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. All recordings for this series can also be found on the Bodies in Focus playlist.
November 8. Why Bodies Matter
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am – 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
Moderator: Vitaly Chernetsky, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies & University of Kansas
Speakers: Maria Cristina Galmarini, William & Mary
Pawel Lewicki, Independent Scholar
Darya Tsymbalyuk, University of Chicago
November 15. New Directions in Research
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am – 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
Moderator: Maria Cristina Galmarini, William & Mary
Speakers: Katharina Wiedlack, University of Vienna
Gala Kornienko, The Ohio State University
January 24. Endangered Bodies & Activism
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am – 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
Moderator: Darya Tsymbalyuk, University of Chicago
Speakers: Oksana Kazmina, Syracuse University
Zhanar Sekerbayeva, Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative “Feminita”
January 31. Emerging Scholars on Body Studies
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am – 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
Moderator: Pawel Lewicki, Independent Scholar
Speakers:
Masha Beketova, Humboldt University, Berlin
Oksana Potapova, London School of Economics
Alexa Tignall-Kurmanova, UC Berkeley
Volha Verbilovich, University of Massachusetts Amherst
February 7. Centering the Body in Pedagogy & Teaching
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am – 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
Moderator: Fran Bernstein, New York University
Speakers:
Linda Lapina, Roskilde University
Nadiya Chushak, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
February 21. Body Matters & Liberation in East European and Eurasian Studies
11:00 am – 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am – 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
Moderators: Sarah Phillips, Indiana University
Speakers:
Bolaji Balogun, SOAS University of London
Cassandra Hartblay, University of Toronto
Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, University of Pennsylvania
Daria Krivonos, University of Helsinki
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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 Tsymbalyuk, 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
For Accommodations:
Captioning will be provided during all sessions and recordings will be made available on CSEEES at Ohio State’s YouTube channel within a few days after the sessions take place. If you have any questions about accessibility or wish to request additional accommodations, please contact CSEEES at cseees@osu.edu. Typically, a two weeks’ notice will allow us to provide access, but we will try to accommodate requests that come in after the two-week mark.