Roberto Kulpa
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I am interested in the transnational sexual politics, nationhood and non-normative identities as interlocked with discourses of geography and temporality, and EUropeanization. I am particularly interested in the figurations of 'Central and Eastern Europe' in queer studies and political imaginaries.
Another area concerns the critical epistemologies of knowledge production in social and cultural studies, esp. in the contexts of the hegemonic geographies ('West and the Rest'), and neoliberalisation of education and academic work. Insights from the post-socialist, post-colonial and de-colonial fields are important for me.
Recently I have been reading into 'friendship' and developing questions concerning well-being, resilience, and resistance as modi operandi of marginalised groups during precarious times.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
1.
I am co-Investigator on "RESIST. Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics" (2022-2026) (EU Horizon Europe grant no. 101060749). My roles are to lead on Communication and Dissemination work package and to coordinate the Polish case study.
You can read more about the project on: https://theresistproject.eu
2.
I am Principal Investigator on “Friendship for LGBTIQ+ (Post-)Pandemic Social Resilience” (2022) (Napier’s Strategic Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund) together with Dr Katherine Ludwin (Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust). Please get in touch if you have any questions.
I am interested in the transnational sexual politics, nationhood and non-normative identities as interlocked with discourses of geography and temporality, and EUropeanization. I am particularly interested in the figurations of 'Central and Eastern Europe' in queer studies and political imaginaries.
Another area concerns the critical epistemologies of knowledge production in social and cultural studies, esp. in the contexts of the hegemonic geographies ('West and the Rest'), and neoliberalisation of education and academic work. Insights from the post-socialist, post-colonial and de-colonial fields are important for me.
Recently I have been reading into 'friendship' and developing questions concerning well-being, resilience, and resistance as modi operandi of marginalised groups during precarious times.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
1.
I am co-Investigator on "RESIST. Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics" (2022-2026) (EU Horizon Europe grant no. 101060749). My roles are to lead on Communication and Dissemination work package and to coordinate the Polish case study.
You can read more about the project on: https://theresistproject.eu
2.
I am Principal Investigator on “Friendship for LGBTIQ+ (Post-)Pandemic Social Resilience” (2022) (Napier’s Strategic Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund) together with Dr Katherine Ludwin (Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust). Please get in touch if you have any questions.
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Articles by Roberto Kulpa
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2019.1584578
Method: Case study of a 7-week programme in one London primary school, using ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with parents (n=7) and key stakeholders (n=4), and pre- and post-programme self-completion questionnaires (n=9).
Results: Parents reported increased understanding of the SRE curriculum and awareness of relevant children’s books, enhanced interactions with their children on SRE topics and some positive effects on partners and attitudes towards the school. There was increased confidence in addressing issues in the SRE curriculum for parents of 8- to 10-year-olds, although reduced confidence for one mother.
Conclusions: Familiarising parents with materials has the potential to enhance SRE, by improving coherence between educators’ and parents’ messages to children about sex and relationships, increased discussion of SRE topics in parent–child conversations and reduced parental anxiety about topics such as sexual orientation. Future challenges of involving fathers, scalability and sustainability highlight the dilemma of how best to enable parental choice or make equalities interventions.
Keywords: Children, England, parents, primary education, sex and relationship education, sex education.
Este artículo se centra en las relaciones entre dos categorías geotemporales – Europa Central y Oriental (ECO) y Occidente/Europa – en las discusiones sobre la política sexual, la homofobia, la tolerancia y la nacionalidad. Contribuye a la literatura existente sobre el homonacionalismo y los nacionalismos sexuales al introducir ECO a los sitios geográficos del debate, hasta ahora mayormente invertido en Occidente/Europa y sus relaciones con el Islam. Propone que es importante considerar ECO en los debates de nacionalismo sexual debido a su construcción como el Otro Europeo (homofóbico) en los discursos emergentes de una “Europa homoinclusiva”. El artículo introduce el concepto de pedagogía influida (leveraged pedagogy), el cual captura la especificidad de los discursos de liberación, avance y atraso sexual del Occidente/Europa – ECO. La pedagogía influida es una relación didáctica hegemónica donde la ECO aparece como un objeto de la “pedagogía” del Occidente/Europa, y está enmarcada como permanentemente “post-comunista”, “en transición” (esto es, no liberal, no todavía, no lo suficiente), y homofóbica. Esta manera de “cuidar a” ECO, se argumenta, es una forma de hegemonía del modelo UEuropeo occidental liberal de derechos como el universal.
Keywords: Leveraged pedagogy, homonationalism, sexual nationalism, Central and Eastern Europe, West, cultural hegemony, discourse, European Parliament"
"In a way, the project was about “diagnosing” the situation of hegemonic over-determination of “Central and Eastern European” queer studies and activism by American historical models. In the same time, we wanted to go beyond the simple denotative narrative that might answer the question “What does the life of non-heterosexual people in Central and Eastern Europe look like?” We recognise the importance of providing a factual background, especially as the book is aimed at the English-speaking academic circuit of sexuality studies, where Central and Eastern Europe is not well researched. But simple provision of information is not an antidote to the void in the Western understanding of the sexual politics and studies in Central and Eastern Europe. By taking up the effort of constructing something like a skeleton of the theory of how to explain the differences between ‘the West’ and ‘Eastern Europe,’ we wanted to address the underlying problem (the lack of recognition of Central and Eastern Europe on its own terms) and not only to remedy the symptoms (the lack of academic literature). As ambitious the project was (and is), it was equally destined to be a ‘failed’ one: a project that could never be realised in itself fully. And this has been recognised by both commentators when they write that the book ‘fails’ to do what is flaunted in the title: to de-centre Western sexualities. Intuitive at the time of compiling the book, and more robust now, the failure of such a project was with us from the beginning. Why then do something that is destined to ‘fail,’ one could ask? We hope that the following paragraphs will shed more light on why the supposed ‘failure’ of our de-centring endeavour is indeed the victory that keeps unfolding."""
One of the major issues arising is the almost unquestioned acceptance of the English as the lingua franca of the academic knowledge production process, and indeed, the issues of ‘academic quality’ of/and ‘proper knowledge’...
