A little reflection in the Times Higher Educational Supplement →

April 29, 2021 Kristen Ghodsee

What are academics looking forward to about returning to campus?

As vaccination programmes offer the prospect of a return to physical teaching, what aspects of their pre-pandemic life will academics most heartily re-embrace (or at least touch elbows with)? And are there aspects of locked-down life that they will miss? Our six contributors offer a range of perspectives

Kristen Ghodsee

Getting back to the stacks

When it’s finally safe to return to campus, I will dive headlong into the east wing of the fourth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.

According to the Library of Congress classification system, the H section contains most of the social science books relevant to my research, and it is between the rolling stacks that I will lose myself in something I like to call shelf research.

In those halcyon days before the advent of digital databases, I remember digging through the musty drawers of ancient card catalogues to find a text related to my subject matter. With the call number scratched out in pencil on a scrap of paper, I would hunt down the book. Then I would sit on the floor and take down about 10 books to the left and 10 books to the right of the one I’d searched for. Because librarians have arranged the books by subject matter, I usually find amazing sources that I would not have found by searching remotely through an electronic catalogue. Continue reading

A new newsletter is out!

April 11, 2021 Kristen Ghodsee

I’m having fun with my newsletter and sent out the most recent update today, inspired as I was by the cherry blossoms at Chanticleer.

Now is only once...

The Chanticleer Pleasure Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania opened for its 2021 season on March 31st. I’ve already gone four times in the last two weeks to experience the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossoms. Between 1993 and 1996, I lived for three years in Japan teaching English in middle and high schools through a special program organized and funded by the Ministry of Education, and I have fond memories of the Japanese cultural traditions surrounding the blooming of the sakura trees.

Because they blossom only for a few days each year, families, friends, and colleagues carefully plan special Hanami celebrations to mark the coming of spring. In late March or early April (depending where you live in the archipelago) millions of people share picnic blankets under the riotous explosions of pink, drinking sake or specially brewed cherry blossom season beer while reveling each other’s company. Even the gentlest of breezes produce flurries of petals that drift listlessly through the air and catch in your hair life fairy dust. Parks and public spaces burble with joyous voices.

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New Video of KU Keynote Lecture for IWD 2021 →

March 13, 2021 Kristen Ghodsee

Dr. Kristen R. Ghodsee on the Socialist History of International Women's Day

In honor of Women's History Month 2021, KU's Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity and Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies welcomed Dr. Kristen R. Ghodsee (she/her) — author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence — to speak on the socialist roots of International Women's Day. This recording of the event features Dr. Ghodsee's lecture followed by an audience Q&A moderated by Dr. Megan Williams (she/her), Assistant Director of Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL0DuM0xibM

Capitalism Hits Home Podcast →

February 4, 2021 Kristen Ghodsee

Part One of my interview with Harriet Fraad and Juliana Forlano.

A conversation from another world →

April 12, 2020 Kristen Ghodsee

Radio New Zealand finally published this interview that I did with Kim Hill at the New Zealand Festival on March 12., exactly one month ago. It is impossible to believe that everything that has happened in the world has only happened in the last 30 days.