Feminist Methodologies II: The Body, Biopower, and Biopolitics

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable seeks to critically explore and further discourse on the complicated, dynamic relationship between bodies, institutions, and states. Through the lens of feminist methodologies, the intersection of biopower, biopolitics, and gender and sexuality in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia tells a story of evolving cultural identity, social structures, and political rhetoric. Focusing on historical moments where institutions and culturally hegemonic groups regulate bodies, identities, and populations, this roundtable centers gendered experiences, resistance, and the implications of biopolitical control and biopower. How are gender, sexuality, reproduction, and labor shaped by state and society, particularly in complex contexts?
The discussion provides insight into how feminist approaches foster ways of understanding and contesting complex power dynamics and popular narratives. Participants will explore how biopower manifests across diverse national and cultural landscapes, from literary bodies, homosociality and masculinity in Russian troops occupying Ukraine, transnational anti genderism, reproductive health, and indigenous rights.
By examining how feminist methodologies challenge, reexamine, and unpack conceptions of power, participants will address how groups reinforce, resist, subvert, or navigate biopolitical issues in these regions. Centering on how feminist methodologies are integral for understanding Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russia both historically and today, and moreover for the future of scholarship and the field, this roundtable critically considers postcolonial, decolonial, and intersectional perspectives, taking into account the entangled dynamics of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russia, where historical shadows and shifting socio-political environments create unique challenges and opportunities for gendered resistance and state control.

Sub Unit

• Gender/LGBTQ Studies

Chair

• Ella Rossman, U College London (UK)

Roundtable Speakers

• Cary Beehler, Columbia U

• Alexandra Novitskaya, U of Maryland, Baltimore County

• Ella Rossman, U College London (UK)

• Laurel Thorne, Brown U

• Zosha K Winegar-Schultz, U of Minnesota