Welfare, Gender and Agency in Russia and Eastern Europe

December 10-12, 2008
University of Helsinki, Finland

The approach of the conference is more multidimensional than usual, because in addition to economic and social problems the agenda also includes bodily and sexual issues. Deadline for registrations: November 15, 2008.

The conference will bring together researchers of society, culture and history to examine the interrelationships of welfare, gender and agency in Russia and Eastern Europe during the transitional period. They problems/issues are viewed from an inter-sectionalist perspective, taking into account gender and, moreover, class and ethnicity. The integrating theme is discussion on post-socialist welfare models. The conference will also deal with methodology - moving within the frames of the past, the present and the future; in-between macro and micro levels; and de/reconstructing East/West divisions, hierarchies and biases e.g. through post-colonially inspired post-socialist criticism.

Keynote speakers

• Professor Linda J. Cook, Department of Political Science, Brown University ( USA ) Dr. Elena Gapova, Centre for Gender Studies, European Humanities University, (Vilnius, Lithuania / Minsk, Belorussia) / Western Michigan University (USA)
• Professor Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, Department of Social Anthropology and Social Work , Technical State University, Saratov (Russia)Associate
• Professor Janet Elise Johnson, Department of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (USA)
• Associate Professor Dagmar Kutsar, Unit of Family and Welfare Studies, University of Tartu ( Estonia )
• Associate Professor Vesselin Popov, Ethnographical Institute and Museum of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences , Sofia ( Bulgaria )
• Dr. Kate Thompson, Faculty of Health, Birmingham City University ( UK )

For further information and to register, please click here

Source: University of Helsinki (Aleksanteri Institute)