Book Chapters by Roberto Kulpa
The current organisation of scientific production is prone to an increasing number of encounters between researchers from around the world, due to the expansion of communication networks, air transport, and (supra)national incentives for the internationalisation of intellectual labour (but mostly ‘quantifiable knowledge outputs’). Consequently, the everyday life of academics is not only intersected by cultural, social or economic dynamics, but is made accountable to them, especially in terms of the neoliberal economy (think that ‘a track record of successful grant applications’ requirements in the job ads) (Bailey & Freedman 2011; Collini 2012; Farred 2003; Raunig 2013). We urgently need debates about the flux and exchanges between academics, to understand the risks but also possibilities of rebellion these exchanges and encounters offer to academic communities around the globe. For it is important to not only identify the ‘Anglophone hegemony’ in the scientific world, but - like in the project of ‘decoloniality’ (Bhambra 2014; Mignolo 2011) and ‘critical pedagogy’ (Freire 2000; Giroux 2011) – to also look for alternatives and resistance practices to these hegemonies. As the section editors, we are convinced that each of the chapters here offers such a two-step approach, and will become important reference points to working in broader ‘critical gender & sexuality studies’... [tbc]
Vorrei, pertanto, riflettere su questa fastidiosa percezione dell’Europa “centro-orientale” e porre l’accento sulle differenti sfaccettature di questa regione. Nel dibattito occidentale c’è la tendenza, infatti, a raggruppare indistintamente i Paesi dell’Est e del Centro Europa non solo sul piano storico, sostenendone la comune provenienza dal vecchio blocco sovietico, ma anche sul piano della politica sessuale, disconoscendo in questo modo i passi avanti fatti da alcuni di questi come la Repubblica Ceca, l’Ungheria e la Slovenia che, per esempio, hanno già introdotto forme di riconoscimento delle coppie omosessuali. Le domande, allora, a cui vorrei tentare di dar risposta in questo articolo sono: perché i Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale” sono indiscriminatamente tacciati di omofobia, e perché non vengono mai menzionate le differenze (positive) esistenti? Raffigurarsi tali Paesi in questo modo, quali conseguenze produce nei rapporti di potere tra Europa “centro-orientale” ed Europa “occidentale”? Può la comunità gay occidentale approfittarsi di questa situazione? D’altro canto, è pure importante tenere in considerazione le opportunità che certi discorsi di potere possono originare (anche se solo come effetto collaterale e provvisorio). Per esempio, sarebbe interessante chiedersi se e come le comunità gay e lesbiche dei Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale” possano trarre dei vantaggi da questo tipo di rappresentazione.
The aim of this chapter is to expand on this notion, and search for what can be found in translation that does not exist in either cultural context. Thus we focus on what is brought to life through cultural permeability, exchange, influence, or simple coexistence. The chapter is composed in three parts. Firstly, we provide the reader with a theoretical framework. Secondly, we exemplify the impossibility of the simple cultural translation of "queer" (understood as the predominantly "Western"/American project) into "CEE" realities by analyzing activities of the NGO "Campaign Against Homophobia" (CAH) . Finally, we show strategies that make a productive use of the "locality" in order to mobilize the queer possibilities of activism in "CEE"/Poland, without necessarily attaining to "Western"/American narrations on the example of the on-going campaign "Love Does Not Exclude".
By introducing CEE as a “European context” (thus somehow “Western-ish” since “European” tends to equal “Western”) we would like to pluralize and problemitize the notion of “Western”/”non-Western” (because of its stress on “Central and Eastern” denotation) sexualities. We do so, because we believe that the dichotomy “West”/”non-West” is mostly constructed on the basis of Anglo-American ways of experiencing sexuality, making the “Western experience” the normative one, placed at the centre of a narrative. The most straightforward aim of this book is, thus, to critically assess the current state of knowledge about sexualities outside the all-pervasive framings of the “West”, and focus on their expressions in the “nearby” and still underexplored region of Central and Eastern Europe. By doing so, we proliferate both categories, “West” and “CEE”, and show that it is virtually impossible to foreclose and homogenise them as any sort of coherent entity.
The primary focus of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the contemporary debates surrounding LGBT issues in U.S. politics. It is done by looking at LGBT movements and major issues raised by those communities. First, a historical context is offered, followed by the overview of major problems raised by LGBT movements. These are composed of education, representation, legal regulations, health, and strategies of political action. The next part, “Queer Approaches,” develops the conceptual side of this chapter, discussing identity politics, market economies, sexual citizenship, nationalism, terrorism, and neoimperialism. This chapter concludes with an overview of its contents, indicating development of LGBT and queer (Q) politics and its futures and suggests further readings.
Books by Roberto Kulpa
The thesis is organised around three major research problems: (1) How is homosexuality framed by national discourse (when performed by the nation-state)? (2) How do discourses of homosexuality relate to nationhood (in times of national distress)? (3) How might national/ist rhetoric be present in discourses of LGBT organisations? Methodologically, the thesis is grounded in a case study approach and discourse analysis. Overall, I argue that we may map out the relations between the nationhood and homosexuality through discourses of rejection as well as dependency, oscillating on the continuum between “sameness” and “otherness”. These relations are best described via the concepts of “dis-location”, “be-longing”, “attachment”, and “dis-identification”.
This research is important for at least three reasons. There is a scarcity of work about sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe and a need for more work in this area. Additionally, we have recently witnessed a rise of concern with “homonationalism” in queer studies. Attention to Poland is a valuable addition to this scholarship, which so far is about only the “West” and “Islam”. Finally, it also contributes to nationalism studies, where sexuality is still an under-explored topic, and it offers new insights for scholars interested in Polish nationalism studies.
-----------------
Contents:
Introduction: why study sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe;
Contemporary peripheries': queer studies, circulation of knowledge, and East/West divide, Joanna Mizielinska and Robert Kulpa;
Between walls. Provincialisms, human rights, sexualities and Serbian public discourses on EU integration, Jelisaveta Blagojevic;
Nations and sexualities – 'West' and 'East', Robert Kulpa;
A short history of the queer time of 'post-socialist' Romania, or, are we there yet? Let's ask Madonna, Shannon Woodcock;
Travelling ideas, travelling times. On the temporalities of LGBT and queer politics in Poland and in the 'West', Joanna Mizielinska;
Researching transnational activism around LGBTQ politics in Central and Eastern Europe: activist solidarities and spatial imaginings, Jon Binnie and Christian Klesse;
Rendering gender in lesbian families: a Czech case, Katerina Nedbálková;
The heteronormative panopticon and the transparent closet of the public space in Slovenia, Roman Kuhar;
Heteronormativity, intimate citizenship and the regulation of same-sex sexualities in Bulgaria, Sasha Roseneil and Maryia Stoilova;
Situating intimate citizenship in Macedonia – emotional navigation and everyday queer/KVAR grounded moralities, Alexander Lambevski;
Index.
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Reviews:
'De-Centring Western Sexualities advances critical studies of sexualities and sexual politics in significant and inspiring ways. The authors provocatively question the "Western" focus of sexuality studies and highlight the consequences of Central and Eastern Europe's absence from recent queer critiques. This valuable collection offers essential new perspectives on the marketization of (homo)sexuality and the functioning of heteronormativity in these countries.'
Gavin Brown, University of Leicester, UK, co-editor of Geographies of Sexualities
'De-Centring Western Sexualities is a landmark volume in the study of gender and sexuality. Kulpa and Mizielinska have gathered here and framed some of the very best essays on discourses of sexuality in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Not content to simply mark distinctions between East and West, the US and the rest, local and global, the editors' introduction and many of the essays here actually retheorize concepts of temporality, spatiality and sociality in the process of asking after the meaning of sexuality outside of its framing in "the West". Ranging in topic from heteronormativity to lesbian families, from transnational activism to queer temporalities and combining social science methodologies with theoretical inquiries, this collection is as broad as it is deep and it creates many new contexts for rethinking sexuality and de-centering the West.'
Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California, USA, author of In a Queer Time and Place
'There are few publications of which one could say one had waited for them to appear for ten years. This is even less the case with regard to academic publications. This moment of enthusiasm results from the fusion of geo-political, temporal and activist criticism in the book 'De-centring Western sexualities', edited by Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska. The book explores the question of the relationship of Western European and so-called post-communist countries to sexual politics. While there may have been continuous, emancipatory developments in LGBTIQ politics in west Europe, all activist strategies and all theoretical developments seem to have coincidentally impacted on the diverse communities of the East since the fall of the wall. Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska literally talk of a 'knot' of geo-temporal coincidences which spilled over the wall: homophile movements, identity-political gay and lesbian organisations which are primarily interested in legal equality and inclusion into a (hetero) normality, as much as queer approaches and groups, which are less interested in assimilation than for the destabilisation of societal walls. (...) This is a necessary book which achieves to document the complex nature of hegemonic structures in a way that allows to unsettle the representation of 'inside and outside'.
Marty Huber (2011), 'Shaking (Stone-) Wall. An (East) enlarged, decentralising book review'. Kulturisse. Zeitschrift für radikaldemokratische Kulturepolitik. No. 1 2001, (IG Kultur Österreich), pp. 20-21.
'The dual timelines of development between the Queer movements in Western and Central/Eastern Europe's mean that polarized nationalism(s), the desire(s) for cultural independence(s), differing political loyalties, and differences in language, culture, and legislation further complicate the idea of complete homogeneity in European Queer activist movements. This socio-political soup seems to ensure that the lived experiences of Queer citizens in neighboring countries can be almost completely oppositional. Coupled with huge differences in the rights for men and women, and considering how this interacts with the positioning of rights in regards to intimate citizenship, 'De-centering Western Sexualities' is a necessary academic ear trumpet for us to learn to listen in, for particular ideas present in cacophony of 'Western' Queer voices that are shouting out for their rights. (...) 'De-centering Western Sexualities' gives an excellent insight and attempts a historical overview which asks academics to consider dual timelines of development, for which without an understanding of, the current conflicts within specific European Queer cultures and movements appear overly confusing and incongruent.'
Stefanie Petrik (2011), 'Go West: Queer in Europe and De-Centring Western Sexualities'. Media and Culture Reviews (online).
'The editors make a good effort to shatter and rebuild reader's assumptions about the CEE region, which has experienced a "tectonic restructuring" since 1989. They do that in particular by complicating the ideas about European time and space. How come, for example, that we don't think of Germany as a post-communist European country? While doing that they are also able to give some (indispensable) remediation about the geo-spatial and geo-political context the individual texts explore in more details. (...) All in all the collection De-Centring Western Sexualities managed to provide a host of unpredictable angles and new information. While doing that it was also able to inspire some thrilling ideas to be incorporated in novel research projects – something most of the Western queer anthologies that evoke only the "been there, done that" sentiment fail to do. Hence I would suggest that you not just read the volume when you have time, but actually make time to read what Central and Eastern European perspectives could offer you in terms of revitalizing queer theory.'
Tuula Juvonen (2011), 'Where Stonewall Never Happened': Theorizing Queer in Central and Eastern Europe'. SQS Journal of Queer Studies in Finland, No 2.
De-Centering Western Sexualities is a valuable and overdue collection of ten essays which address non-normative sexualities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual/transgender and queer (LGBTQ) activisms and politics in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) context. The book’s relevance is two-fold. On the one hand, it provides theoretical and analytical tools to critically assess the hegemony and influence of “Western” knowledge production in relation to (homo)sexual identities, communities and practices in CEE. On the other hand, by presenting intrinsic examples and local case studies of sexual politics, the volume marks a significant step in the theory production of queer and sexuality studies. (...)
Amir Hodžic (2011), 'Review of De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Südosteuropa. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft, Issue 59.
OTHER REVIEWS:
Richard C.M. Mole (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Slavonic and East European Review, Vol 90, No 3, pp. 590-592.
Emma Spruce (2012), 'review of de-centring western sexualities: Central and Eastern European perspectives'. Feminist Review', Vol 101, No 1, pp. e3-e4.
Subhadra Mitra Channa (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Anthropological Notebooks, Vol XVIII, Issue 1, pp. 109-110.
-------------
FOR SAMPLE CHAPTERS PLS VISIT:
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CONTENTS:
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INTRODUCTION:
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INDEX:
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Special Issues and Sections by Roberto Kulpa
The current organisation of scientific production is prone to an increasing number of encounters between researchers from around the world, due to the expansion of communication networks, air transport, and (supra)national incentives for the internationalisation of intellectual labour (but mostly ‘quantifiable knowledge outputs’). Consequently, the everyday life of academics is not only intersected by cultural, social or economic dynamics, but is made accountable to them, especially in terms of the neoliberal economy (think that ‘a track record of successful grant applications’ requirements in the job ads) (Bailey & Freedman 2011; Collini 2012; Farred 2003; Raunig 2013). We urgently need debates about the flux and exchanges between academics, to understand the risks but also possibilities of rebellion these exchanges and encounters offer to academic communities around the globe. For it is important to not only identify the ‘Anglophone hegemony’ in the scientific world, but - like in the project of ‘decoloniality’ (Bhambra 2014; Mignolo 2011) and ‘critical pedagogy’ (Freire 2000; Giroux 2011) – to also look for alternatives and resistance practices to these hegemonies. As the section editors, we are convinced that each of the chapters here offers such a two-step approach, and will become important reference points to working in broader ‘critical gender & sexuality studies’... [tbc]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 16: Decolonizing queer epistemologies: Section Introduction,
Robert Kulpa and Joseli Maria Silva.
Chapter 17: Queer affirmations and embodied knowledge in the Brazilian performance group Dzi Croquettes,
Jan Simon Hutta.
Chapter 18: Feminist and Queer Epistemologies Beyond the Academia and the Anglophone World: Political Intersectionality and Transfeminism in the Catalan Context,
Maria Rodó de Zárate.
Chapter 19: Performing Academy: Feedback and Diffusion Strategies for Queer Scholactivists in France,
Rachele Borghi, Marie Hélène/Sam Bourcier, Cha Prieur.
Chapter 20: Writing Through Activisms and Academia: Challenges and Possibilities,
Niharika Banerjea, Kath Browne, Leela Bakshi and Subhagata Ghosh.
Chapter 21: ‘Wake up Alice, this is not Wonderland!’: Power, Diversity and Knowledge in Geographies of Sexualities
Joseli Maria Silva and Marcio Jose Ornat
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2019.1584578
Method: Case study of a 7-week programme in one London primary school, using ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with parents (n=7) and key stakeholders (n=4), and pre- and post-programme self-completion questionnaires (n=9).
Results: Parents reported increased understanding of the SRE curriculum and awareness of relevant children’s books, enhanced interactions with their children on SRE topics and some positive effects on partners and attitudes towards the school. There was increased confidence in addressing issues in the SRE curriculum for parents of 8- to 10-year-olds, although reduced confidence for one mother.
Conclusions: Familiarising parents with materials has the potential to enhance SRE, by improving coherence between educators’ and parents’ messages to children about sex and relationships, increased discussion of SRE topics in parent–child conversations and reduced parental anxiety about topics such as sexual orientation. Future challenges of involving fathers, scalability and sustainability highlight the dilemma of how best to enable parental choice or make equalities interventions.
Keywords: Children, England, parents, primary education, sex and relationship education, sex education.
