The blurbs for Taking Stock of Shock

So pleased to have these great blurbs for my forthcoming co-authored book with Oxford University Press

From a starting point of cacophony, where different disciplines and data seem to depict the post-Soviet transition as either a grand success or an absolute failure, Ghodsee and Orenstein seam together a convincing narrative where both achievements and disappointments can coexist. The book’s focus on widening inequality allows reconciling these opposing views and providing crucial insights not only for scholars of transition countries but also for observers and policymakers in other regions.
— Maurizio Bussolo, Lead Economist, World Bank
Ghodsee and Orenstein have written a provocative book on what they argue are the different transitions people across the post-Soviet sphere have experienced over the past decades. Drawing on an impressive array of economic, demographic, public opinion, and ethnographic data, they critically analyze the emergence of stark inequalities that have generated tremendous hardships for many and enormous benefits for some. Taking Stock of Shock is sure to stimulate debate among scholars and policy makers alike.
— Gail Kligman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, UCLA

A new newsletter is out!

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.

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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.

To read more, please subscribe to the newsletter here

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.
— Gender, Generations, and Communism, page 20
...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.
— Gender, Generations, and Communism , page 20
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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

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.

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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

Winter Reading: Cafe Europa Resisted

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…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.
— Slavenka Drakulic, 2021