Bodies in Focus: Power, Subjectivity, and Practice in East European and Eurasian Studies

October 18, 2024

Bodies in Focus: Power, Subjectivity, and Practice in East European and Eurasian Studies

Bodies in Focus logo featuring art of people by different Slavic artists

In partnership with the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with support from the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies, the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) is pleased to announce the 2024-25 iteration of the ASEEES In Focus Lecture Series, "Bodies in Focus."

This six-part virtual event series will examine body matters within Eurasia through a variety of disciplines and themes. The body-as-method has emerged recently to provide novel insights on society, culture, and identity by foregrounding alternatives to Western traditions that marginalized the corporeal dimensions of social and personal existence.

  • Why is the body good “to think with” on both intellectual and professional matters?
  • How do classed, diversely abled, gendered, and raced bodies interact in the daily lives we study or inhabit through our avocations? 
  • What is the continuously evolving relationship between the body and the body politic, whether the nation, empire, the EU, or NATO?
  • Is research and teaching disembodying and can recentering “embodied and uncomfortable knowledge” therefore move liberation in East European and Eurasian Studies forward?

To address these questions, "Bodies in Focus" will have six virtual, recorded panels featuring speakers from various disciplines and institutions. Panelists and the audience will explore how bodies matter for the study and teaching of East European and Eurasian social and material environments, our understanding of power and equity, and for the cultivation of human capacities in our field.

Lecture Schedule

Friday, November 8, 2024: Why Bodies Matter, 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST

Moderator: 

  • Vitaly Chernetsky, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies & U. of Kansas

Speakers: 

  • Maria Cristina Galmarini, The College of William & Mary 
  • Pawel Lewicki, Independent Scholar
  • Darya Tsymbaluk, U. of Chicago 

Friday, November 15, 2024: New Directions in Research, 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST

Moderator: 

  • Maria Cristina Galmarini, The College of William & Mary 

Speakers: 

  • Katharina Wiedlack, U. of Vienna
  • Gala Kornienko, Ohio State U.

Friday, January 24, 2025: Endangered Bodies & Activism, 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST

Moderator: 

  • Darya Tsymbaluk, U. of Chicago

Speakers: 

  • Zhanar Sekerbayeva, Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative “Feminita”
  • Oksana Kazmina, Kone Foundation (Finland)
  • Aydin Khalilov, Independent Living Center for People with Disability (Azerbaijan)

Friday, January 31, 2025: Emerging Scholars on Body Studies, 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST

Friday, February 7, 2025: Centering the Body in Pedagogy & Teaching, 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST

Friday, February 21, 2025: Body Matters & Liberation in East European and Eurasian Studies, 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM EST


This series was developed and implemented by the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies at The Ohio State University, and the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with support from the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies. The organizing institutions thank our scholarly consultants Maria Cristina Galmarini, Darya Tsymbaluk, and Pawel Lewicki for shaping this initiative intellectually in collaboration with us.

CO-SPONSORS

  • Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas
  • Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas
  • Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill
  • The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University
  • Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, The George Washington University
  • Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
  • Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Russian, East European, and Eurasia Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign