Invited Lectures, Readings, and Presentations (Selected)
2020
“Women and Socialism: A Short Continental History.” Virtual Event for the Worker’s Party of Ireland, May 5, 2020
“Choice Words” Virtual reading at the Harvard Bookstore, April 27, 2020
“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism,” (Online) 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
“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990,” 21st Distinguished Lecture in the Anthropology of Europe, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, April 18, 2019
“Capitalism Between the Sheets: Sexual Economics Theory and the Commodification of Everyday Intimacy,” The New School Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies, March 27, 2019
“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism,” Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, February 14, 2019
2018
“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism,” Narberth Bookshop, December 5, 2019
“Capitalism Between the Sheets: Sexual Economics Theory and the Commodification of Everyday Intimacy,” Penn Anthropology Colloquium, November 26, 2018
“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism,” Politics & Prose, November 15, 2018
“Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism,” Half King Reading Series, November 12, 2018
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei?: Public Opinion and the Social Impacts of Transition in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 1990-2017” Penn Kruzhok: Russian History and Culture Workshop, September 24, 2018
“How DO We Change the World?” Brooklyn Book Festival, September 16, 2018
“Sex and Super Power Rivalry: Women’s Rights and Cold War Competition at the United Nations, 1968-1990” UC Santa Cruz, Anthropology Department Colloquium, May 21, 2018
“Red Hangover: Legacies of 20th Century Communism,” Philadelphia Free Library, May 7, 2018
“Folded into Lives: A Conversation with Joao Biehl and Kristen Ghodsee,” Slought Foundation, April 19, 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, 2018
“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
“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,” 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, 2015
“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
“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