- This event has passed.
SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
June 12 | 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Rozafa Berisha, PhD (seeFField visiting fellow) will give a talk on…
“Crafting Futures in the Aftermath of Hope: Gender, State, and Affect in Kosovo”
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: SG 214, Universität Regensburg
Abstract: This lecture discusses the relations between promises of statehood and gendered futures in Kosovo, a state-building context with an unfolding Europeanising agenda. For young women, historically marginal within gender and ethno-national hierarchies, Kosovo’s independence in 2008 promised a new era of state-oriented hopefulness. It did so by promoting a new model of national womanhood ingrained with the principles of liberty, empowerment, and meritocracy; the core tenets of a projected “European future”. However, the fieldwork Rozafa Berisha conducted a decade after independence, revealed that many of these promises remained unmet. In this lecture, she traces ethnographically how young women from low-income backgrounds navigate the disconnect between their novel hopes of post-independence and their lived realities through individualized future-making strategies. Centering around an ethnographic and gendered account of the state, the talk reflects on what it means to form an affective attachment to a political project that struggles to materialize.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks