Beyond Resistance in/outside Russia: From Pacifist Feminists to Nationalist Feminism

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable problematizes various entanglements between political engagement, the media, and civil society networks during the times of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The growing suppression of various rights and freedoms by the Russian state formed a problematic context for public political engagement. In the situation when both off- or on-line spaces are no longer safe for activists and vox pop, the roundtable argues that the very phenomenon of resistance needs to be revised. Instead of focusing on radical performative resistance (like Pussy Riot), street protests (almost impossible in contemporary Russia), the roundtable draws attention to other types of resistance tactics. They range from mediated activists’ micro-practices employing digital and analogue communication technologies (Telegram anti-war chats, samizdat print newspapers), the activism of journalists, and the mediation of anti-war sentiment by prominent female celebrities, to the quiet forms of action and refusal some enact. The speakers examine forms of expression across the fractured media environment, to investigate the dynamics of interaction between female activists/journalists who left and those who remain, and discuss those who represent the “other side of the continuum”—the pro-state “alpha-females” advancing the Z-agenda. While these figures represent the forces anti-war feminists resist, they are themselves the products of feminism, who have to navigate between traditional and resistant feminine roles. Attending to this broader discursive context helps us imagine what the future of resistance might hold. Presenters will speak from ongoing research projects focusing on Russian civil society, independent journalism, and feminist activism during the war.

Sub Unit

• Politics/Law

Chair

• Saara Maria Ratilainen, U of Tampere (Finland)

Roundtable Members

• Julie D. Hemment, U of Massachusetts Amherst

• Ekaterina Kalinina, Stockholm U (Sweden)

• Alina Parker, U of Massachusetts Amherst

• Elena Anatolyevna Rodina, Northwestern U