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This book intertwines academic and activist voices to engage with more than three decades of lesbian activism in the Yugoslav space. The empirically rich contributions uncover a range of lesbian initiatives and the fundamental, but rarely acknowledged, role that lesbian alliances have played in articulating a feminist response to the upsurge of nationalism, widespread violence against women, and high levels of lesbophobia and homophobia in all of the post-Yugoslav states. By offering a distinctly intergenerational and transnational perspective, this collection does not only shed new light on a severely marginalised group of people, but constitutes a pioneering effort in accounting for the intricacies - solidarities, joys, and tensions - of lesbian activist organising in a post-conflict and post-socialist environment. With a plethora of authorial standpoints and innovative methodological approaches, the volume challenges the systematic absence of (post-)Yugoslav lesbian activist enterprises from recent social science scholarship.
Lesbian Activism in the (Post-)Yugoslav Space will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including gender studies, history, politics, anthropology, and sociology.
List of contents
1. Introduction Recovering/Rethinking (Post-)Yugoslav Lesbian Activisms; Bojan Bilic.- 2. Yearning for Space, Pleasure, and Knowledge: Autonomous Lesbian and Queer Feminist Organising in Ljubljana; Teja Oblak and Maja Pan.- 3. Cartographies of Fear and Freedom: Lesbian Activists in the First Belgrade and Zagreb Pride Parades: Sanja Kajinic .- 4. Sisterhood beyond Borders: Transnational Aspects of (Post-)Yugoslav Lesbian Activism; Irene Dioli.- 5. Breaking the Silence: Lesbian activism in Macedonia; Irena Cvetkovic.- 6. Searching for a Lesbian Voice: Women's Non-Heterosexual Activism in Montenegro; Marina Vukovic and Paula Petricevic.- 7. (In)visible Presences: PitchWise Festival as a Space of Lesbian Belonging in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Adelita Selmic and Bojan Bilic.- 8. Conclusion: Discovering the Lesbian in Us: On Our Ongoing, Never-Ending Struggles; Marija Radoman.
About the author
Bojan Bilić is FCT Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal and Adjunct Professor of Gender and Social Movements in South East Europe at the School of Political Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy.
Marija Radoman is a researcher and teaching assistant in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Summary
This book intertwines academic and activist voices to engage with more than three decades of lesbian activism in the Yugoslav space. The empirically rich contributions uncover a range of lesbian initiatives and the fundamental, but rarely acknowledged, role that lesbian alliances have played in articulating a feminist response to the upsurge of nationalism, widespread violence against women, and high levels of lesbophobia and homophobia in all of the post-Yugoslav states. By offering a distinctly intergenerational and transnational perspective, this collection does not only shed new light on a severely marginalised group of people, but constitutes a pioneering effort in accounting for the intricacies – solidarities, joys, and tensions – of lesbian activist organising in a post-conflict and post-socialist environment. With a plethora of authorial standpoints and innovative methodological approaches, the volume challenges the systematic absence of (post-)Yugoslav lesbian activist enterprises from recent social science scholarship.
Lesbian Activism in the (Post-)Yugoslav Space will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including gender studies, history, politics, anthropology, and sociology.
Additional text
“This volume is a valuable and much needed contribution to the recent history (or herstory) of (feminist) lesbian organising in the successor states of Yugoslavia, showing the similarities and differences existing in this multinational, multilingual, and multiconfessional region.” (Sandra Antulov, Südosteuropa, Vol. 67 (4), 2019)
Report
"This volume is a valuable and much needed contribution to the recent history (or herstory) of (feminist) lesbian organising in the successor states of Yugoslavia, showing the similarities and differences existing in this multinational, multilingual, and multiconfessional region." (Sandra Antulov, Südosteuropa, Vol. 67 (4), 2019)
