This lecture is part of the Area Studies Showcase Lecture Series: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. It is being hosted by the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
This lecture will be presented online via Zoom. Registration in advance is required.
Abstract: In this talk Dr. Chelsi West Ohueri will explore the contours of antiziganism, conceptualized as racism and prejudice against Romani people groups, in Albania and the Balkan region. Part one of the presentation considers the theoretical framings of antiziganism and asks how analyses of antiblackness can allow scholars to think through contemporary manifestations of antiziganism in the Balkan region. Part two of the talk explores whiteness in relation to antiziganism and antiblackness. In doing so, Dr. West Ohueri draws attention to the ways that Albanians have been racialized and othered as outcasts and outsiders both within Europe and the Balkans, and askes how this broadly shapes our understandings of whiteness and regional racialization.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Chelsi West Ohueri is a cultural anthropologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies with appointments in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. Her scholarship and teaching are primarily concerned with the study of racialization, marginalization, and structural inequality. She has conducted extensive ethnographic research throughout Albania and is interested in configurations of race and belonging among Albanian, Romani, and Egyptian communities in Southeastern Europe. She also examines categories of whiteness and blackness as they are produced and reproduced throughout Europe and across the globe. West Ohueri is currently completing her ethnographic book project about this research.
About the Series: This lecture series is a collaborative effort to showcase an area studies specialist from each center focusing on the Russian, East European, and Central Asia world region. The series is sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University; the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; the Russian, East European & Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana University; the Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at the University of Michigan; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin; the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center at Indiana University; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin - Madison; the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at The University of Chicago; and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies at The Ohio State University.
If you have any questions about accessibility or wish to request accommodations, please contact us at csees@osu.edu. Typically, a two weeks' notice will allow us to provide seamless access.
