All posts by Tatiana Klepikova

ABSTRACTS DUE: APRIL 10, 2019

We look for 1-2 papers for the special issue with the thematic focus Postsocialist Revolutions of Intimacy: Sexuality, Rights and Backlash. These should be original articles that were not published before in any language. All the articles will be submitted to peer-review by the external reviewers. However, the final decision about accepting or rejecting the article will be taken by the publishers of the “Sexuality & Culture”.

FULL PAPER DUE: MAY 15, 2019FINAL PAPER SUBMISSION DUE (AFTER PEER REVIEW/REVISION): AUGUST 15 2019
Aim and relevance: the proposed special issue combines historical perspective with the contemporary analysis to explore challenges and outcomes of post-socialist “sexual revolutions” across the Central and Eastern Europe. It addresses the changes in norms and practices of intimacy in several postsocialist countries questioning the causes of the current political developments and their implications for the region. As this collection of articles tackles existing tensions between processes of democratization in the sphere of sexuality and rights on the one hand and growing resistance, in particular, so-called anti-gender movements in postsocialist societies, we believe it fits nicely to the scope of “Post-Soviet Affairs”. 
The common theme of the volume: the volume is dedicated to the analysis of changes with respect to intimacies and sexualities after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc. It explores the idea of the “sexual revolution” in connection to the events of the 1990s. Indeed, the political space was fast transformed from the space where “there was no sex” into a space obsessed with sexual symbols and discussions on sexual identities. The popular culture representations of sex and desire became a part of the mediatized everyday, talk-shows openly discussed hetero and homosexual stories, commercial sex was openly advertised and NGOs defending sexual minority rights became publicly visible. Read More

Deadline: March 1, 2019

Cardiff University, UK, 19 September 2019

In light of the rising rhetoric of ‘traditional values’ in parts of Western and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, this one-day event calls for an examination of what this conservative turn and the rise of illiberal political regimes imply for the voices of marginalised and alternative sexualities[1] and their representations in the former Eastern bloc and beyond.

The symposium asks how analyses of historical legacies, cultural trends and geographical location might help us to understand and re/conceptualise alternative sexualities in the post-Soviet region and Europe at present, that is, how the way that queerness is coded responds to shifting sociopolitical, cultural and legal landscapes. The goal of the event is to bring together different strands of interdisciplinary research on sexuality and contribute to a dialogue between communities that have developed around them across the post-Soviet region and Europe. Read More

Deadline: March 15, 2019

On both popular and academic levels, interest in drag culture has exploded since the reality-competition television series RuPaul’s Drag Race first aired in 2009 on Logo TV in the US. With the migration of the series to VH1 and global availability through streaming services such as Netflix, drag has become even more ensconced in mainstream popular culture, thus moving even further from earlier understandings of drag as a subculture of queer protest and/or limited to the gay club environment. Read More

Overcoming Hegemonies and Hierarchies: Towards a more Horizontal and Transnational Geographies of Sexualities

Prague, 26-28 September 2019

Call for Abstracts and Sessions (CfA and CfS)

Deadline: Sessions by March 1, 2019 Abstracts by April 15

Many authors now recognize existing Anglophone and Eurocentric epistemological hegemonies (Blažek & Rochovská, 2006; Brown & Browne, 2016, Kulpa & Silva, 2016) as well as racial, class and gender privilege in the production of knowledge (Taylor 2013; Johnston 2018). However, we have been less concrete in identifying actual barriers and stayed largely silent about the actual ways, tools and/or courageous visions by which it would be possible to overcome and/or deconstruct these barriers (Kulpa & Silva, 2016; Timár & G.Fekete, 2010; Tlostanova, 2014). Silencing subjects, ridiculing themes and studies, restricting access to resources, and perpetuating language fetishism are only a few examples of how these hierarchies are played out. Despite the acknowledgments, the hegemony of this knowledge production continues to have a substantial impact on the shape of (not only European) discourses and power relations within feminist, gender, sexuality and queer studies. Read More