Lecture Series: "Mobility and Order: Models, Actors and Contestations in Eurasia"

This event is part of the ongoing lecture series hosted by the Institute for East European Studies (Osteuropa-Institut).

This Week's Lecture

Title: Transformations of Gender Relations in Central Asia

Speaker: Rustam Samadov (United Nations University)

Time: 14:15 - 15:45

Location:
Osteuropa-Institut, Lecture Hall A
Garystraße 55
14195 Berlin

Abstract

In this presentation, I will provide an overview of gender relations in Central Asia, which have traditionally relied on a binary, male-female system. I will discuss the continuity and changes in gender relations that have been evolving in the region during pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet periods. In order to understand social roles, including societal perceptions of masculinity and femininity and societal expectations from men and women, one has to look at a broader social fabric. This involves power relations, divisions of responsibilities and expectations that the two genders hold of each other. The social fabric also includes aspects such as organization of community, family structure and intergenerational relations, as well as state politics which regulate gender roles. This is precisely what will be covered in the presentation. Drawing on my ethnographic research conducted in Russia and Tajikistan among migrant men and their families, I will also provide examples on how masculine practices of Tajik migrant men transform in the transnational context.

General Information

• The complete program of the lecture series can be found here.
• All lectures will be recorded and made available on the website of the Mediothek of Osteuropa-Institut and on the institute's YouTube channel.

About the Lecture Series

This lecture series features both researchers from the Institute for East European Studies (OEI) and international scholars with a focus on Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia. The series explores the interplay between voluntary and involuntary human mobility across state borders and the political regimes, social orders, and cultural landscapes of Eurasia. Topics such as diversity, labor, migration, development, and the impact of refugees on their host societies are discussed from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

These interactions occur as the existing political, economic, and cultural world order is being reshaped by the deepening Russian-Chinese partnership, Russia’s attempts to secure its zones of influence, economic nationalism, and the weakening influence of the “West.” Therefore, the series also includes lectures that connect this regional focus to the emerging logic of geopolitics and geoeconomics, and the construction of alternative institutions influencing both mobility and order.