TEACHING. Krista Harper, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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1 TEACHING Krista Harper, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Professor Julie Hemment 206 Machmer tel: Office hours: TBA Anthro 397 UMass Amherst Department of Anthropology Spring 2003 Tues, Thurs , Machmer E10 Gender and Post-socialist transformations In this course we will examine the transforming states of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union from the perspective of gender. The so-called "collapse of Communism" in the late I 980s paved the way for ambitious projects for social and political change. However. policies aimed at democratization and economic liberalization in postsocialist states led to increased stratification and impoverishment. Women have borne the brunt of many of these changes. Bringing together ethnographic and theoretical accounts of the former East bloc, the course examines the gender realignments of the post-socialist period, and women's responses to these changes. The course is structured around Katherine Verdery's question, "What Was Socialism, And What Comes Next?" Themes to be discussed will include: Gender and socialism (the socialist "gender regime" and the meaning of work, home, family); women and the market; identity and identity politics (feminism, NGOs and women's activism) and gender and globalization. As we read about the context of the former East bloc, we will think of ways to bring these insights "home". How do these readings challenge our ideas about the "West" and the gender regimes we have grown up with? How does the post-socialist case challenge our notions of community, family, the state, capitalism, justice and democracy? Course structure The course will meet twice a week. The course will be run as a seminar. On Tuesdays, we will discuss the readings, basing our discussion on study questions, which will be handed out the previous week. On Thursdays, the format changes and becomes less text-centered and discussion will focus on the issues and questions we have generated. Requirements I. Consistent attendance and active participation (10% of grade) 2. Midterm take-home essay (30%) 3. Final essay ofi0-15 pages (30%) 4. The completion of5 response papers, based on study questions (20%) 5. One oral presentation pertaining to the week's readings (10%) On presentations When you are up to present, you will be required to deliver a 10 minute oral summary ofthe reading, wherein you outline key points and issues. Your presentation should comprise an analysis of the reading, a discussion of any problems you found, and should link up to the broader themes of the class. In addition, you will be required to bring a list of 3-5 questions for discussion; these will be distributed to your peers. Vol. 23, No.2 Fal12005, Page: 105

2 ~~ Midterm The midterm will be a take-home exam, to be completed within 48 hours of delivery. You will be required to respond to two out of three short essay questions. Questions will pertain to the first half of the course readings ("What was socialism?") A good response will draw both on readings and lectures. Final papers Paper topics will be defined in cooperation with me, and must reflect a critical understanding of the readings. You are required to base your response on at least two additional readings. Course materials There are two required texts for the course- a packet of readings I have put together, and one book, The Thaw Generation, by Ludmilla Alexeyeva and Paul Goldberg is a memoir by a prominent Russian dissident of the 1960s-70s. The course pack can be purchased from Collective Copies, Amherst, and the text is available at Food For Thought books in Amherst. All materials are also available on reserve at the Du Bois Library. Course Schedule Please note thatfor the citations that follow. (T) denotes a hook and (R) indicates an article found in the course reading packet. Week I (28 & 30 Jan) Introduction to the course and its aims Week 2 (February 4 & 6) 1. Cold War and its aftermath: the meaning of "post-socialism" Borneman, John. After the Wall, Preface (vii-viii), ch I (I -19), ch 3 (38-56) (R) Drakulic, Slavenka. "A Letter from the United States" (R) "Poverty in Eastern Europe: The Land that Time forgot", Economist (R) Note: you are strongly encouraged to attend the Soyuz Symposium, "Ethnographies of Postsocialism ", Amherst College, Friday 7 & Saturday 8 February (Keynote speaker: Nancy Ries, Friday 4pm, Fayerweather 115) Week 3 (II & 13 February) 2. What was socialism? i) Bolshevik Visions : The New Morality Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto" (R) Rosenberg, William. Bolshevik Visions, Introduction to Part I, pp (R) Lenin, V.I. "Tasks ofthe Youth Leagues", pp21-25 (R) Krupskaia, N. "What a Communist Ought to be Like", pp26-29 (R) (Please note that the above two readings appear in the packet under Rosenberg) Week 4 (20 Feb) Bolshevik Visions: The New Soviet Man and Woman Rosenberg, William. Bolshevik Visions, Introduction to Part 2, pp (R) Kollontai, Alexandra. "The Family and the Communist State" (R) Trotsky, Leon. "From the Old Family to the New" (R) DeBeauvoir, Simone. Excerpt from The Second Sex (Please note that the Trotsky and Kollontai readings appear in the packet under Rosenberg) Vol. 23, No. 2 Fall 2005, Page: I 06

