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75844-01 - Proseminar: Gender and Sexuality Behind the Iron Curtain (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Anna Dobrowolska (anna.dobrowolska@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This course surveys the history of gender and sexuality in East Central Europe between 1945 and 1989. Focusing on the role state socialism played in reshaping gender roles and sexual behaviors in the post-World War II period, the Proseminar will equip students with an in-depth understanding of the political dynamics behind and grassroots responses to state-socialist sexual and gender revolutions. The course will survey developments such as women’s labor force participation, discussions over reproductive rights, sexological expert knowledge, the popularity of socialist erotica, as well as first attempts at queer organizing. Through the lenses of gender and sexuality, the course introduces the basic chronology of East Central European state-socialist regimes, from the post-war reconstruction and Stalinist industrialization, the upheavals of 1956 and 1968, socialist consumerism of the 1970s, up to the crisis of late socialism in the 1980s and the regime’s collapse in 1989. Acquainting students with a wide array of primary sources (such as archival documents, photos, films, and artistic performances), the course also introduces students to the variety of sources and methods used by historians of gender and sexuality in East Central Europe. The students will also have the opportunity to discuss more theoretical questions, inquiring into the role played by gender and sexuality in shaping historiographical narratives, both in the region and beyond. |
| Bibliography | Andrei, Andreea, and Alina Branda. 2015. “Abortion Policy and Social Suffering: The Objectification of Romanian Women’s Bodies Under Communism (1966–1989).” Women’s History Review 24 (6): 881–899. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2015.1013304. Dobrowolska, Anna. 2023. “‘Why Don’t They Display Male Nudes?’ Nude Photography, Women’s Art, and the Redefinition of Socialist Morality in 1970s Poland.” Aspasia 17: 164–82. https://doi.org/10.3167/asp.2023.170109. Fidelis, Małgorzata. 2004. “Equality through Protection: The Politics of Women’s Employment in Postwar Poland.” Slavic Review 63 (2): 301–24. Hearne, Siobhán. 2022. “Selling Sex under Socialism: Prostitution in the Post-War USSR.” European Review of History 29 (2): 290–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2021.1937952. Ignaciuk, Agata. 2020. “No Man’s Land? Gendering Contraception in Family Planning Advice Literature in State-Socialist Poland (1950s–1980s).” Social History Of Medicine 33 (4): 1327–1349. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkz007. Kościańska, Agnieszka. 2014. “Beyond Viagra: Sex Therapy in Poland.” Sociologický Časopis / Czech Sociological Review 50 (6): 919–38. https://doi.org/10.13060/00380288.2014.50.6.148. Lišková, Kateřina. 2018. Sexual Liberation, Socialist Style. Communist Czechoslovakia and the Science of Desire, 1945-1989. New York: Cambridge University Press (Chapters 1 and 3) Lovett, Jessica. 2022. “‘The Fate of the Nation’: Population Politics in a Changing Soviet Union (1964–1991).” Nationalities Papers, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2022.27. Massino, Jill. 2010. “Something Old, Something New: Marital Roles and Relations in State Socialist Romania.” Journal of Women’s History 22 (1): 34–60. McLellan, Josie. 2007. “State Socialist Bodies: East German Nudism from Ban to Boom.” The Journal of Modern History 79 (1): 48–79. McLellan, Josie. 2009. “Visual Dangers and Delights: Nude Photography in East Germany.” Past and Present 205 (1): 143–74. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtp040. McLellan, Josie. 2012. “Glad to Be Gay behind the Wall: Gay and Lesbian Activism in 1970s East Germany.” History Workshop Journal, no. 74: 105–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbs017. Nowak, Basia A. 2009. “‘Where Do You Think I Learned How to Style My Own Hair?’ Gender and Everyday Lives of Women Activists in Poland’s League of Women.” In Gender Politics and Everyday Life in State Socialist Eastern and Central Europe, edited by Shana Penn and Jill Massino, 45–58. New York. Scott, Joan W. 1986. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The American Historical Review 91 (5): 1053–75. Sharp, Ingrid. 2004. “The Sexual Unification of Germany.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 13 (3): 348–65. Sitar, Polona. 2018. “Female Trouble: Menstrual Hygiene, Shame and Socialism.” Journal of Gender Studies 27 (7): 771–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2017.1304860. Szulc, Lukasz. 2018. Transnational Homosexuals in Communist Poland: Cross-Border Flows in Gay and Lesbian Magazines. London: Palgrave Macmillan. |
| Admission requirements | Für Studierende BSF Geschichte und BSG Osteuropastudien mit abgeschlossenem Einführungskurs der Geschichte. Teilnahme an der ersten Sitzung ist obligatorisch. Die Teilnehmer:innenzahl ist auf 25 beschränkt. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende, die noch kein Proseminar in dem Modul absolviert haben, bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 17.02.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 24.02.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 03.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 10.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Fasnachstferien |
| Monday 17.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 24.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 31.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 07.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 14.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 21.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Ostern |
| Monday 28.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 05.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 12.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 19.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 26.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Modules |
Modul: Basis Geschichte: Ostmitteleuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Basis Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Bachelor's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Aktive Teilnahme. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |