Lecture

Between state of exception and everyday banality: Precarious borders in the post-Soviet space

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Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien (ZOiS)
Mohrenstraße 60
10117 Berlin
Lecture

Between state of exception and everyday banality: Precarious borders in the post-Soviet space

where
Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien (ZOiS)
Mohrenstraße 60
10117 Berlin

Lecture (in English)

Tatiana Zhurzhenko (Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna)

But the de-facto borders of quasi-states and break-away territories have also been surprisingly persistent. Moreover, in 2014 we were witnesses of a geopolitical earthquake that produced new dividing lines with an ambivalent legal and political status as well as obscure and ever-changing rules of crossing. How should academic scholarship and the expert community approach these new challenges?

In her talk, Tatiana Zhurzhenko will start with a brief overview of post-Soviet Border Studies as a new area of multidisciplinary research, which has emerged after 1991. She will draw on her decade-long research of the Ukrainian-Russian border as well as some other examples from the region. Seen ‘from below’, as a reality constructed through the rules and routines of control, on the one hand, and everyday practices of crossing, on the other, the precarious post-Soviet borders offer a laboratory for studying structural inequality, nostalgia and contested loyalties. Finally, some political and ethical issues will be addressed that researchers working in the post-Soviet borderlands have been facing, in particular after 2014.

Speaker

Tatiana (Tetyana) Zhurzhenko is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on post-Soviet borders and borderland identities, on memory politics in Eastern Europe, and on gender politics and feminism in Ukraine.

Childcare

To make our programme more accessible to parents, we offer free professional child care during the event. Please register at least one week in advance, stating the age(s) of your child(ren).

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