Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics (IEEJSP); Maria Mayerchyk, Greifswald Univ. and Jennifer Ramme, European Univ. Viadrina (Web)

Proposals by: 20.02.2023

It is remarkable how often gender and sexuality are used to mark distinctions between Eastern and Western Europe, and how little attention is given to these differentials as markers of power relations embedded in and constitutive of this division. The thematic issue aims to explore the entanglements of gender, sexuality, and power, scrutinizing how gender and sexuality are negotiated in Eastern Europe, and participate in the construction of European East-West distinctions. Drawing on this analysis, we intend to decenter, historicize, and pluralize Eastern Europe.
Scholars from various fields are welcome to address the question of what the specific contributions to gender equality or gender and sexual emancipation were in the communist countries of Europe, and what has lingering effects today. After all, communism had taken up the banner of equal rights for women. Today, by contrast, what is called ‘Eastern Europe’ tends to be associated with conservative, anti-LGBTQ* or anti-gender-equality policies in light of legislative changes such as the restriction of abortion rights in Poland or the curtailment of freedoms and rights of non-heterosexual people in Russia. It is also claimed that there never was a sexual revolution or genuine grassroots feminism under state socialism in the first place, and that gender equality is a ‘Western import.’
In the thematic issue, the editors also would like to question homogenizing imaginary of the region and explore a variety of ‘Eastern Europes’ formed by the geography of difference. Indeed, one may speak of a CEE of the EU, but also of Eastern Europe outside of the EU, constituting margins of this CEE. How do … read more (Web).