Este artículo se centra en las relaciones entre dos categorías geotemporales – Europa Central y Oriental (ECO) y Occidente/Europa – en las discusiones sobre la política sexual, la homofobia, la tolerancia y la nacionalidad. Contribuye a la literatura existente sobre el homonacionalismo y los nacionalismos sexuales al introducir ECO a los sitios geográficos del debate, hasta ahora mayormente invertido en Occidente/Europa y sus relaciones con el Islam. Propone que es importante considerar ECO en los debates de nacionalismo sexual debido a su construcción como el Otro Europeo (homofóbico) en los discursos emergentes de una “Europa homoinclusiva”. El artículo introduce el concepto de pedagogía influida (leveraged pedagogy), el cual captura la especificidad de los discursos de liberación, avance y atraso sexual del Occidente/Europa – ECO. La pedagogía influida es una relación didáctica hegemónica donde la ECO aparece como un objeto de la “pedagogía” del Occidente/Europa, y está enmarcada como permanentemente “post-comunista”, “en transición” (esto es, no liberal, no todavía, no lo suficiente), y homofóbica. Esta manera de “cuidar a” ECO, se argumenta, es una forma de hegemonía del modelo UEuropeo occidental liberal de derechos como el universal.
Keywords: Leveraged pedagogy, homonationalism, sexual nationalism, Central and Eastern Europe, West, cultural hegemony, discourse, European Parliament"
"In a way, the project was about “diagnosing” the situation of hegemonic over-determination of “Central and Eastern European” queer studies and activism by American historical models. In the same time, we wanted to go beyond the simple denotative narrative that might answer the question “What does the life of non-heterosexual people in Central and Eastern Europe look like?” We recognise the importance of providing a factual background, especially as the book is aimed at the English-speaking academic circuit of sexuality studies, where Central and Eastern Europe is not well researched. But simple provision of information is not an antidote to the void in the Western understanding of the sexual politics and studies in Central and Eastern Europe. By taking up the effort of constructing something like a skeleton of the theory of how to explain the differences between ‘the West’ and ‘Eastern Europe,’ we wanted to address the underlying problem (the lack of recognition of Central and Eastern Europe on its own terms) and not only to remedy the symptoms (the lack of academic literature). As ambitious the project was (and is), it was equally destined to be a ‘failed’ one: a project that could never be realised in itself fully. And this has been recognised by both commentators when they write that the book ‘fails’ to do what is flaunted in the title: to de-centre Western sexualities. Intuitive at the time of compiling the book, and more robust now, the failure of such a project was with us from the beginning. Why then do something that is destined to ‘fail,’ one could ask? We hope that the following paragraphs will shed more light on why the supposed ‘failure’ of our de-centring endeavour is indeed the victory that keeps unfolding."""
One of the major issues arising is the almost unquestioned acceptance of the English as the lingua franca of the academic knowledge production process, and indeed, the issues of ‘academic quality’ of/and ‘proper knowledge’...
The current organisation of scientific production is prone to an increasing number of encounters between researchers from around the world, due to the expansion of communication networks, air transport, and (supra)national incentives for the internationalisation of intellectual labour (but mostly ‘quantifiable knowledge outputs’). Consequently, the everyday life of academics is not only intersected by cultural, social or economic dynamics, but is made accountable to them, especially in terms of the neoliberal economy (think that ‘a track record of successful grant applications’ requirements in the job ads) (Bailey & Freedman 2011; Collini 2012; Farred 2003; Raunig 2013). We urgently need debates about the flux and exchanges between academics, to understand the risks but also possibilities of rebellion these exchanges and encounters offer to academic communities around the globe. For it is important to not only identify the ‘Anglophone hegemony’ in the scientific world, but - like in the project of ‘decoloniality’ (Bhambra 2014; Mignolo 2011) and ‘critical pedagogy’ (Freire 2000; Giroux 2011) – to also look for alternatives and resistance practices to these hegemonies. As the section editors, we are convinced that each of the chapters here offers such a two-step approach, and will become important reference points to working in broader ‘critical gender & sexuality studies’... [tbc]
Vorrei, pertanto, riflettere su questa fastidiosa percezione dell’Europa “centro-orientale” e porre l’accento sulle differenti sfaccettature di questa regione. Nel dibattito occidentale c’è la tendenza, infatti, a raggruppare indistintamente i Paesi dell’Est e del Centro Europa non solo sul piano storico, sostenendone la comune provenienza dal vecchio blocco sovietico, ma anche sul piano della politica sessuale, disconoscendo in questo modo i passi avanti fatti da alcuni di questi come la Repubblica Ceca, l’Ungheria e la Slovenia che, per esempio, hanno già introdotto forme di riconoscimento delle coppie omosessuali. Le domande, allora, a cui vorrei tentare di dar risposta in questo articolo sono: perché i Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale” sono indiscriminatamente tacciati di omofobia, e perché non vengono mai menzionate le differenze (positive) esistenti? Raffigurarsi tali Paesi in questo modo, quali conseguenze produce nei rapporti di potere tra Europa “centro-orientale” ed Europa “occidentale”? Può la comunità gay occidentale approfittarsi di questa situazione? D’altro canto, è pure importante tenere in considerazione le opportunità che certi discorsi di potere possono originare (anche se solo come effetto collaterale e provvisorio). Per esempio, sarebbe interessante chiedersi se e come le comunità gay e lesbiche dei Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale” possano trarre dei vantaggi da questo tipo di rappresentazione.
The aim of this chapter is to expand on this notion, and search for what can be found in translation that does not exist in either cultural context. Thus we focus on what is brought to life through cultural permeability, exchange, influence, or simple coexistence. The chapter is composed in three parts. Firstly, we provide the reader with a theoretical framework. Secondly, we exemplify the impossibility of the simple cultural translation of "queer" (understood as the predominantly "Western"/American project) into "CEE" realities by analyzing activities of the NGO "Campaign Against Homophobia" (CAH) . Finally, we show strategies that make a productive use of the "locality" in order to mobilize the queer possibilities of activism in "CEE"/Poland, without necessarily attaining to "Western"/American narrations on the example of the on-going campaign "Love Does Not Exclude".
By introducing CEE as a “European context” (thus somehow “Western-ish” since “European” tends to equal “Western”) we would like to pluralize and problemitize the notion of “Western”/”non-Western” (because of its stress on “Central and Eastern” denotation) sexualities. We do so, because we believe that the dichotomy “West”/”non-West” is mostly constructed on the basis of Anglo-American ways of experiencing sexuality, making the “Western experience” the normative one, placed at the centre of a narrative. The most straightforward aim of this book is, thus, to critically assess the current state of knowledge about sexualities outside the all-pervasive framings of the “West”, and focus on their expressions in the “nearby” and still underexplored region of Central and Eastern Europe. By doing so, we proliferate both categories, “West” and “CEE”, and show that it is virtually impossible to foreclose and homogenise them as any sort of coherent entity.
