When Body Becomes a Question: Trans-Local Dialogues of Care, Fatigue, and Depletion in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable discussion invites to continue reflecting on why is the body good “to think with” on both intellectual and professional matters building on and also going beyond and expanding the “Bodied in Focus: Power, Subjectivity, and Practice in East European and Eurasian Studies” virtual series conversations held in November 2024 - February 2025. The participants will engage in conversation to exchange their research reflections and activist experiences in responding to questions that relate to epistemologies and methodologies of thinking with and about bodies and care in trans-local contexts. The conversation will address but will not be limited by the following questions: How do individual and collective bodies’ memory shape and re-shape race, gender, and disability experiences and narratives across borders and locally in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and beyond? What does learning through embodiment mean and what informs the ethnography of embodiment? Which bodies are marked as vulnerable and what are the diverse experiences of visible and invisible vulnerability, including bodies fatigued by institutions, states and infrastructures over time?

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Cassandra Hartblay, U of Toronto Scarborough (Canada)

Roundtable Speakers

• Masha Beketova, Humboldt U Berlin (Germany)

• Alexa L Kurmanov, UC Berkeley

• Volha Verbilovich, U of Massachusetts Amherst

Session Manager

• Maureen Waters O'Neill, Sorbonne Nouvelle