Thursday, October 30, 4-6 PM
MIT, Bldg. E51, room 275

What are Russian post –socialist perceptions of Western social and gender theories and methods of conducting empirical research?

Professor Barchunova will discuss the challenge of translating English-language gender discourse into Russian. She tracks the distortion of circulating texts and the misrepresentation of ideas and tries to explain the distortion by several factors. The crisis within the institution of publishing, the underdevelopment of Russian social theory, and the lack of funding available to scientific communities to publish the necessary (and large) volume of texts in translation, she argues, all threaten to reinforce the conservative turn in cultural translation.

Tatiana Barchunova is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Novosibirsk State University (Western Siberia) where she received her Ph D in 1991. Her initial empirical research focus was the post-Soviet gender system, in particular gender stereotyping in the media. Her work has been supported by the MacArthur, Soros, and Carnegie Foundations and the Social Science Research Council. Barchunova edited a collection of papers "Potolokpola"(Gender Ceiling) (Novosibirsk, 1998) and, with E. Zdravomyslova and A. Temkina, edited a collection of translated Western feminist texts (Saint-Petersburg, 2000) and co-authored a popular book Gender Studies for Dummies (2006). Currently she is interested in religious and consumption networks and leisure activities (such as historical and martial games, classical and historical dancing clubs, and Internet dating) and the concept of “naive translation" the latter of which will be the focus of her GCWS presentation.

Contact Andi Sutton, Program Coordinator, for more information and directions to this event, at arsutton@mit.edu or (617) 324-2085

The discussion will take place in building E51 room 275 on MIT campus. Here's a link to the campus map:

To get to E51 by T, take the Red line to Kendall Square. Exit on Main Street. Walk down Main toward the river, staying on the right hand side of the street. Take a right on Wadsworth Street and follow it until it intersects with Amherst Street. Take a right on to Amherst and walk down until you see a driving ramp on your left. Walk up the ramp and through the doors. This is E51. Walk up the stairs and room 275 will be the conference room straight ahead.

If you will be driving, there are parking meters on Main Street and Ames Street. After 3 p.m. you can also park in most of the MIT parking lots, including the one right in front of building E51.