The primary focus of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the contemporary debates surrounding LGBT issues in U.S. politics. It is done by looking at LGBT movements and major issues raised by those communities. First, a historical context is offered, followed by the overview of major problems raised by LGBT movements. These are composed of education, representation, legal regulations, health, and strategies of political action. The next part, “Queer Approaches,” develops the conceptual side of this chapter, discussing identity politics, market economies, sexual citizenship, nationalism, terrorism, and neoimperialism. This chapter concludes with an overview of its contents, indicating development of LGBT and queer (Q) politics and its futures and suggests further readings.
The thesis is organised around three major research problems: (1) How is homosexuality framed by national discourse (when performed by the nation-state)? (2) How do discourses of homosexuality relate to nationhood (in times of national distress)? (3) How might national/ist rhetoric be present in discourses of LGBT organisations? Methodologically, the thesis is grounded in a case study approach and discourse analysis. Overall, I argue that we may map out the relations between the nationhood and homosexuality through discourses of rejection as well as dependency, oscillating on the continuum between “sameness” and “otherness”. These relations are best described via the concepts of “dis-location”, “be-longing”, “attachment”, and “dis-identification”.
This research is important for at least three reasons. There is a scarcity of work about sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe and a need for more work in this area. Additionally, we have recently witnessed a rise of concern with “homonationalism” in queer studies. Attention to Poland is a valuable addition to this scholarship, which so far is about only the “West” and “Islam”. Finally, it also contributes to nationalism studies, where sexuality is still an under-explored topic, and it offers new insights for scholars interested in Polish nationalism studies.
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Contents:
Introduction: why study sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe;
Contemporary peripheries': queer studies, circulation of knowledge, and East/West divide, Joanna Mizielinska and Robert Kulpa;
Between walls. Provincialisms, human rights, sexualities and Serbian public discourses on EU integration, Jelisaveta Blagojevic;
Nations and sexualities – 'West' and 'East', Robert Kulpa;
A short history of the queer time of 'post-socialist' Romania, or, are we there yet? Let's ask Madonna, Shannon Woodcock;
Travelling ideas, travelling times. On the temporalities of LGBT and queer politics in Poland and in the 'West', Joanna Mizielinska;
Researching transnational activism around LGBTQ politics in Central and Eastern Europe: activist solidarities and spatial imaginings, Jon Binnie and Christian Klesse;
Rendering gender in lesbian families: a Czech case, Katerina Nedbálková;
The heteronormative panopticon and the transparent closet of the public space in Slovenia, Roman Kuhar;
Heteronormativity, intimate citizenship and the regulation of same-sex sexualities in Bulgaria, Sasha Roseneil and Maryia Stoilova;
Situating intimate citizenship in Macedonia – emotional navigation and everyday queer/KVAR grounded moralities, Alexander Lambevski;
Index.
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Reviews:
'De-Centring Western Sexualities advances critical studies of sexualities and sexual politics in significant and inspiring ways. The authors provocatively question the "Western" focus of sexuality studies and highlight the consequences of Central and Eastern Europe's absence from recent queer critiques. This valuable collection offers essential new perspectives on the marketization of (homo)sexuality and the functioning of heteronormativity in these countries.'
Gavin Brown, University of Leicester, UK, co-editor of Geographies of Sexualities
'De-Centring Western Sexualities is a landmark volume in the study of gender and sexuality. Kulpa and Mizielinska have gathered here and framed some of the very best essays on discourses of sexuality in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Not content to simply mark distinctions between East and West, the US and the rest, local and global, the editors' introduction and many of the essays here actually retheorize concepts of temporality, spatiality and sociality in the process of asking after the meaning of sexuality outside of its framing in "the West". Ranging in topic from heteronormativity to lesbian families, from transnational activism to queer temporalities and combining social science methodologies with theoretical inquiries, this collection is as broad as it is deep and it creates many new contexts for rethinking sexuality and de-centering the West.'
Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California, USA, author of In a Queer Time and Place
'There are few publications of which one could say one had waited for them to appear for ten years. This is even less the case with regard to academic publications. This moment of enthusiasm results from the fusion of geo-political, temporal and activist criticism in the book 'De-centring Western sexualities', edited by Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska. The book explores the question of the relationship of Western European and so-called post-communist countries to sexual politics. While there may have been continuous, emancipatory developments in LGBTIQ politics in west Europe, all activist strategies and all theoretical developments seem to have coincidentally impacted on the diverse communities of the East since the fall of the wall. Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska literally talk of a 'knot' of geo-temporal coincidences which spilled over the wall: homophile movements, identity-political gay and lesbian organisations which are primarily interested in legal equality and inclusion into a (hetero) normality, as much as queer approaches and groups, which are less interested in assimilation than for the destabilisation of societal walls. (...) This is a necessary book which achieves to document the complex nature of hegemonic structures in a way that allows to unsettle the representation of 'inside and outside'.
Marty Huber (2011), 'Shaking (Stone-) Wall. An (East) enlarged, decentralising book review'. Kulturisse. Zeitschrift für radikaldemokratische Kulturepolitik. No. 1 2001, (IG Kultur Österreich), pp. 20-21.
'The dual timelines of development between the Queer movements in Western and Central/Eastern Europe's mean that polarized nationalism(s), the desire(s) for cultural independence(s), differing political loyalties, and differences in language, culture, and legislation further complicate the idea of complete homogeneity in European Queer activist movements. This socio-political soup seems to ensure that the lived experiences of Queer citizens in neighboring countries can be almost completely oppositional. Coupled with huge differences in the rights for men and women, and considering how this interacts with the positioning of rights in regards to intimate citizenship, 'De-centering Western Sexualities' is a necessary academic ear trumpet for us to learn to listen in, for particular ideas present in cacophony of 'Western' Queer voices that are shouting out for their rights. (...) 'De-centering Western Sexualities' gives an excellent insight and attempts a historical overview which asks academics to consider dual timelines of development, for which without an understanding of, the current conflicts within specific European Queer cultures and movements appear overly confusing and incongruent.'
Stefanie Petrik (2011), 'Go West: Queer in Europe and De-Centring Western Sexualities'. Media and Culture Reviews (online).
'The editors make a good effort to shatter and rebuild reader's assumptions about the CEE region, which has experienced a "tectonic restructuring" since 1989. They do that in particular by complicating the ideas about European time and space. How come, for example, that we don't think of Germany as a post-communist European country? While doing that they are also able to give some (indispensable) remediation about the geo-spatial and geo-political context the individual texts explore in more details. (...) All in all the collection De-Centring Western Sexualities managed to provide a host of unpredictable angles and new information. While doing that it was also able to inspire some thrilling ideas to be incorporated in novel research projects – something most of the Western queer anthologies that evoke only the "been there, done that" sentiment fail to do. Hence I would suggest that you not just read the volume when you have time, but actually make time to read what Central and Eastern European perspectives could offer you in terms of revitalizing queer theory.'
Tuula Juvonen (2011), 'Where Stonewall Never Happened': Theorizing Queer in Central and Eastern Europe'. SQS Journal of Queer Studies in Finland, No 2.
De-Centering Western Sexualities is a valuable and overdue collection of ten essays which address non-normative sexualities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual/transgender and queer (LGBTQ) activisms and politics in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) context. The book’s relevance is two-fold. On the one hand, it provides theoretical and analytical tools to critically assess the hegemony and influence of “Western” knowledge production in relation to (homo)sexual identities, communities and practices in CEE. On the other hand, by presenting intrinsic examples and local case studies of sexual politics, the volume marks a significant step in the theory production of queer and sexuality studies. (...)
