POSTSOCIALISM IN INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

WHY ‚POSTSOCIALISM‘ MATTERS NOW?

Kateřina Kolářová

Office hours: Thu, 2:30-3:30

Deconstructing the transitology paradigm

3.10. Introductions

Guest lecture: Redi Koobak, „Troubling the transnational feminist framework: Intersections of feminisms, postsocialism and neoliberalism in the Estonian context“

10.10. Transitology paradigm as an imperial framework?

Discussion of Redi Koobak’s talk

Funk, Nanette. “A Very Tangled Knot: Official State Socialist Women’s Organizations, Women’s Agency and Feminism in Eastern European State Socialism.” European Journal of Women’s Studies21, no. 4 (November 2014): 344–60. doi:10.1177/1350506814539929.

Lukic´, Jasmina. „One Socialist Story, or How I Became a Feminist“ in Haan, Francisca de, Kristen Ghodsee, Krassimira Daskalova, Magdalena Grabowska, Jasmina Lukić, Chiara Bonfiglioli, Raluca Maria Popa, and Alexandra Ghit. "Ten Years After: Communism and Feminism Revisited." Aspasia 10, no. 1 (2016): 135-145

17.10. – Transitology and the constructions of the East/ern Europe

!! NOTE !! Double class: 12-14, and 14.15-16.15

I: Constructions of East/ern Europe

Sztompka, Piotr. 1996. ”Looking back: the year of 1989 as a cultural and civilizational break.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 29.2:115–29.

Hoffman, Eva. „Czechoslovakia“, Exit into History. A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe. Penguin Books, 1993, pp. 120-189. (travelogue)

II: Race, disability and gender of ‚Eastern Europe‘

Kayiatos, Anastasia. “Shock and Alla: Capitalist Cures for Socialist Perversities at the End of the Twentieth Century.” Lambda Nordica 4 (2012): 33-64.

Kovačević, Nataša. “Ethnicizing guilt Humanitarian imperialism and the case of (for) Yugoslavia.” Narrating post/communism: Colonial Discourse and Europe's Borderline Civilization. Routledge, 2008, pp. 156-188

24.10. Transnational circuits and the free market

Verdery, Katherine. “A Transition from Socialism to Feudalism? Thoughts on the Postsocialist State”, What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 204-228

Mandel, Ruth Ellen and Caroline Humphrey. Markets and Moralities: Ethnographies of Postsocialism. New York; Oxford, UK. Berg, 2002; chapter will be specified

31.10. Sex traffic in wo/men of East

Suchland, Jennifer. Economies of Violence: Transnational Feminism, Postsocialism,

and the Politics of Sex Trafficking. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015; chapter will be specified

Parvulescu, Anca. The Traffic in Women's Work: East European Migration and the

Making of Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014; chapter will be specified

In-class: excerpts from Victor Grodecki’s films

7.11. Opening and Closing of Borders, EU

Dzenovska, Dace. School of Europeanness. Tolerance and Other Lessons in Political Liberalism in Latvia. Cornell UP. 2018; ch. 6 “Repression and Redemption: The Tensions of Rebordering Europe”, pp. 174-206.

Popescu, Monica. “Lewis Nkosi in Warsaw: Translating Eastern European Experiences for an African Audience.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 48, no. 2, May 2012, pp. 176–187.

14.11. – no class

21. 11. – no class

28.11. Postsocialist dispossessions, continued

Humphrey, Caroline. The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies After Socialism / Caroline Humphrey. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002., ch. will be specified

Ladányi, János. "Changing Forms of Ethnicised Poverty: Reflections on Loïc Wacquant’s Article." Urban Studies 53, no. 6 (2016): 1104-1107.

5.12. Moral economies of postsocialist justice

Harper, Krista, Tamara Steger, and Richard Filčák. "Environmental Justice and Roma Communities in Central and Eastern Europe." Environmental Policy and Governance 19, no. 4 (2009): 251-268.

Kóczé, Angéla, and Márton Rövid. „Roma and the Politics of Double Discourse in Contemporary Europe.“ Identities, 24. 6 (2017): 684-700.

12.12.: New civic movements

Phillips, Sarah D. Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine.

Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2011, ch. 3

Petrus Liu, Queer Marxism in Two chinas, ch. 5: „Queer Human Rights in and

against the Two Chinas“, pp. 138-170

Victoria Lomasco, Other Russias, excerpts from graphic novel

19.12. „Bad developments“ in Eastern Europe

TBA

9.1. Conclusion

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CLASS:

General requirements

Attendance is required and is actually crucial to the community-building in which we’ll be engaged over the course of the semester, exchanging ideas and learning from each other. Your participation grade will be impacted if you have more than two unexcused absences. Please do not Text/Tweet/Facebook during class; again, your grade will be impacted if you do so. Of course many students learn best with their laptops; laptops are acceptable if you are one of those learners, but don’t use your laptop to be online. You cannot be using your phones and other devices in the class.

Come prepared: You are also expected to read the material carefully and critically and to attend every class. Participation is central component of this class; you are required to come well prepared for discussion. My expectation is that everyone will take part in each of our discussions. Prepared and active attendance is part of your grade.

Also, have your own questions ready to all the texts (even if you are not a presenter). Easy questions, comprehension questions, or more theoretical queries you have. Our in-class discussions will rely on your questions

In-class presentations

Each class is based upon the discussion of readings and additional material provided by the teacher. The presenters are responsible for preparing assigned texts for discussion and for moderating the in-class debates of the materials. (Group-work)

The presentation should consist of: summarising main thesis and argument of the text(s), drawing a link to the topics of the class and present a list of questions that the text raises and that you, as the presenter, want us to discuss and think about in the class.

Presenters will prepare a handout that will list the above (1-2 pages; Please do no prepare longer handouts!!!!)

I will be happy to meet with you in the week previous to the class and discuss the handouts, questions and organisation of the class.

Final essay:

You are welcomed to write either a more theoretically focused on engaging with/critical discussion of the texts we have been discussing in the class, or to use the texts for your own analysis of primary material of your own choosing.

The only rules to observe: use at least 3 sources from the literature of the course, cite properly (also following citation style of your choosing, i.e MLA, Chicago, Harvard etc., be consistent!), observe the lenght of the essay (10-15 standard pages, i.e. 300 words/page) and hand in the essay on time. The deadline 20 January.

Proposal due 28 November!!!