Selected appearances

Invited Lectures, Readings, and Presentations (Recent) 

Kristen Ghodsee in Paris in 20212021

(Note:  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many 2021 appearances are filed under the "media" menu as links to videos)

"The glass ceiling: why is it so low under capitalism?” Telling Stories Conference, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia (via Zoom), May 22, 2021

“FRELIMO versus Feminism: Socialism, National Independence Struggles, and East-South Alliances during the 1975 International Year of Women,” Invited Paper at the conference: International Women’s Year in 1975 and the UN Decade for Women: Reception, Impact and Legacies, Universidad Compultense de Madrid Spain (via Zoom), May 20, 2021

“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Kristen R. Ghodsee, Bruno Kreisky Forum, Vienna, Austria (online), May 12, 2021

Guest Lecturer, Gender Politics and the Art of European Socialist States Working Group, Krakow, Poland (via Zoom), April 9, 2021

Organizer and Moderator, “Socialist Sexualities: Expert Knowledge and Intimate Revolutions in Poland and Czechoslovakia,” Harvard University, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (via Zoom), March 31, 2021

Organizer and Moderator, “Love and Sex Behind the Iron Curtain: What can we learn from the experiences of 20thCentury State Socialism in Eastern Europe,” University of Pennsylvania (via Zoom), March 17, 2021

“Sex and Superpower Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War competition, 1960-1989,” Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po (Online) March 11, 2021

“Infrastructures of Solidarity,” Gender and Infrastructure: Intersection between Postsocialist and Postcolonial Geographies Conference, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, UK (via Zoom) March 4, 2021

"Beyond the Double Burden: Women's Rights and State Socialism in Eastern Europe," Roundtable lecture co-sponsored by Sciences Po Center for History and the Institute for German History in Paris (via Zoom), March 18, 2021

State Socialist Women’s Organization and their Role during the UN Decade for Women, 1975-1985,” Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po (Online) March 11, 2021

“The Socialist History of International Women’s Day,” University of Kansas (online), March 9, 2021

2020   

Beyond Boundaries #2: "Why Women Had Better Sex under Socialism” Online live lecture for the Thai Political Science Student Union, October 29, 2020

“Капитализм под одеялом: сексуальная экономическая теория и коммодификация повседневной интимности” Online live book launch at the World of Knowledge Film Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 17, 2020.

"The Experiences of Women Under Socialism." Online live lecture for the Irish Workers Party, May 5, 2020

Book Launch for Choice Words online at the Harvard Book Store (with Annie Finch and Desiree Cooper), April 27, 2020

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence," Quarantine Book Club, April 6, 2020

"Sex, Politics, and Gender," with Dame Marilyn Waring and Kathryn Ryan, New Zealand Festival of the Arts, March 14, 2020

"Kristen Ghodsee: Socialism versus Capitalism," with Kim Hill, New Zealand Festival of the Arts, March 12, 2020

2019

"The Social Impacts of Transition" with Mitchell Orenstein, Social Impacts of Post-Socialist Transition and Policies for the Future Conference, University of Pennsylvania, November 7 and 8, 2019

Discussant: "The Kids Want Communism." Slought Book Forum: A discussion on the legacies and meaning of communism today, November 5, 2019

“Sex and Superpower Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990” Politics Forum: College of New Jersey, September 27, 2019

“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism,” Portland Metamorphosis Page Burner Reading Series, September 21, 2019

INTERNATIONAL MOBILIZATIONS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS ISSUES DURING THE COLD WAR, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, June 28, 2019

Global Socialist Feminism conference, University of Michigan, JUne 1-3, 2019

“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990,” 21st Distinguished Lecture in Anthropology, University of Massachessets - Amherst, April 18, 2019

"Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism," Penn Dems, University of Pennsylvania, April 16, 2019 

"“Capitalism Between the Sheets: Sexual Economics Theory and the Commodification of Everyday Intimacy,” The New School Heilbroner School for Capitalism Studies, March 27, 2019

"Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism" with Sarah Jaffe, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, February 14, 2019

2018

"Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism" Narberth Bookshop, December 2, 2018

"Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism," Politics and Prose Bookstore, November 15, 2018

"Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism," Half King Reading Series, November 12, 2018

"Vox Populi, Vox Dei" University of Pennsylvania Kruzhok: Russia History and Culture Workshop, Septemebr 24, 2018

