Book Launch — Superfluous Women: Feminism, Art, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine

 

 

Dr. Jessica Zychowicz is a Stasiuk Post-doctoral Fellow in the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program at CIUS. She was recently a US Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and a Petro Jacyk Post-doctoral Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. She has also participated in residencies and invited talks at Uppsala University’s Institute for Russian and East European Studies (Sweden), the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, and University of Michigan’s Center for Russian and East European Studies in Ann Arbor.

Discussants

Dr. Carrie Smith is the vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts and a professor of German Studies in the Modern Languages and Cultural Studies department at the University of Alberta. Her research is located at the intersection of feminist activism and digital culture. She is author of two monographs, Awkward Politics: Technologies of Popfeminist Activism (with Dr. Maria Stehle, 2016) and Revolting Families: Toxic Intimacy, Private Politics, and Literary Realisms in the German Sixties (2013).

Dr. Olga Plakhotnik has commenced the 2020–21 term at CIUS as a Bayduza Post-doctoral Fellow. They have published in the areas of gender studies, sexual citizenship, and feminist and LGBTQ activisms in Ukraine. Dr. Plakhotnik is also a co-editor-in-chief of Feminist Critique: East European Journal of Feminist and Queer Studies.

Superfluous Women tells the unique story of a generation of artists, feminists, and queer activists who emerged in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. With a focus on new media, Zychowicz demonstrates how contemporary artist collectives in Ukraine have contested Soviet and Western connotations of feminism in order to draw attention to a range of human rights issues with global impact.

Dr. Zychowicz was awarded support toward the research and publication of this book from the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada, Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, Association of Women in Slavic Studies, University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs, Petro Jacyk Education Foundation, University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and CIUS. The book is available from the University of Toronto Press at: https://utorontopress.com/us/superfluous-women-3