Course co-directors: Oksana Kis (Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena) and Zsófia Lóránd (University of Vienna)
This course focuses on the history of feminist movements, feminist ideas, and women’s rights in the broader region of Eastern and Central Europe, with special emphasis on Ukraine. Moments of feminist history in the rest of the region complement and enter into dialogue with the history of feminism and women’s rights in Ukraine. The course will cover different definitions of feminism and women’s participation over time and across countries. We will look at feminism in relation to in relation to nation-building enterprises of the late 19th century; its entanglements and contradictions with socialism and nationalism throughout the 20th century; the role of state socialist women’s emancipation; women’s place in communist women’s organizations and dissident movements; “East–West” feminist conversations around 1989 and in the 1990s; feminism in the post-transition era; and finish with the current feminist stances vis-a-vis the Russia war against Ukraine. Disciplinary frameworks of the course: history, sociology, cultural studies, politics, and society.