Who we are, what we do.

The Socialisms & Sexualities Working Group offers an interdisciplinary forum for exploring the intersection of formations and articulations of sexuality and the political economic systems called ‘socialist’ and ‘post-socialist.’

How might queer theory benefit from a more sustained look at how political economies other than those of late capitalism intersect with and inflect the formation of sexualities, specifically nonheteronormative ones? And how might theories of socialism and, in particular, the theoretical contributions generated in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union (in the problem-space of the former second world), benefit from an engagement with theoretical insights that have emerged from the study of gender, sexuality and queer subjectivities?

This group will also address texts gathered under the banner of ‘postsocialism’ in order to investigate further the crises of meaning produced by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and to better understand the negotiations these crises prompted at the level of individual self-making and self-understanding, as well as at the level of ideology.