This place saved my life during the pandemic. I am so happy to be back on the garden grounds again. I went early this morning with my camera.
I love moderating smart talks →
Another great event, this time at the Harvard Davis Center.
Socialist Sexualities: Expert Knowledge and Intimate Revolutions in Poland and Czechoslovakia
New Video introduction to the A. K. 47 Podcast
I recorded this a long time ago and only just not got around to posting it.
New Review of Slavenka Drakulic's Café Europa Revisited in THE →
My review of this wonderful new collection of essays.
Spring reading: Gender, Generations, and Communism
I am so happy I get to write “Spring Reading” since we are officially in the spring of 2021. This was an interesting edited collection with a wide variety of perspectives on the historical memory of communism in Eastern Europe.
“…[T]oday anticommunism is part of the mainstream public debate in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe; it is also part of the identity politics of many milieus, groups, and socio-political movements, including women’s movements.”
“...the biographies of women who belonged to the pre-war communist generations are often perceived as biographies of losers, who wasted their lives in the fight for a misguided cause.”
Has Privacy Become the Ultimate Status Symbol? →
So pleased to be quoted in this article, which has been updated to take account of the pandemic.
A Conversation with Bhaskar Sunkara at the New York State Writer's Institute →
Socialism in the Age of AOC & Bernie Sanders: A Conversation with Bhaskar Sunkara & Kristen Ghodsee
Bhaskar Sunkara is the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality (paperback 2020), a history of the economic idea and a realistic vision for its future. Naomi Klein said, “Accessible, irreverent and entertaining, Bhaskar Sunkara has delivered a razor-sharp guide to socialism's history, transformative promise, and path to power.” Sunkara is the founder and editor of Jacobin, a socialist quarterly for a new generation. Noam Chomsky called Jacobin, "a bright light in dark times."
Kristen Ghodsee is the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (paperback, 2020), an irreverent primer on the benefits of socialism for women. The reviewer for Oprah’s O. Magazine said, “With acumen and wit, [Ghodsee] lays bare the inequities women face under capitalism and the desirability of decoupling ‘love and intimacy from economic considerations.’” An expert on the post-socialist upheavals of contemporary Eastern Europe, Ghodsee is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Guest appearance on the Last Born in the Wilderness Podcast →
Last Born in the Wilderness Podcast, “Red Nostalgia: Post-Soviet Europe & Arguments For Economic Independence w/ Kristen Ghodsee,” March 15, 2021
New Video of KU Keynote Lecture for IWD 2021 →
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
So many exciting things...
I don’t do social media, and I really try not to engage, but my daughter and my former students often send me links to relevant posts. The So You Want to Talk About (SYWTTA) Bookstagram account included my book on their book list for Women’s History Month, and the Brazilian journalist Patricia Lélis posted a photo of herself with my book on Instagram.
With the wonderful Grace Blakeley on A World to Win Podcast →
Listen to our IWD conversation here
International Women's Day Events and Interviews Roundup
Okay, well I have been REALLY very busy in the last few days with a wide variety of events and interviews. Below you will find links to all of the fun things I have been doing to celebrate the socialist holiday this year.
Watch: A special event for the Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (co-sponsored by the socialist feminist working group and Lux Magazine): “Love and Sex Behind the Iron Curtain: 20th Century State Socialism in Eastern Europe.” 7 March 2021
Listen: Revolutionary Left Radio Podcast, Interview with Kristen Ghodsee,“Socialist Feminism, Class Struggle, and the Cold War.” 7 March 2021
Listen: It's Not All In Your Head Podcast. "Do Women Have Better Sex In Socialist & Communist Countries? (ft. Kristen Ghodsee)," 22 February 2021
Listen: Katie Halper Show Podcast, “Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism” March 8, 2021
Listen: A.K. 47 Podcast, “International Women’s Day, Part 2” 8 March 2021
Read [In French]: Carla Biguliak. “Le socialisme est-il bon pour la sexualité des femmes?” Revolution Permanente, 6 March 2021
Read [In Russian]: Братерский Александр, “Профессор Кристен Годси: "Феминизм сегодня стал ругательным словом" finam.ru, 8 March 2021
8 March 2021 (18:00 GMT-5): Jacobin Talks, “The Socialist History of International Women’s Day” (with Kristen Ghodsee and Meagan Day)
10 March 2021 “A World to Win Podcast with Grace Blakeley, “Love Kills Capitalism”
Upcoming Events:
9 March 2021 (19:00 GMT-5): A keynote lecture for IWD at the University of Kansas: Women's History Month Lecture: Dr. Kristen R. Ghodsee on International Women's Day
11 March 2021 (10:30 GMT-5) Guest Lecture, Kristen Ghodsee: "State socialist women's organizations and their role during the U.N. Decade for Women (1975-1985)" Center for History, Sciences Po, Paris
16 March 2021 (11:00 GMT-5) Discussion: "Socialism in the Age of AOC and Bernie Sanders: A Conversation with Bhaskar Sunkara and Kristen Ghodsee" New York Writer's Institute
17 March 2021 (12:00 GMT-5) "Love and Sex Behind the Iron Curtain: What Can We Learn from the Experiences of 20th Century State Socialism in Eastern Europe?" University of Pennsylvania
31 March 2021 (12:00 GMT-5) "Socialist Sexualities: Expert Knowledge and Intimate Revolutions in Poland and Czechoslovakia" Harvard University
Thanks to Carla Biguliak for the French review in Revolution Permanente →
New Poster for the March 17th online event
Designed by the amazing Alina Yakubova!
Winter Reading: Cafe Europa Resisted
“…in all former communist countries in eastern Europe, it is difficult to mention the merits of communism, a system that, in a short time, brought modernization and changed an agrarian society into an urbanized, industrial one. It meant general education as well as the emancipation of women; this has to be recognized, even though such changes were accomplished by a totalitarian regime.”
Starting my month as a Professeur Invité at Sciences Po →
Well, if it wasn’t for this bloody pandemic, I would have been in Paris this month!
New Event with the DSA International Committee →
Get more info here
Join us on International Women’s Day for a fascinating discussion!
Speakers:
Prof. Agnieszka Kościańska, author of Gender, Pleasure, and Violence: The Construction of Expert Knowledge of Sexuality in Poland (Indiana University Press 2021). Visiting Professor at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw.
Prof. Kateřina Lišková, Masaryk University, Czechia, and author of Sexual Liberation, Socialist Style: Communist Czechoslovakia and the Science of Desire, 1945–1989 (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
Prof. Kristen Ghodsee, University of Pennsylvania, author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (Bold Type Books, 2018).
Moderated by Dr. Polina Aronson (Germany/Russia), freelance Journalist is a sociologist and the debate editor of openDemocracy Russia. She was born in St Petersburg and lives in Berlin. She is working on a book about perceptions of love in Russia and in the West.
Sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America International Committee Europe Subcommittee, DSA SocFem Working Group, and Lux magazine.
Register for my International Women's Day Keynote Lecture at the University of Kansas
If you are interested in learning about the socialist history of International Women’s Day, please consider my lecture at KU on March 9th (the day after IWD). You can register here.
Well I know what I am doing tonight...
A pleasure to be a guest on The Katie Halper Show →
My interview starts at about 21:30 and goes on for about an hour. My first live show on Youtube.
