Gender, Labor, and Identity in Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the connections between gender, labor, and identity in Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus in the 20th century. Individual papers explore a range of case studies - carpet weavers in the Caucasus in the early 20th century, masculinity and collective farm leadership in Soviet Tajikistan, the "Chalah" communities of northern Tajikistan who converted to Islam from Judaism, and women architects in late-Soviet Uzbekistan. By examining at how gender operates in each of these cases and interacts with with other aspects of identity (labor, religion, and nationality/ethnicity), we argue that closer attention to gender is crucial for understanding the history of Central Asia and the Caucasus in the 20th century.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Rebekah Ramsay, UC Berkeley

Papers

• The Rais of the Kolkhoz: Masculinity on Cotton-Growing Kolkhozes - Nicholas Seay, Ohio State U

• Construction of National and Personal Identities: Oral History of Jewish Women in Soviet Tajikistan, 1940s-1980s - Zamira Abman, San Diego State U

• Carpet Weaving and Women's Work - Sohee Ryuk, University College Dublin

• Women, Architecture, and the Building of Soviet Modernity in Uzbekistan - Dilrabo Tosheva, Harvard U

Discussant

• Shoshana Keller, Hamilton College