"How to Change the World," Brooklyn Book Festival Panel, September 16, 2018

“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990,” Department of Anthropology,  UC Santa Cruz, May 21, 2018

“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990” Quaker Days Faculty Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, April 19, 2018Ghodsee at Rutgers

“Folded into Lives: A Conversation with Kristen Ghodsee and Joao Biehl,” Slought, April 19, 2018

“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990,” Distinguished Lecture in History, Rutgers University, April 11, 2018

Discussant for the book launch of Europe Un-Imagined by Damien Stankiewicz, Global Studies Program, Temple University, April 5, 2018

Keynote address:  “The Left Side of History: Public Memory and 20th Century State Socialism in Eastern Europe,” Contested Bodies Conference, University of Pennsylvania, March 15, 2018

“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990” Knowledge by the Slice, University of Pennsylvania, March 14, 2018

 

2017

"Revolution Redux: How the October Revolution is Still Shaking Our World" (panel discussion) University of Pennsylvania, November 29, 2017

"Revolution in Context: Teach In," Swarthmore College, November 7, 2017

Marxism, Socialism, Feminism: A Transnational Conversation,” Duke University, November 6, 2017

"Women's Rights under State Socialism: How Good Was it?" History of Women and Gender (HOWAG) Seminar, New York University, October 30, 2017

"The Women's Revolution,"Did Ten Days Shake the World? Centenary Perspectives on the Russian Revolution" Harvard University Davis Center, October 7, 2017

"The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend: The Curious Tale of Liberal Feminism and Capitalism in Eastern Europe," 3rd Annual Philadelphia Europeanists Workshop, Temple University, October 13, 2017

"The Women's Revolution: The Zhenotdel, the Soviet Women's Committee, and the Global Impacts of the Woman Question” Did Ten Days Shake the World? Harvard Davis Center Conference October 6 & 7, 2017

"The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend: The Curious Tale of Liberal Feminism and Capitalism in Eastern Europe," Gender - Power - Eastern Europe Conference, Berlin, June 22, 2017

"Red Hangover: Legacies of 20th Century Communism," Microsoft Research New England, Boston, June 7, 2017

Roundtable Participant, "Putin, Gender, and the U.S. Elections," Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and East European Studies, March 28, 2017

2016

"Cold War Women's Rights: Superpower Rivalry and Transnational Feminism, 1968-1990," University of Pennsylvannia, December 9, 2016

"The Left Side of History: World War II and Re-emergent Nationalisms in Contemporary Eastern Europe" Institute for Advanced Study, October 14, 2016

"Women in Red: East European Mass Women’s Organizations and International Feminism during the Cold War, Keynote Lecture, (Re)thinking Yugoslav Internationalism, University of Graz, Austria, September 29, 2016

"Sisters in Solidarity: Mass Women's Organizations in Eastern Europe and Africa," Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, June 7, 2016

"Sisters in Solidarity: Transnational Women's Organizing during the Cold War," F. Schiller University - Jena, February 22, 2016

2015

"The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe," St. Joseph's College, Maine, November 4, 2015

"The Left Side of History:  Reconsidering Communism in Light of the Crises in Capitalism," University of Otago, New Zealand, September 25, 2015

Reading: The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe, Longfellow Books, Portland, Maine, August 20, 2015Otago Poster

"Book launch: The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe," Freiburg Institute for Advanced Study (FRIAS), July 15, 2015

"Weaponizing' Women's Rights: Cold War Politics and the U.N. Decade for Women, 1975-1985," Council for European Studies, Sciences Po, Paris, France, July 9, 2015

"The Left Side of History: Remembering the Victims of Communism After the Crises of Capitalism," Thinking Beyond Capitalism, University of Belgrade, Serbia, June 22, 2015

"Women in Red: Communist Mass Women’s Organizations and International Feminism during the Cold War," University of Crete, Greece, June 10, 2015

"Victors Writing History:  U.S. Anti-Communism and the Worldwide Women’s Movement," Sofia University, Bulgaria, June 1, 2015

Kristen Ghodsee book signing

"A Tale of “Two Totalitarianisms”: The Bulgarian Holocaust, the Crisis of Capitalism, and the Historical Memory of Communism," United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, International Conference, The Holocaust in Southeastern Europe, Bucharest, Romania, May 25-26, 2015

"Victors Writing History:  U.S. Anti-Communism and the Worldwide Women’s Movement," Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, May 4, 2015

"Women in Red: Communist Mass Women’s Organizations and International Feminism during the Cold War," University of Warsaw, Poland, Institute for Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, April 22, 2015

"Women in Red: Communist Mass Women’s Organizations and International Feminism during the Cold War," University of Freiburg, Germany, Kolloquium für Neuere und Osteuropäische Geschichte, April 28, 2015

"Transnational State Feminism : East European Socialist Internationalism in Africa during the United Nations Decade for Women, 1975-1985," University of Southampton, UK, February 26, 2015

"The Left Side of History. Reconsidering Communism in Light of the Crises of Capitalism" Einstein Forum, Berlin, Germany, February 10, 2015

"The Women’s Cold War: Eastern Europe, Southern Africa, and Socialist Internationalism, 1975 ‐ 1985," University of  Regensburg, Germany, January 29, 2015

"Women in Red: Socialist Internationalism during the Cold War," University College, Freiburg, Germany,  January 15, 2015

2014

"Women in Red: Socialist Internationalism during the Cold War," Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany, December 3, 2014

"Women in Red: Communist Mass Women's Organizations and International Feminism during the Cold War," Univerzita Palackého v Olomouc, Czech Republic, November 7, 2014

"Transnational State Feminisms: Bulgarian and African Women’s Movements during the United Nations Decade for Women, 1975-1985"  Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, October 22, 2014

“The Country Under My Skin: Ethnography and the ‘Unknown Unknowns’” Microsoft Research New England, USA, May 27, 2014

"Pestering the Politburo: The Committee of the Bulgarian Women’s Movement and Communist Feminisms,1968-­‐1990," presentation at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Toronto, Canada, May 25, 2014

"State Socialist Women and the ILO during the Cold War," presentation at the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Vienna, Austria, April 24, 2014.

"Photographic Propoganda: The Visual Life of Gender Under Communism," presentation at the annual meeting of the American Ethnological Society (AES), Boston, USA, April 12, 2014.

"Women in Red: Socialist Internationalism and Global Feminism during the Cold War," Harvard University, USA, April 3, 2014.

2013

"Minarets after Marx: Islam, Social Justice and Post-communist Nostalgia in Bulgaria’s Borderlands," Columbia University, USA, December 3, 2013

"Transnational State Feminisms:  Bulgarian, African, and South Asian Women’s Movements during the Cold War," Ohio State University, USA, October 14, 2013

The Political Language of Women’s Rights: State Socialist Feminism and The Committee of the Bulgarian Women’s Movement,” East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, July 13, 2013

"The Country Under My Skin: On the Emotional Entanglements of Scholarship," Williams College, USA, April 25, 2012

‘‘Weaponizing' Women's Rights: Cold War Politics and the U.N. Decade for Women, 1975‐1985” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, April 4, 2013

“Sexing the Cold War:  Socialist Internationalism, Superpower Rivalry, and Governmental Women’s Organizations in Eastern Europe and Southern Africa, 1968-1989” University of California, Los Angeles, USA, February 21, 2013

"Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism," Bailey Public Library (Winthrop, Maine) January 22, 2013

2012

“Protecting Women as Workers and Mothers: Socialist Women’s Internationalism in Africa during the Cold War,” University of Geneva, Switzerland, December 8, 2012

“Women in Red: The Committee of the Movement of Bulgarian Women and African Feminisms, 1965-1990,” Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Boston, USA, October 22, 2012

“Women in Red: The Committee of the Movement of Bulgarian Women and African Feminisms, 1965-1990,” Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes Against Communism and the History of the Romanian Exile, Bucharest, Romania, May 22-23, 2012

"Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism," Portland Public Library (Portland, Maine), USA,  May 16, 2012

"Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism," Falmouth Memorial Library (Falmouth, Maine), USA, April 10, 2012

“Rethinking State Socialist Women's Organizations: The Committee of the Movement of Bulgarian Women and African Feminisms, 1965-1990,” Communist Feminism(s) Conference, Rice University, Texas, March 23-24, 2012

PLENARY ADDRESS:  “Salvage Ethnography and Communist Nostalgia: Overcoming the Iron Curtain in European Studies,” What Divides—and Unites—Europeans (Plenary Session), Council for European Studies, Boston, March 22, 2012

Women in Red: Socialist Mass Women's Organizations and the U.N. Decade for Women, 1975-1985, Sofia University (Bulgaria), March 14, 2012