Once again, I get to be one of those talking heads you see in documentary films about history; this time about Soviet women in combat in World War II
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
Just the book I needed
I ordered this gem through interlibrary loan and discovered many fascinating facts about sex and love in the Soviet Union. The author, Vladimir Shlapentokh, was a prominent sociologist before he emigrated to the United States in 1978. This was his first book published in his adopted country in which he argues that the Soviet citizen had become hedonistic in the extreme.
A new cover for the Dutch version
I’m so thrilled for the Dutch translation of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism or "Waarom vrouwen betere seks hebben onder het socialisme,” and love their cover redesign.
Winter academic reading
My spring semester is about to start, but I had some time to delve into some great books about Eastern Europe and the politics of knowledge production during the Cold War. I wrote review of Birth of Democratic Citizenship and To See Paris and Die, I read Know Your Enemy for the first time and it inspired me to go back and reread Laura Nader’s and Noam Chomsky’s essays in The Cold War & The University.
