Two new interviews in Spain's La Vanguardia and El Salto (in Spanish and Catalan)

So I was in Barcelona for a discussion with Gemma Ruiz at the Finestres bookstore, and I met with many Spanish and Catalan journalists. The first two features published today.

¿Tienen las mujeres mejor sexo bajo el socialismo?

Kristen Ghodsee: “El capitalismo no respeta a las madres, pero nos necesita, ¿quién va a comprar iPhone si dejamos de tener bebés?”

My grandmother

My grandmother passed away today and I was thousands of miles away. I had not seen her since before the pandemic, but I did speak to her last night for the last time. She was almost 94 and she died quickly, but it still feels awful. I will never have her fried plantains again.

My grandma, my mom, and me in Puerto Rico in 1972

My grandma, my mom, and me in Puerto Rico in 1972

My grandma, me, and my mom in 1999

My grandma, me, and my mom in 1999

My grandma in 2021 with her pandemic hair

My grandma in 2021 with her pandemic hair

Medicine for the People and The Belgian Workers Party Headquarters in Antwerp

I spent an absolutely wonderful day with the folks at Medicine for the People in Antwerp and with the activists and party leaders of the Belgian Workers Party at the invitation of Peter Mertens. It was a fantastic day and I learned a lot!

Dr. Sofie Blancke, Maartje De Vries, and Kristen Ghodsee at Medicine for the People

Dr. Sofie Blancke, Maartje De Vries, and Kristen Ghodsee at Medicine for the People

COMAC activists: Apolline Dupuis (middle)

COMAC activists: Apolline Dupuis (middle)

Peter Mertens and Kristen Ghodsee

Peter Mertens and Kristen Ghodsee

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Nadine and Kristen

Nadine and Kristen

The final cover design and blurb for Red Valkyries

Through a series of lively and accessible biographical essays, Red Valkyries explores the history of socialist feminism century Eastern Europe. By examining the revolutionary careers of five prominent socialist women active in the 19th and 20th centuries-the aristocratic Bolshevik, Alexandra Kollontai; the radical pedagogue, Nadezhda Krupskaya; the polyamorous firebrand, Inessa Armand; the deadly sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko; and the partisan turned scientist turned global women's activist, Elena Lagadinova-Kristen Ghodsee tells the story of the personal challenges faced by earlier generations of socialist and communist women. None of these women were "perfect" leftists. Their lives were filled with inner conflicts, contradictions, and sometimes outrageous privilege, but they still managed to move forward their own political projects through perseverance and dedication to their cause. Always walking a fine line between the need for class solidarity and the desire to force their sometimes callous male colleagues to take women's issues seriously, these five women pursued novel solutions with lessons for activists of today. In brief conversational chapters-with plenty of concrete examples from the history of the state socialist countries in Eastern Europe and contemporary reflections on the status of women in the world today-Ghodsee renders the big ideas of socialist feminism accessible to those newly inspired by the emancipatory politics of insurgent left feminist movements around the globe.

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Coming in July 2022!

An amazing venue in Second Life

I am so pleased with the avatar and the venue built for me by Ruby (Ana Victoria Valladares Rubi) who did most of the creative work on this amazing virtual space. We have not one, but two, of Talin’s Towers to welcome you into the venue. It’s at noon (New York Time) at the Second Life Book Club. Also thanks to Draxtor (Bernhard Drax) for organizing it all.

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A new newsletter...

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Travel is like a muscle; if you don’t flex it often enough, it atrophies

Because of COVID-19, I’ve been grounded since March 15, 2020, but I finally managed to haul myself onto a plane last week for a much-needed trip to Eastern Europe. As an ethnographer, my research requires fieldwork, which means talking to people in their own language and in their own country, trying to understand their dynamic worldviews from inside that amorphous and elusive thing that anthropologists used to call “culture.” While some of my more technologically savvy colleagues moved their scholarly research into digital realms during the pandemic, I’m old fashioned. For me there is no replacement for walking the streets of the city, eavesdropping on bits of dialogue as people go about their daily lives, or chatting for hours over coffee, wine, or rakija. 
 
After a delayed flight forced a missed connection, I spent nine hours in Munich airport delirious with sleeplessness before boarding the plane to Bulgaria. Read more…

Le Monde Diplomatique article in Portuguese, Hungarian, and Farci, too!

I just heard from my French editor that my article on global socialist women’s movements appeared in several other languages as part of local editions of Le Monde Diplomatique. So far, I have the full text of the Spanish, Portuguese, German, Farci, and Italian translations, and I am hoping to get link to the Hungarian version soon.

It’s so nice to know that the article has found its way out into the world.