Amir Hodžic (2011), 'Review of De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Südosteuropa. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft, Issue 59.
OTHER REVIEWS:
Richard C.M. Mole (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Slavonic and East European Review, Vol 90, No 3, pp. 590-592.
Emma Spruce (2012), 'review of de-centring western sexualities: Central and Eastern European perspectives'. Feminist Review', Vol 101, No 1, pp. e3-e4.
Subhadra Mitra Channa (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Anthropological Notebooks, Vol XVIII, Issue 1, pp. 109-110.
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FOR SAMPLE CHAPTERS PLS VISIT:
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CONTENTS:
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INTRODUCTION:
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INDEX:
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The current organisation of scientific production is prone to an increasing number of encounters between researchers from around the world, due to the expansion of communication networks, air transport, and (supra)national incentives for the internationalisation of intellectual labour (but mostly ‘quantifiable knowledge outputs’). Consequently, the everyday life of academics is not only intersected by cultural, social or economic dynamics, but is made accountable to them, especially in terms of the neoliberal economy (think that ‘a track record of successful grant applications’ requirements in the job ads) (Bailey & Freedman 2011; Collini 2012; Farred 2003; Raunig 2013). We urgently need debates about the flux and exchanges between academics, to understand the risks but also possibilities of rebellion these exchanges and encounters offer to academic communities around the globe. For it is important to not only identify the ‘Anglophone hegemony’ in the scientific world, but - like in the project of ‘decoloniality’ (Bhambra 2014; Mignolo 2011) and ‘critical pedagogy’ (Freire 2000; Giroux 2011) – to also look for alternatives and resistance practices to these hegemonies. As the section editors, we are convinced that each of the chapters here offers such a two-step approach, and will become important reference points to working in broader ‘critical gender & sexuality studies’... [tbc]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 16: Decolonizing queer epistemologies: Section Introduction,
Robert Kulpa and Joseli Maria Silva.
Chapter 17: Queer affirmations and embodied knowledge in the Brazilian performance group Dzi Croquettes,
Jan Simon Hutta.
Chapter 18: Feminist and Queer Epistemologies Beyond the Academia and the Anglophone World: Political Intersectionality and Transfeminism in the Catalan Context,
Maria Rodó de Zárate.
Chapter 19: Performing Academy: Feedback and Diffusion Strategies for Queer Scholactivists in France,
Rachele Borghi, Marie Hélène/Sam Bourcier, Cha Prieur.
Chapter 20: Writing Through Activisms and Academia: Challenges and Possibilities,
Niharika Banerjea, Kath Browne, Leela Bakshi and Subhagata Ghosh.
Chapter 21: ‘Wake up Alice, this is not Wonderland!’: Power, Diversity and Knowledge in Geographies of Sexualities
Joseli Maria Silva and Marcio Jose Ornat
This follow-up issue is a continuation of ideas we proposed in the first call for papers. It is thou an interesting “supplement” to the previous issue, enriching the already broad scope of interests presented. In this issue, the inquiries of the translation of queer are further problematised. While the December issue focused on the relationship between queer and geo- political contexts and academic cultures, the articles in current issue are focusing on the past, present and future of queer, further questioning the notion of “location’ and trans-historically located practises.
The December 2008 issue follows a certain logic that emerged from submitted papers. The opening article of acclaimed academic Tiina Rosenberg on queer genealogies is followed by a series of papers dealing with issues of self-reflexivity, intersections, dispersion, and accommodations of “queer” to non-Western (English) contexts. The closing articles scrutinise identity and materiality of objects and bodies, to be metaphorically summarised in Judith Halberstam's article on “non-identification” and “negativity” of “queerness”.
In the last couple of years academic teaching in cultural studies has become
more and more institutionalized and europeanized (Bologna). The interdisciplinary
workshop (gender studies, social science, film studies and cultural studies)
wants to analyze and to discuss some of the ,traveling concepts' (Mieke Bal) of
gender studies research in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. In a round table
discussion speakers from France, England, Poland and Germany will discuss
different feminist positions within the European academia. What are "we" talking
about, when "we" talk about "Gender and queer Studies"? What are the concepts,
the theories, the notions "we" refer to? Which paradigms have been dominant in
which academic contexts/research areas? And: Why does de-centring gender
studies also mean de-centring Western sexualities?
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Vor dem Hintergrund der Internationalisierung und der Europäisierung der Lehre im Bereich der Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften der letzten Jahrzehnte, sollen im Rahmen eines interdisziplinären Workshops die „travelling concepts “ (Mieke Bal) der Gender Studies in Deutschland, in Frankreich und in Großbritannien sowie in osteuropäischen Ländern wie in Polen, Tschechien und Russland zur Diskussion gestellt werden. Wovon sprechen „wir“, wenn „wir“ von Gender Studies sprechen? Auf welche Begriffe, Konzepte, Theorien beziehen „wir“ „uns“? Welche Paradigmen beherrschen welche akademischen Kontexte, welche Research Areas in Europa? Und warum muss eine Dezentrierung der Gender Studies auch eine Dezentrierung „westlicher Sexualitäten“ bedeuten?
Der in Zusammenarbeit mit der Universität Erfurt geplante Workshop in englischer, deutscher und französischer Sprache adressiert kulturwissenschaftliche MitarbeiterInnen sowie Studierende der Thüringer Hochschulen, die Interesse an einer fächerübergreifenden Begriffsarbeit und an der Diskussion universitärer Politik(en) in West- und Osteuropa haben.
Keynote-SprecherInnen:
Roberto Kulpa, Birbeck College London
Geneviève Sellier, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux
I propose to describe the West/Europe - CEE relation using the concept of leveraged pedagogy. In its simplest, this relationship can be understood as a didactical and cultural hegemonic relation of power, where the CEE figures as an object of the Occidentalist pedagogy. This discourse frames CEE as permanently ‘post-communist’, ‘in transition’ (i.e. not liberal, yet, enough), and last but not least, homophobic. Leveraged pedagogy works as a ‘whip and carrot’: a condemnation, but also a promise of redemption, because of the geographical location and proximity to the self-proclaimed universality of West/Europe. I suggest CEE is somehow ‘European enough’ to be ‘taken care of’, but ‘not yet Western’ to be allowed into the ‘First World’ club. Yet I argue that this ‘taking care of’ CEE is a hegemonic deployment of the Western EUropean liberal model of rights as the universal one (as in the ‘universal human rights’). To sustain this model as superior (self-essentializing of the Occident as liberal), CEE is rendered as permanently ‘post-communist’ (that is, catching up on an uneven slope of progressive distance/proximity from the peak of the West/Europe ideal).
