Kristen R. Ghodsee
Encyclopedia
Kristen Ghodsee is an American ethnographer and the John S. Osterweis Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College
. She is known primarily for her ethnographic work on post-communist Bulgaria
as well as being a key player in the field of postsocialist gender studies
. Contrary to the prevailing opinion of most feminist scholars in the 1990s who believed that women would be disproportionately harmed by the collapse of communism
, Ghodsee argued that many East European women would actually fare better than men in newly competitive labor markets because of the cultural capital
that they had acquired before 1989. She was also critical of the role of Western feminist nongovernmental organizations doing work among East European women in the 1990s.
Ghodsee received her B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley
. She has been awarded numerous research fellowships, including those from the National Science Foundation
, Fulbright, the American Council of Learned Societies
, the International Research & Exchanges Board
(IREX), and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Ghodsee has also been a resident fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
in Rostock, Germany and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
at Harvard University
.
Kristen Ghodsee's 2010 book, Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity and the Transformation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria was awarded the 2010 Barbara Heldt Prize
for the best book by a woman in Slavic/Eurasian/East European Studies , the 2011 Harvard University/Davis Center Book Prize from the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, the 2011 John D. Bell Book Prize from the Bulgarian Studies Association and the 2011 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology from the Society for the Anthropology of Europe of the American Anthropological Association
. Ghodsee also won the 2011 Ethnographic Fiction Prize from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology for the short story "Tito Trivia," included in her book, Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism.
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
. She is known primarily for her ethnographic work on post-communist Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
as well as being a key player in the field of postsocialist gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
. Contrary to the prevailing opinion of most feminist scholars in the 1990s who believed that women would be disproportionately harmed by the collapse of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, Ghodsee argued that many East European women would actually fare better than men in newly competitive labor markets because of the cultural capital
Cultural capital
The term cultural capital refers to non-financial social assets; they may be educational or intellectual, which might promote social mobility beyond economic means....
that they had acquired before 1989. She was also critical of the role of Western feminist nongovernmental organizations doing work among East European women in the 1990s.
Ghodsee received her B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. She has been awarded numerous research fellowships, including those from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, Fulbright, the American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
, the International Research & Exchanges Board
International Research & Exchanges Board
International Research & Exchanges Board is an international nonprofit organization providing leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of education, strengthen independent media, and foster pluralistic civil society development....
(IREX), and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Ghodsee has also been a resident fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
in Princeton, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research is located in Rostock, Germany. It was founded in 1996 and moved into new buildings in Rostock in 2002. It is one of approximately 80 institutes of the Max Planck Society....
in Rostock, Germany and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard is an educational institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the semiautonomous components of Harvard University. It is heir to the name and buildings of Radcliffe College, but unlike that historical institution, its focus is directed...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Kristen Ghodsee's 2010 book, Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity and the Transformation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria was awarded the 2010 Barbara Heldt Prize
Heldt Prize
' is a literary award from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies named in honor of Barbara Heldt. The award has been given variously in the following categories:*Best book in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian Women's Studies...
for the best book by a woman in Slavic/Eurasian/East European Studies , the 2011 Harvard University/Davis Center Book Prize from the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, the 2011 John D. Bell Book Prize from the Bulgarian Studies Association and the 2011 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology from the Society for the Anthropology of Europe of the American Anthropological Association
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association is a professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 11,000 members, the Arlington, Virginia based association includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, linguistic...
. Ghodsee also won the 2011 Ethnographic Fiction Prize from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology for the short story "Tito Trivia," included in her book, Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism.
Books
- Kristen Ghodsee, Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism, Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
- Kristen Ghodsee, Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity and the Transformation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009
- Kristen Ghodsee, The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism and Postsocialism on the Black Sea, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005
- Rachel Connelly and Kristen Ghodsee, Professor Mommy: Finding Work/Family Balance in Academia, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011
Significant Journal Articles
- "Feminism-by-Design: Emerging Capitalisms, Cultural Feminism and Women's Nongovernmental Organizations in Post-Socialist Eastern Europe," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Spring 2004 (Vol. 29, No. 3)
- "Revisiting the International Decade for Women: Brief Reflections on Competing Definitions of Feminism and Cold War Politics from the American Perspective," Women's Studies International Forum, (2010) 33: 3-12
- "Minarets after Marx: Islam, Communist Nostalgia, and the Common Good in Postsocialist Bulgaria." East European Politics & Societies, November 2010 24: 520-542
- "Left Wing, Right Wing, Everything: Xenophobia, Neo-totalitarianism and Populist Politics in Contemporary Bulgaria," Problems of Post-Communism, (Vol. 55, No. 3 May–June 2008)
- "Religious Freedoms versus Gender Equality: Faith-Based Organizations, Muslim Minorities and Islamic Headscarves in Modern Bulgaria," Social Politics, (Vol. 14, No. 4, 2007)
- "Red Nostalgia? Communism, Women's Emancipation, and Economic Transformation in Bulgaria," L'Homme: Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft (Journal for Feminist History), Spring 2004 (Vol. 15, No. 1/2004).
- "And if the Shoe Doesn't Fit? (Wear it Anyway?): Economic Transformation and Western Paradigm of 'Women in Development' in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe," Women's Studies Quarterly, Fall & Winter 2003 (Vol. 31, No. 3 & 4).
Interviews with Kristen Ghodsee
- (Audio) Kristen Ghodsee on Nostalgia for Communism on Northeast Public Radio
- (Audio) Kristen Ghodsee discusses headscarves in Bulgaria with Lisa MullinsLisa MullinsLisa Mullins is an American radio personality. She is the anchor and senior producer of The World, a radio program of Public Radio International. She anchored the program from Hong Kong when the territory was handed back to China in 1997...
on The World - (Video) Kristen Ghodsee discusses The Red Riviera with George Liston Seay on Dialogue
- (Print) Кристeн Годси: "Българските жени са приспособими, упорити и готови да поемат и най-големите предизвикателства"
External links
- Kristen Ghodsee's Bowdoin College faculty page webpage
- Podcast of a book talk at UCLA (The Red Riviera)
- Headscarves as Politics: Gender, Islam and Shifting Discourses of Social Justice in the Balkans, a public lecture at Indiana University
- Rachel Connelly and Kristen Ghodsee, Professor Mom: Finding Work-Family Balance Despite the Odds in The Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, July 24, 2011 - Nina Ayoub, "The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea," in The Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, December 2, 2005 - Kristen Ghodsee, "A Research Career at a Liberal-Arts College," in The Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, April 25, 2008