Queer Sexuality in Russia from Perestroika to Putin – Seminar with Laurie Essig
Laurie Essig's research explores the disconnect between Western perceptions and the realities of Russia’s queer communities. The seminar will also look at the role of activists of LGBTQ+ rights in Russia and globally.
Queer Sexuality in Russia from Perestroika to Putin – Seminar with Laurie Essig
30 Apr 2019, 11:00 – 13:00
After a lecture on her newest book Love, Inc. the night before, Laurie Essig will hold an informal seminar on Queer Sexuality in Russia from Perestroika to Putin! Come and join us!
In the beginning, Laurie will contribute a short history of queer in Russia and her work there. Then, we will have an open and informal discussion to learn more about her ongoing research that explores the disconnect between Western perceptions and the realities of Russia’s queer communities. Fleshing out ideas of anger, utopia and a global queer community, we will also look at the role of activists of LGBTQ+ rights in Russia and globally.
Food for thought:
Essig, L. and Kondakov, A. (2019) A cold war for the twenty-first century. Homosexualism vs. Heterosexualism. In: Mole, R. C. M. (Ed.) Soviet and Post-Soviet Sexualities, Routledge. https://bit.ly/2TEpwe7
Essig, L. (2014). Queer Russia. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Queer-Russia/144523
Essig, L. (2014). “Bury Their Hearts”: Some Thoughts on the Specter of Homosexuality Haunting Russia. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 1, 39-58. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/557326/pdf
Queer in Russia. A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other. (1999): https://www.dukeupress.edu/queer-in-russia
Picture credits: Isabelle Cardinal
Laurie Essig is a Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies who teaches courses on Heterosexuality, White People, Freakishness and Feminist Blogging at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. Her first book, Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self and the Other (Duke, 1999) considered how sexual others are imagined and thus imagine themselves in Russia. Her second book, American Plastic: Credit Cards, Boob Jobs and Our Quest for Perfection (Beacon, 2010) argued that cosmetic surgery in the US is the subprime mortgage crisis of the body, with corporations squeezing profit from working class Americans who hope a more perfect body will lead to a better future. Essig writes for a variety of publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Psychology Today. Her current project is Love, Inc: The strange marriage of romance and capitalism.