Engaging with the notion of ‘pedagogy’ is important here, and my understanding of it is more aligned with the continental European use, where it encompasses a broad range of social and cultural practices, rather than with a much more narrowed, Anglo-Saxon tradition of equalising pedagogy with school education. Additionally, I remain influenced by the ‘critical pedagogy’ (Freire 2000; Freire and Araújo Freire 2004; Giroux 2011; Kincheloe 2008) approach to pedagogical, educational, social, and political practices. Paulo Freire in his influential book Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), first published in 1968, analysed the dominant model of education and pedagogy as oppressive, colonizing and dehumanizing in relation to imbalanced power and agency. He showed how the dominant didactical process (called the banking model) continues its investment in the replication of inequalities and social divisions. As an alternative, Freire proposed ‘dialogics’ – that is, ‘horizontal’ relations of cooperation, dialogue, and synthesis (Freire 2000).
I argue for the use of Freire’s critical pedagogical framework as an inspiration to think through, conceptualise, and influence hegemonic relations between the Occident and CEE, intertwined in discourses of tolerance, homophobia, and nationhood. Additionally, the notion of leveraged pedagogy is stimulated and draws on the ‘balkanization’ debates (e.g. Bakic-Hayden 1995; Hammond 2004; Todorova 1997) discussed below. However, I want to specifically narrow the focus of my concept to the field of sexuality and discourses of homophobia, tolerance, and gay (human) rights, that are, in my opinion, the latest addition to discursive practices of the West/Europe ‘educating’ CEE.
Keywords:
leveraged pedagogy; homonationalism; sexual nationalism; Central and Eastern Europe; West; European parliament; Occidentalism.
References
Baer, B.J., 2009. Other Russias: Homosexuality and the Crisis of Post-Soviet Identity, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bakic-Hayden, M., 1995. Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia. Slavic Review, 54(4), pp.917–931.
El-Tayeb, F., 2011. European others : queering ethnicity in postnational Europe, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Essig, L., 1999. Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Freire, P., 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, London - New York: Continuum.
Freire, P. & Araújo Freire, A.M., 2004. Pedagogy Of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy Of The Oppressed, London - New York: Continuum.
Giroux, H.A., 2011. On Critical Pedagogy, London - New York: Continuum.
Hammond, A., 2004. The Balkans and the West: constructing the European other, 1945-2003, London: Ashgate.
Jivraj, S. & De Jong, A., 2011. The Silencing Effects of the Dutch Homo-emancipation Policy on Queer Muslim Organising. Feminist Legal Studies, 19(2), pp.143–158.
Kincheloe, J.L., 2008. Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, Montreal: Springer.
Kuhar, R. & Takács, J. eds., 2007. Beyond the Pink Curtain. Everyday Life of LGBT People in Eastern Europe, Ljubliana: Peace Institute. Available at: http://www.policy.hu/takacs/books/isbn9616455459/#content.
Kulpa, R. & Mizielinska, J. eds., 2011. De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives, Farnham: Ashgate.
Kuntsman, A. & Miyake, E. eds., 2008. Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness Raciality, York: Raw Nerve Books.
Mepschen, P., Duyvendak, J.W. & Tonkens, E.H., 2010. Sexual Politics, Orientalism and Multicultural Citizenship in the Netherlands. Sociology, 44(5), pp.962–979.
Puar, J., 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times, Durham, N.C: Duke University Press.
Sabsay, L., 2012. The Emergence of the Other Sexual Citizen: Orientalism and the Modernisation of Sexuality. Citizenship Studies, 16(5-6), pp.605–623.
Stulhofer, A. & Sandfort, T. eds., 2004. Sexuality and gender in post-communist Eastern Europe and Russia, Binghamton, N.Y: Haworth Press.
Todorova, M.N., 1997. Imagining the Balkans, New York: Oxford University Press.
The tradition of critical studies, where I locate the roots of gender and queer studies, offered much insight and effective reworking of some of the issues connected to the dis-balanced relations of epistemic power. However, many issues relating to our practices of (queer) knowledge production remain unacknowledged in queer studies.
In this presentation I want to ponder some examples of the hegemonic geo-temporal ‘knowledge situations’ in queer studies, where the practice of ‘doing queer studies’ renders them a tool of inequality. I want to question how the geographical origin and place of work determines the academic status as the ‘knowledge producer/theorist’ or ‘knowledge consumer/informant’. How the peer review processes turns into the gate keeping - a militarised war of put downs and privilege safeguarding within ‘queer studies’. And finally, the role of language and multilingualism as tools of oppression & liberation within practice and the domain of ‘queer studies’."
It contributes to the existing literature about homonationalism and sexual nationalisms by introducing CEE to the debate’s geographical loci, so far mostly invested in the West/Europe and its relations to Islam.
It also debates the current 'Europeanisation' framework as perhaps in need of more critical approach, especially form the anthropological, social, and cultural studies perspectives.
Keywords: Leveraged pedagogy, homonationalism, sexual nationalism, Central and Eastern Europe, West, cultural hegemony, discourse, European Parliament."
I also highlight the role of identification rather than identity in grasping the dependencies between discourses of the nation and homosexuality. With the insistence on relationality, processuality and performativity of identifications, we can understand the tie-up of nationhood and homosexuality, to be a wilful subversion of culturally and traditionally sanctioned performative recollections of nationhood (Polishness). Thus homosexual subjects attaining to the rituals of national bereavement break the chains of interlinked subject positions (who is/is not legitimate) and the practices assigned to them (to do/to be what one should do/be, according to their social role/position). And even if in doing so, they deploy some traditional (i.e. perhaps normative/normalising) tropes of nationhood, still, the nation is rendered a “hybrid” space of identification for the homosexual subject.
Keywords:
mourning, melancholia, melancholic nationalism, melancholic sexual politics, wound, Poland, LGBT, attachment, belonging, homonationalism, Polish LGBT movement, sexual politics in Central and Eastern Europe.
Invested in the study of the trans-national circuits of sexual politics between the 'West and the Rest’, and in the de-stabilisation of the 'Western' epistemological hegemony in queer studies, I am interested in how such categories as ‘camp’ and ‘queer’ may or may not function outside of their originating frameworks. I wonder what is at stake, what sort of relations are established, and negotiated, when we talk ‘Western lingo’ to describe and understand the ‘non-Western’ / Central-Eastern European realities.
I will focus my attention on two case studies. First, I will look at the Eurovision song contest and its supposed ‘gay camp’ appeal in the West. Would the Western (especially British) resentment towards the Eastern Europeans for a supposed political ‘block voting’ be expression of anger for presumed failure to read Eurovision as an apolitical ‘camp’, fun’n’frolics event?
Second, I will turn my attention to a popular Bulgarian chalga (pop-folk) performer Azis. The singer combines the ‘local’ / ‘Balkan’ with ‘global’ scenarios of ‘tits & bums’ and ‘gay’ / ‘camp’ entertainment. But is it any of this at all? How can we read such truly ‘queer’ aesthetics of mix-matched and juxtaposed imaginary, served for the mainstream Bulgarian audience?
The focus of our presentation will be on the possibilities of theorizing sexualities in CEE. So far, many articles showed how "West" produces "East" as its other. We have also shown how "East" subjectivises/objectivises "West", and legitimizes it through accepting and contributing (but also and profiting at times) to these processes of Othering. In Stockholm, we would like to take this discussion further and question both practices, asking: What could it mean to do queer/non-normative activism in CEE context? We want to move beyond first step recognition of local differences and incompatibility of Anglo-American models to CEE realities. Therefore we will look at CEE examples and try to bring them together in normative theoretical attempt at building the meaning of "queer" practices outside Western/inside European contexts.
After the collapse of the “Iron Curtain”, Western-style politics was adopted throughout CEE, without much questioning of its historical particularisms and suitability for the new context. When lesbian and gay activism begin to emerge in the CEE countries, West was already at the ‘queer’ stage, with long history and plurality of models and forms of engagement. Conversely, the communist past of CEE built completely different social structures and modalities. This could be graphically represented as two separate geopolitical-temporal modalities running parallel, where in 1989 one of them finishes, and the other one becomes universal for both. Indeed, it should be even more complicated, and represented as “knotting” and “looping” of time(s).
However, often when we try to “undo”/explain those knotted realities, we try to “linearise” the “here and now” reality of CEE, by categorising various activities and approaches as belonging to a certain historical narrative. Thus organising the “knotted temporality of CEE” into “familiar” stages and inscribing it into particular history (here: into Western history of LGBTQ movements), we already simplify it in order to make sense of it. But do we actually succeed? Does such “unknotting” make sense? For whom? And what are the prerequisites to be able to understand it in either form? In other words, we feel it is important to ask, why certain models are familiar to “all”? And why “local” narrations of lesbian and gay emancipation will be seen as, precisely, “local” and not “universally” recognised?
With this presentation, I will undertake the task of questioning the power relations between “West” and “CEE”, between western queer academic scholarship and CEE theoretical insights, calling for not only for “de-centralisation of queer theory”, but also for greater attentiveness to spatial and temporal choices in doing so.
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First presentation
Firstly, we will build wider theoretical framework about relations of knowledge and sexual politics in the “West” and the “Central and Eastern Europe” (CEE).
After the collapse of the “Iron Curtain”, Western-style politics was adopted throughout CEE, without much questioning of its historical particularisms and suitability for the new context. When lesbian and gay activism begin to emerge in the CEE countries, West was already at the ‘queer’ stage, with long history and plurality of models and forms of engagement. Conversely, the communist past of CEE built completely different social structures and modalities. This could be graphically represented as two separate geopolitical-temporal modalities running parallel, where in 1989 one of them finishes, and the other one becomes universal for both. Indeed, it should be even more complicated, and represented as “knotting” and “looping” of time(s) after 1989.
However, often when we try to “undo”/explain those knotted realities, we try to “linearise” the “here and now” reality of CEE, by categorising various activities and approaches as belonging to a certain historical narrative. Thus organising the “knotted temporality of CEE” into “familiar” stages and inscribing it into particular history (here: into Western history of LGBTQ movements), we already simplify it in order to make sense of it. But do we actually succeed? Does such “unknotting” make sense? For whom? And what are the prerequisites to be able to understand it in either form? In other words, we feel it is important to ask, why certain models are familiar to “all”? And why “local” narrations of lesbian and gay emancipation will be seen as, precisely, “local” and not “universally” recognised? We will be probing the usability of such terms as “West”, “Europe”, “progress”, “transformation”, “post-communism”, “Human Rights”.
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Second presentation
Secondly, we will narrow the focus and ask what happens when we adopt/adapt queer theory to non-Western/non-American contexts (specifically CEE).
By focusing on problems with “translating” queer theory, we try to understand how (if at all) it influences the LGBT politics in Poland. By critical reading of “Let Them See Us” (2002) campaign, we will argue that queering politics can mean different things in different local settings. Hence, what can be described as an identity approach from the U.S. perspective, can have its queer face in another geographical and cultural setting.
On the other hand, we will ponder on the universal question of queer alternative to identity politics, but as seen from CEE and not-Western perspective. How queer functions and what is its impact on sexual politics? Finally, we will look at recent smears on “queer theorists in Poland”, blaming “them” for weakening the LGBT effectiveness. Why is “queer theory” scapegoated by LGBT activists at this particular moment will be explored in the next section.
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Third presentation
Thirdly, we will concentrate on a case study from Poland, where we will explore recent campaign “Love doesn’t exclude” to exemplify our analysis.
By exploring “Love doesn’t exclude” campaign, we will try to understand the recent shift form “coming out” to “recognition of relationships” as the main goals of the LGBT movement. Should we read it in the context of two recent legal actions undertaken by Polish citizens against Polish state? And what is the significance of fact that these were propelled by “ordinary working-class men” that have never been engaged in LGBT activism. Can we read the shift in LGBT politics, as indicated above, as a reaction to demands of “ordinary lesbian and gay people”, or reaction to their criticism? And why this shift coincides with the recent animosity towards queer theory in Poland?
I will begin with excerpts from a documentary “Beyond Pink Curtain”(Charles 2009). The film centers on three countries (Serbia, United Kingdom, Lithuania) to talk about homophobia and sexual rights. The film’s use and narration of Eurovision (held in 2008 in Belgrade) serves as an interesting starting point for the consideration of how “Western Europe” and “Central and Eastern Europe” are represented in terms of “sexual rights progress” and “homophobia”.
I will try to exemplify and explore the relations of the “West” and the “East” (brought about during the first workshop) in the field of sexual and national politics of “EUropean Nationhood” through the documentary’s representation of Serbia and Eurovision 2008 held in Belgrade. In doing so, I will introduce the concept of leveraged pedagogy to describe the hegemonic and unequal relations between “West/Europe” (re-presenter) and “Central and Eastern Europe” (CEE) (re-presented). Leveraged pedagogy, in its simples, would be a strategy of distancing “West/Europe” from “CEE” buy projecting “homophobia” onto “CEE” countries as their innate feature, thus implicitly reinscribing liberal individual values (as in “gay rights”) into the core notion of the “Europe” and “EUropean Nationhood”. At the same time, an undisputable acceptance of “Western solutions” is “offered” as a possibility of “redemption” for the “East”. I will try to show how this mechanism works in the representation case of Eurovision 2008."
adequately address the issues of gender and sexual diversity. Oftentimes, officers and administrators lack language and knowledge to address individual cases; nor can they implement policies and regulations as these are largely non-existent. The resulting effects include burnouts and depletions among participants, who highlight the high emotional costs of dealing with a discriminatory and hateful atmosphere on a daily basis. There are clear negative impacts on the mental health and general well-being of minoritised communities in Poland, the predominant target of the
‘anti-gender’ politics in Poland. Other observed effects are fearful self-censorship, where people actively hide information about themselves to avoid self-exposure to potential discriminatory attitudes. There were also more grave instances of harm to bodies and property reported. However, it was also noted that ‘anti-gender’ politics have produced some ‘ricochet effects’ such as greater social mobilisation for the queer-feminist causes, and that social attitudes are positively changing towards greater
acceptance and support for minoritised groups. People multiply marginalised and minoritised due to their intersectional positionalities are usually more adversely affected. Their gendered and sexual identities are oftentimes forced into secondary positions of consideration, when people are being put in a position of forced choices between multiple problems they face or are committed to changing. Our participants navigate the impacts of ‘anti-gender’ on their lives in different ways: by shielding or withdrawing, or conversely, re-mobilising. A strong ethos of community support, mutual care and solidarity practices was also clearly pronounced as a common way of coping with the pressures of ‘anti-gender’ politics.