Women and War (2007)

The Center for Slavic and East European Studies is sponsoring an international conference on Women and War on October 26th and 27th, 2007, to be held at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. Speakers address issues of memory and representation in the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the current struggles in Chechnya and Afghanistan. See more information on the Slavic Center website.

Conference Schedule

October 26 (Friday) 3:30 - 9:00 pm

Opening Remarks - 3:30 pm

Panel 1 - The Yugoslav Wars and the Other - 4:00 - 6:00 pm

Chair/Discussant: Snjezana Buzov (Ohio State)

Jennifer Erickson (University of Oregon), "Racism, Classism, Gender, and War:  The Case of Romani Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina"
Amy Szabo (Ohio State), "The Silent War on Women: Ethnic Conflict and the Development of Sex Trafficking in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina"
Aleksandra Milicevic (University of North Florida), "Men and Women in the Wars in Former Yugoslavia"

Screening of Grbavica (Esma's Secret) (2006) - 6:00 - 7:30 pm

Reception - 7:30 - 9:00 pm

October 27 (Saturday) - 9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Panel 2 - Women Writers and the Yugoslav Wars - 9:00 - 10:30 am

Chair/Discussant: Angela Brintlinger (Ohio State)

Ajla Demiragic (University of Sarajevo), "(Out)Living the War: Literary Representation of War in Contemporary Fiction by Women Writers from Bosnia and Herzegovina"
Jessica Wienhold (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), "Engendering Defamiliarization: Dubravka Ugresic's 'point of pain' in The Museum of Unconditional Surrender"

Coffee Break - 10:30 - 10:45 am

Panel 3 - Memory and the Yugoslav Wars - 10:45 am - 12:15 pm

Chair/Discussant: Dorothy Noyes (Ohio State)

Julie Mertus (American University), "Memories of Sisterhood United, Sisterhood Divided"
Ramajana Hidic Demirovic (Indiana University), "Dichotomy of Memory? Women Surviving Memories of the Genocide in Bosnia"

Lunch - 12:15 - 1:30 pm

Panel 4 - Film and the Yugoslav Wars - 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Chair/Discussant: Brian Baer (Kent State University)

Yana Hashamova (Ohio State), "War Rapes: Redefining Motherhood, Fatherhood, and Nationhood"
Olha Rudich (Ohio State), "Milcho Manchevski's Before the Rain: Zamira's Love and Religious and Ethnic Conflicts"
Discussant: Natasha Olshanskaya (Kenyon College)

Panel 5 - Women's Representations and the War on Terror - 3:00 - 4:30 pm

Chair/Discussant: Ruby Tapia (Ohio State)

Wendy Hesford (Ohio State), "Staging Terror, Staging Gender"
Reshmi Mukherjee (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), "Studying the Gaze: Submission or Subversion?"

Coffee Break - 4:30 - 4:45 pm

Panel 6 - Women in Afghan and Chechen Conflicts - 4:45 - 6:45 pm

Chair/Discussant: Helena Goscilo (University of Pittsburgh)

Kirsten Rutsala (Oklahoma University), "Shifting Between Worlds:  Gender Identity in the Second Chechen War"
Trina Mamoon (University of Alaska - Fairbanks), "Desperate and Dangerous: 'Black Widows' and the Chechen Conflict"
Serguei Oushakine (Princeton), "Private Traumas of Local Wars: On Mothers, Objects, and Relations"

Reception - 7:00 - 9:00 pm