3 Week 5 (25 & 27 Feb) Wood, Elizabeth. "Identity and Organization", The Baba and the Comrade (pp ) (R) Goldman, Wendy. "Working Class Women and the 'withering away of the family"' (to be distributed) Week 6 (4 & 6 March) ii) Everyday life under socialism: politics, opposition Alekseyeva & Goldberg, The Thaw Generation (T) Week 7 (11 & 13 March) Alekseyeva & Goldberg, The Thaw Generation, continued Take-home Midterm SPRING RECESS March no classes Week 8 (25 & 27 March) Everyday life under socialism: exchange, networks, community Ledeneva, Alena. Russia's Economy of Favors. Chapter Three (R) Pesman, Dale. "Do not Have a Hundred Rubles, Have Instead a Hundred Friends" (R) Week 9 (1 & 3 April) 3. The "Collapse of Communism" i)perestroika, Anti-Politics and the re- politicization of gender Gal, Susan. "Gender in the Post-Socialist Transformation: the abortion debate in Hungary" (R) Week 10 (8 & 10 April) ii) Gender, identity and postsocialism Du Plessix Gray, Francine. "The Women's Century" and "Growing Up Powerful", pp (R) Ries. Nancy. "The Burden of Mythic Identity: Women at Odds" (R) Film: Little Vera Week 11 (15 & 17 April) Posadskaya. Anastasia. "The Feminine dimension of social reform: from one Forum to the Next"(R) Funk. Nanette. "Feminism meets Post-Communism: The Case of the United Germany" (R) Tolstaya, Tatyana. "Notes from Underground" (R) Drakulic, Slavenka. "A Letter from the United States- The Critical Theory Approach" (re-visit it) Week 12 (22 & 24 April) 4. Markets, Moralities and Gender Bruno, Marta. "Women and the Culture of Entrepreneurship" (R) Bridger, Susan. "Sexual Exploitation in the Labor Market" (R) Film: Dear Babe, Sweet Emma Week 13 (29April & I May) Humphries, Caroline. Chapter 9, "The villas of the "new Russians'" (R) Berdahl, Daphne. Chapter Six, "Designing Women" (R) 5. Gendered Interventions: international NGOs and women's projects Week 14 (6 & 8 May) Hemment, Julie. ''Global Civil Society and the local costs of belonging" (R) Week 15 (13 & 15 May) wrap up Vol. 23, No.2 Fal12005, Page: 107

4 GENDER & POST-SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATIONS Bibliography Borneman, John 1991 Preface, Chapter I, Chapter 2. In After the Wall, pp. vii-viii, 1-19, New York: Basic Books Bridger, Susan, Rebecca Kay, and Kathryn Pinnick 1996 Sexual Exploitation and the New Labour Market. In No More Heroines? Russia, Women and the Market. pp.l London: Routledge. Bruno, Marta 1997 Women and the Culture of Entrepreneurship. In Mary Buckley (ed.) Post-Soviet Women: from the Baltic to Central Asia. Pp Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Drakulic, Slavenka 1987 "The Trivial is Political", "A Letter from the United States", and "Some Doubts About Fur Coats". In How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. Pp , London: Vintage. Economist 2000 Poverty in Eastern Europe: The Land that Time Forgot. The Economist, September , pp Funk, Nanette 1994 Feminism meets Post-Communism: the case of the United Germany. In Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds. S. Weisser and J. Fleischner (eds.), pp Gal, Susan 1994 Gender in the Post-Socialist Transition: The Abortion Debate in Hungary. East European Politics and Societies, 8(2), pp Goldman, Wendy 1991 Working-Class Women and the 'Withering Away' of the Family: Popular Responses to Family Policy. In Fitzpatrick, Rabinowitch and Stites (eds.) Russia in the Era ofnep, ppl Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press Gray, Francine du Plessix 1989 "The Women's Century" and "Growing Up Powerful." In Soviet Women Walking the Tightrope. New York: Doubleday. I Hemment, Julie 2003 ''Global Civil Society and the local costs of belonging: defining 'violence against women' in Russia". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29 (3): Humphrey, Caroline The Unmaking of Soviet Life: everyday economies after socialism. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press Ledeneva, Alena V The Soviet Order: a View from Within. In Russia's Economy of Favours, pp , I Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels 1979 The Communist Manifesto (1847). In Tucker, R. C. (ed.) The Marx-Engels Reader, New York: Norton Vol. 23, No.2 Fall2005, Page: 108

5 Pesman, Dale 2000 Do not Have a Hundred Rubles, Have Instead a Hundred Friends. In Russia and Soul, pp.l Ithaca: Cornell University Press Posadskaya, Anastasia 1996 The Feminine Dimension of social reform: from one Forum to the next. In Women in Russia and Ukraine. R. Marsh, ed. pp Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ries, Nancy 1994 Burden of Mythic Identity: Russian Women at Odds with Themselves. In Feminist Nightmares: Women At Odds. S. Weisser and J. Fleischner, eds., pp New York: New York University Press. Rosenberg, William G. (ed.) 1984 Bolshevik Visions: First Phase of the Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia, pp.l5-29, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press Tolstaya, Tatiana 1990 Notes from Underground. New York Review of Books, May , pp. 3-7 Wood, Elizabeth 1997 The Baba and the Comrade: Gender & Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press Vol. 23, No.2 Fall 2005, Page: 109