The Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies

is pleased to cosponsor the virtual event series:

January 19 - March 15, 2024

Virtually on Zoom

The six-part virtual event series “Queer Focus” will examine queer studies within Eurasia through a variety of disciplines and themes. 

The impacts of war can be felt far beyond the actual battlefield. Russia’s war against Ukraine has set off historic levels of migration, in addition to huge environmental and economic impacts. Modern war also disproportionately affects gender and sexual minorities, something we are seeing in Ukraine even as Putin's anti-LGBTQ+ agenda seeks to relentlessly drive support for the war at home. How can a queer-studies focus advance conversations about decolonization in East European and Eurasian studies? To address this question, “Queer Focus” will have six virtual panels featuring speakers from various disciplines and institutions. Panelists and participants will explore how gendered regimes were constitutive of Russo-centric relationships of power, defining the region and how we study it, as we collectively grapple with what it means to re-examine our current research, teaching, and institutional practices.

This series was developed and implemented by the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, and the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) at The Ohio State University with support from the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies. 

Panels

Panel 1: Overview/State of the Field

Friday, January 19, 2024

11:00-12:30 pm

Moderator: Emily Channell-Justice, Director, Temerty Program on Contemporary Ukraine, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

Speakers:



• Simone Bellezza, Assistant Professor of Modern History, Department of Social Sciences, University of Naples Federico II
• Tamar Shirinian, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Tennessee Knoxville 
• Vladislav Beronja, Assistant Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas at Austin
• Jasmina Tumbas, Associate Professor, Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Buffalo



Panel 2: History and Archives

Friday, January 26, 2024

11:00-12:30 pm

Moderator: Anita Kurimay, Associate Professor of History / Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Bryn Mawr College

Speakers:



• Feruza Aripova, Visiting Scholar, Columbia University
• Kamil Karczewski, Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University College London
• Irina Roldugina, UCIS Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh
• Roman Utkin, Assistant Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Wesleyan University

Panel 3: Arts & Culture

Friday, February 2, 2024

11:00-12:30p m

Moderator: Philip Gleissner, Assistant Professor, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University

Speakers: 



• Ramona Dima, Associate Professor, Center for Gender Studies, University of Stavanger
• Luc Beaudoin, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Denver 
• Maria Engstrom, Professor of Russian, Department of Modern Languages, University of Uppsala
• Aleksandra Gajowy, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, School of Art History and Cultural Policy, University College Dublin 



Panel 4: Politics & Law

Friday, February 16, 2024

11:00-12:30 pm

Moderator: Helene Thibault, Associate Professor of Political Science, Nazarbayev University

Speakers: 



• Katalin Fabian, Professor of Government and Law, Lafayette College
• Jennifer Suchland, Associate Professor, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State University
• Marianna Muravyeva, Professor of Law, University of Helsinki
• Piro Rexhepi, Independent Researcher 



Panel 5: Migration

Friday, March 1, 2024

11:00-12:30 pm

Moderator: Alexandra Novitskaya, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University

Speakers: 

• Randall Rowe, Assistant Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Cincinnati
• Yevgeny Shtorn, Doctoral Candidate in Political, Societal, and Cultural Change, University of Helsinki 
• Mariya Levitanus, Lecturer in Counseling and Psychotherapy, University of Edinburgh 
• Maryna Shevtsova, FWO Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Panel 6: Activism

Friday, March 15, 2024

11:00-12:30 pm

Moderator: Lyosha Gorshkov, Director of LGBTQ+ Initiatives, Colgate University 

Speakers: 



• Shota Kincha, Staff Writer, Open Caucasus Media
• Zhanar Sekerbayeva, Co-Founder, Kazakhstan’s LGBTQ Feminist Initiative “Feminita”
• Mohira Suyarkulove, Associate Professor, Department of International and Comparative Politics, American University of Central Asia 
• Tatsiana Shchurko, Post-Doctoral Scholar, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexualities, Ohio State University



Additional financial support has been provided by:

Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas

Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Michigan

Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill

Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, Indiana University, Bloomington

Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies, Arizona State University

Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington