Translating Race in Eurasia IV: Race and the (Fe)male Body

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the nexus of race and gender in the shaping of political and social subjectivities in the Eurasian context. Intersectional and international in nature, the three presentations on this panel pay special attention to the role of globalization in shaping discourses (and counter-discourses) around identity. In the first paper, Rethinking Racial Beauty: South Korean Influence on Crossdresser Fashion in Kyrgystan,” Samuel Buelow explores how the South Korean beauty industry operates along a different racial node when received in a Central Asian (read: not East Asian) context; Buelow’s work also examines how Russian/white beauty standards have been displaced in the Kyrgyz cross-dressing community in conjunction with the K-beauty craze. In the second paper, "Billboards and Burqas: The Politics of Womenswear in Bishkek,” Kristin Torres looks at how the Muslim female body has become a site for contestation regarding notions of national progress and the place of Kyrgystan in an increasingly globalized Eurasia. In the third and final paper, “American, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Women Defining and Defying Femininity,” Katie Krafft looks the uniquely troubled position vis-à-vis Western feminism shared by women of color in the United States and women in post-Soviet contexts.

Sub Unit

• Gender/LGBTQ Studies

Chair

• Marcos Antonio Cisneros, American U of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan)

Papers

• Rethinking Racial Beauty: South Korean Influence on Crossdresser Fashion in Kyrgyzstan - Samuel Roman Buelow, Indiana U Bloomington

• Billboards and Burqas: The Politics of Womenswear in Bishkek - Kristin Torres, Harvard University

• American, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Women Defining and Defying Femininity - Erin K Krafft, U of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Discussants

• Feruza Aripova, Northeastern U

• Susanna Weygandt, Mount Saint Vincent U