Selin Çağatay/ Mia Liinason/ Olga Sasunkevich: Transnationalizing Spaces of Resistance. Feminist and LGBTI+ Activism across Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey

Gender Talks, 20 October, 2021 6 pm

What do struggles for women's and LGBTI+ rights in Russia, Turkey and the Scandinavian countries have in common? And what can actors who struggle for rights and justice in these contexts learn from each other? Based on a multisited ethnography of feminist and LGBTI+ activisms across Russia, Turkey and the Scandinavian countries, this presentation shares the findings from a transnational research project, exploring transnational struggles on various levels, from the micro-scale of the everyday to large-scale, spectacular events.

Drawing on ethnographic insights and encounters from various sites, we conceptualize resistance as situated in the grey zone between barely perceptible, even hidden or covert, forms of mundane activist practices, and highly visible street protests gathering large crowds. As we move beyond the dichotomies of visible/invisible and public/private, we advance new understandings of resistance, solidarity, and activism in transnationalizing feminist and queer struggles, illustrated by rich ethnographic case studies from Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey.

Speakers

 

Selin ÇaÄŸatay is a postdoctoral researcher in the international project ZARAH: Women’s labour activism in Eastern Europe and transnationally, from the age of empires to the late 20th century at the Department of Gender Studies and Department of History, Central European University, Austria. Her current research concerns gender politics and equality struggles in Turkey from historical and transnational perspectives, with a focus on activist agendas, organizational forms, and political strategies. Before joining CEU, she was a postdoctoral fellow in gender studies in the research project Spaces of resistance. A study of gender and sexualities in times of transformation at the Department of Cultural Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Mia Liinason is Professor of Gender Studies at Lund University. She is interested in exploring transnational exchanges and movements across borders. She leads the project Spaces of Resistance, examining feminist and LGBTI+ activism in Scandinavia, Russia and Turkey. She is also director of TechnAct: Transformations of Struggle, a research cluster devoted to the interconnections between digital technologies and feminist and queer communities in transnational space.

Olga Sasunkevich is Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Gothenburg. She is a researcher in the project Spaces of Resistance with a focus on feminist and LGBTI+ activism in Russia in the transnational perspective. Her research interests include feminist and LGBTI+ politics, gender and sexuality in Eastern Europe.

Chair

Sabine Grenz  is Assoc. Professor for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Vienna and Head of the Gender Research Office.

 

Online lecture - please register

  • Lecture in English
  • Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2021, 6 pm
  • Guests join via Zoom only. 
  • Zoom-meeting-url will be sent to registered e-mail address.
  • Speakers and chairs will be presenting from Erika-Weinzierl-Hall (University of Vienna, 1., Universitätsstraße 1) 

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