michael E. 2016. ‘Europeanization, National Party Systems and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights: The Cases of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania’. Thesis. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/73120.    

Week 6: Gender and sexuality in post-Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (part II) (11.11. 2021)

Topics: anti-gender, anti-LGBTQI+, gender roles, feminism, patriarchy  

Discussion Leaders: students    

Required readings:  

·                   Tiidenberg, Katrin, and Airi-Alina Allaste. 2020. ‘LGBT Activism in Estonia: Identities, Enactment and Perceptions of LGBT People’. Sexualities 23 (3): 307–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460718797262.

·                   O’Dwyer, Conor, and Katrina Z S Schwartz. 2010. ‘Minority Rights after EU Enlargement: A Comparison of Antigay Politics in Poland and Latvia’. Comparative European Politics 8 (2):  220–43. https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2008.31.

·                   Buschmann, Dovainė. 2018. ‘Worse than Communism? Discursive Anti-Gender Mobilizations in Lithuania’. Informacijos Mokslai 80 (July): 31–49. https://doi.org/10.15388 /Im.2017.80.11670.  

Further readings:  

·                   Pelz, Michael E. 2016. ‘Europeanization, National Party Systems and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights: The Cases of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania’. Thesis. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/73120.             15.11.2021 Discussion paper on ‘how gender regime is different in your country than the countries we have already analysed’?                    

PART II Central Asian post-Soviet states    

Week 7: Gendering after postsocialism in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan (18.11. 2021)  

Topics: women’s role,, development, LGBTQI+, empowered womyn  

Discussion Leaders:    

Required readings:  

·                   Harris, Colette. 2011. ‘State Business: Gender, Sex and Marriage in Tajikistan’. Central Asian Survey 30 (1): 97–111. http

Annotation

ATTENTION:

This class will be taught online and students must attend the class by joining the online classrooms.(The student registrations made after 07.10.2021 will not be accepted! It is mandatory to attend the first lecture!)

In this course, we explore the historical, social, economic and cultural developments of gender and sexuality in the former Soviet Union countries. We shall analyse these countries after 1991 up to our today’s contemporary debates. These concerns have gained renewed feminist attention in the post-socialist era. What does it mean to construct gender and sexuality in the ruins of post-socialism, and how do these countries react to the contemporary feminist movements? These questions will take us to theories of sexism, and colonialism as much as gender and sexuality and post-socialism studies. How do gender regimes differ in each context? Are these gender regimes compatible? How do these regimes differ in the context of the Baltics, Caucasus, Central Asia and other states? How does the Soviet past play a significant role in the anti-gender agenda? What role does the anti-gender agenda play a role in the societal order of these post-Soviet countries?

The course will proceed through engaging case studies and an exercise of peer education and presentation that will take us out of the formal education to expand our sensorium and train our research skills.