Brkovic

This course discusses theoretical, methodological, and practical issues of anthropology of gender, with a regional focus on the Balkans. It is structured around three topics: “Key concepts”; “Gender, (Post)Socialism, and War”; and “Intersectionality and LGBT Activism in the Balkans”.

During the first five weeks, “Key Concepts”, we explore how dominant images of the Balkans as an ambiguous, neither modern, nor traditional region were encouraged by visions of militarized and aggressive masculinity, victimized and silent femininity, and traditional cross-dressing practices such as sworn virgins. As its name suggests, the first topic focuses on anthropological approaches to the key concepts of the course, including gender, Balkans, modernity, tradition, and sworn virgins.

In the second part of the course, “Gender, (Post)Socialism, and War”, we look into gender relations during and after the socialist era, as well as during and after the Yugoslav wars. Simultaneity of the postwar and postsocialist transformation in former Yugoslav countries affected gender, kinship, and sexuality in complex ways. The second topic also addresses how particular essentializing notions of gender fostered postwar reconciliation in the region.

In the third part of the course, “Intersectionality and LGBT Activism in the Balkans”, we learn how struggles over gender and sexual rights are affecting the process of Europeanization in the Balkans (and vice versa). Since the 1990s, queer activism sometimes challenged and sometimes reproduced problematic links that placed “Balkans”, “heterosexuality”, “militarized masculinity” on the one side and “Europe”, “minority sexualities”, and “alternative gender norms” on another. The final part of the course also looks at how problems of economic inequality become entangled with problems of cultural recognition of gender and sexual rights.

The course introduces students to some of the key questions in anthropology of gender, through historical and ethnographic accounts focused on the Balkans. It also outlines how gender and sexual practices shaped – and were shaped by – different political projects, including socialism, nationalism, war, postwar reconciliation, postsocialist transformation, and Europeanization.

By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze gender politics in contemporary Europe and beyond; to recognize and critically assess instances of balkanist and orientalist discourses in journalist, travel, policy, and other texts; as well as to understand socio-political transformations through the lens of gender and sexuality. Furthermore, during this course, students will have an opportunity to participate in the Anglo-American style of undergraduate seminars and to practice their skills of reading, writing, and presenting in English.

This course explores social life and political effects of policy, a form of body of knowledge and practice that aims to regulate future. While policy may appear to be dry and detached from everyday life, it is a product of particular social contexts which entangle international, national, regional, and local bodies and actors. Social lives of policies unravel in all the places that are affected by them. Policies present the crucial element of contemporary governance globally – in the West, as well as in the global peripheries.

This course focuses on two things. First, it explores socio-political effects of policies that turn out to be working well from the perspective of policy writers. Wrapped in technical and legal language, policies are usually presented as politically neutral, yet they help to actively shape socio-political life and experiences in a particular location. Second, this course explores what happens with policies, governance, and future when things do not go according to the plan. Imagination and intentions of policy writers are often challenged when policies are put into practice; especially when policies are moved across the globe. The course will look at the social life and political effects of “unexpected consequences”, “failed reforms”, and similar tropes that describe frequent surprises in policy-making in everyday life.

The course presents historically and ethnographically informed accounts of effects of specific policies. In doing so, it encourages students to think about particular policies regarding welfare, EU and European belonging, heritage, education, class, nation, humanitarian aid, and development in a new light. By the end of the course, students will be aware of how writing, implementing, and moving policies throughout the world has had particular social, political, and economic consequences, only some of which could have been predicted.

By the end of the course, the students will be able to analyze public policies from an anthropological perspective and to understand various underlying ideas about social justice, politics, and economy that become enveloped by the “dry” policy language. Furthermore, during this course, students will become acquainted with the Anglo-American style of undergraduate seminars and they will have an opportunity to practice their skills of reading, writing, and presenting in English.