aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Fwd: Re: kharkOv and all materials should be in Russian...

["Vitaly A. Chernetsky" <vac10@Columbia.Edu>]

Dear Natalia,

Have you not had an earlier opportunity to come across the Kharkiv Center
for Gender Studies that publishes this journal? They have existed for
about a decade now and are well known in the field of gender studies
internationally. Yes they are russocentric, and the journal is distributed
in Russia much more widely than in Ukraine (where it is harly distributed
at all), and I object to this side of their policy. But in the absence of
a similar institution in Russia, paradoxically enough, they fulfil a
lacuna there (why there is such a lacuna in Russia is a different story).
And we partly have our lovely Ukrainian government to blame for them
turning to the Russian market, as it did its best to crush independent
publishing focusing on the Ukrainian market; a number of Ukrainian
publishing houses survived in the 1990s by publishing books in Russian and
selling them in Russia.

One may lament that a center based in Ukraine does scholarship primarily
targeting the Russian-language audience (not just in Russia, but also
elsewhere in the ex-USSR), but much as I disagree at times with their
policies, just faulting them for the use of language will be
counterproductive, I think. Zaven Babloian, who wrote this particular call
for submissions, as you can guess by his name, is not Russian but
Armenian, and he is no ukrainophobe (I have met him personally). But he
and his colleagues do think of themselves in terms of the post-Soviet
space and stick to using its lingua franca for marketing reasons (to sell
the journal, as they do, in Moscow, Minsk, Almaty, etc.); note that the
original call was sent to a Russia-focused Internet list.

Looking at the journal's *content* is a different matter, as it has
published pieces by the Kharkiv Center's leaders, the wife and husband
team of Irina/Iryna Zherebkina and Sergei/Serhii Zherebkin, who do treat
Ukraine-related topics, and when Sergei Zherebkin writes ukrainophobic
stuff in Russian that's completely unacceptable (but he does read
Ukrainian and in his articles discusses Ukrainian literature, history,
etc.). And, of course, the best response would be to launch a gender
studies journal in Ukrainian which would be on a higher intellectual and
professional level than this one... Fortunately, as you probably know,
Ukrainophone gender/feminist scholarship in Ukraine is quite strong, and
if they don't have a unified powerful outlet like the Kharkiv-based
journal, the scholars in Kyiv, L'viv and elsewhere have done serious work
to challenge directly the russocentric biases of the Kharkiv school (see,
for instance, the published work of Nila Zborovs'ka). But even they
acknowledge that by bringing feminist scholarly discourse and methodology
to the post-Soviet space the Kharkiv people are doing something useful. I
strongly criticize their approach to Ukrainian matters in my own
(forthcoming) work, but I think they deserve serious engagement.

It doesn't help that even the supposedly enlightened "nationally
conscious" circles frequently remain quite hostile to gender/feminist
scholarship (for example, it took Oksana Kis' a lot of time and effort to
convince the L'viv-based journal "I" [z dvoma krapkamy] to do a special
issue on gender/feminist scholarship, soon after Solomiia Pavlychko's
untimely death--sadly, it took that tragic event for some to finally take
this field seriously).

Thus my modest proposal for counteracting the russocentric policies of the
Kharkiv school would be to help the ukrainophone flank of Ukraine's
feminist/gender scholarship, in Kyiv, L'viv and elsewhere. Bring their
work to the broader international attention; aid in the efforts of making
more non-ex-Soviet feminist/gender scholarship available in Ukrainian.
Help them prosper. That would be the best "revenge."

Shchyro,
Vitaly

On Sun, 30 Sep 2001, Natalia Pylypiuk wrote:
>  >Date:         Sat, 29 Sep 2001 18:36:00 -0500
>  >Reply-To: H-Net Russian History list <H-RUSSIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
>  >Sender: H-Net Russian History list <H-RUSSIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
>  >From: Elizabeth Morrow Clark <eclark@mail.wtamu.edu>
>  >Subject:      CFP: Gender Studies Journal #6
>  >To: H-RUSSIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
>  >Status:
>  >
>  >From: Serguei Alex. Oushakine [mailto:sao15@columbia.edu]
>  >Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 9:17 AM
>  >
>  >From: "KCGS" <zlists@univer.kharkov.ua>
>  >
>  >(Kharkov Center for Gender Studies)
>  >===============================================
>  >
>  >Dear subscribers,
>  >
>  >I'd like to inform you that Gender Studies Journal is soliciting papers,
>  >short essays, and reviews or comments on the current events in the field
>  >for the next issue. Address for sending any materials and asking
>  >any questions is my one: <zaven@univer.kharkov.ua>
>  >
>  >All materials for publication should be in Russian.
>  >
>  >The deadline for submissions is 1 November 2001.
>  >
>  >Hope to hearing from you,
>  >
>  >Zaven.