Between the post-s

Russian theorist Madina Tlostanova describes the ex-Soviet space as a “void”[1] in the structure of global knowledge production, in which the Global South has a symbolic right to postcolonialism and the Global North, to postmodernism. For her, post-socialism or post-communism as a theoretical lens is insufficient to grasp the “postsocialist, postcolonial and post imperial overtones [that] intersect and communicate in the complex imaginary of the ex-Soviet space.”[2] Tlostanova believes that the Soviet approach to creating “its own New Woman in her metropolitan and colonial versions” implied that “the gendered subjects of the ex-colonies of Russia and the USSR are not quite postcolonial and not entirely postsocialist.”[3] However, this specificity, as well as “presocialist local genealogies of women’s struggles and resistance, tend to be erased.”[4]

Postcolonial theory becomes increasingly popular in the post-Soviet contexts as processes of decolonization continue in the former ‘periphery’ of the former USSR.

Have settler colonial studies and Eastern European studies something to tell each other? This was the overarching question that the conference wanted to address, by bringing together the research fields of settler colonial studies and Eastern European history. The conference was thus an exploration of how and whether settler colonial studies can contribute to the study of Eastern Europe and, conversely, what distinctive aspects of Eastern European history could bring significant contributions to the field of settler colonial studies.

The conference was opened by REINHARD JOHLER (Tübingen), who expressed his hope that the research results presented will be able to incorporate the region of Eastern Europe within the main body of research on settler colonialism by emphasizing the specificities of this region.