Complete series details and registration links at https://myumi.ch/RpDJX

Moderator: Emily Channell-Justice, Director, Temerty Program on Contemporary Ukraine, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

Speakers:

Simone Bellezza, Assistant Professor of Modern History, Department of Social Sciences, University of Naples Federico

Tamar Shirinian, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Tennessee Knoxville

Vladislav Beronja, Assistant Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, University of Texis at Austin

Jasmina Tumbas, Associate Professor, Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Buffalo

Many efforts have been made over the past several years to diversify Eastern European and Eurasian studies. This new spotlight surfaces research that has been conducted by many scholars for much longer, highlighting their commitment to telling stories and honoring perspectives of diverse and minority communities. Their work reveals that while there is no unified queer experience in the region, there is often a one-size-fits all state response to the reality of queer lives in many nations within the region. How can a queer-studies focus advance conversations about decolonization in East European and Eurasian Studies? To address this question, Queer Focus will have six virtual panels featuring speakers from various disciplines and institutions. Panelists and participants will explore how gendered regimes were constitutive of Russo-centric relationships of power, defining the region and how we study it, as we collectively grapple with what it means to re-examine our current research, teaching, and institutional practices.

Panel 1 of the series will provide a state of the field of queer studies within Eurasia and Eastern Europe.