Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
The purpose of this panel is to discuss maternal responses to nationalist constructions of ideal motherhood in three countries: Lithuania, Russia, and Denmark. Despite their differences in geopolitical goals and sociohistorical contexts, the three countries under consideration share a common nationalist narrative of demographic emergency. As this panel demonstrates, each of them has its own nationalist agendas that link women's citizenship to their roles in biological and social reproduction. The goal of this panel is to provide insights into ideological constructions of 'good motherhood' as well as various forms of political and everyday realities of mothers. The panel discusses forms of maternal activism in contemporary Lithuania, anti-war feminist voices in Russia, and experiences of motherhood and care by racialized women within Danish healthcare system.
Presentations
9:00am - 9:20am
Mothers’ Resistance Against ”Traditional Values” And The Russian War On Ukraine
Yulia Gradskova
Södertörn University, Sweden
The presentation discusses mother’s activism in authoritarian Russia. In particular, the presentation explores voices of women that are not conformed with the nationalist and patriotic construction of “motherhood” in contemporary Russia. Special attention is paid to Feminist Anti-War Resistance strategies confronting both patriarchy and the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
50-Word Biography of Presenting Author Yulia Gradskova is Associate Professor in History, researcher at the Department of Gender Studies and Research Coordinator at the CBEES, Södertörn University (Sweden). Gradskova’s is the PI in the project “Maternity in the time of “traditional values” and femonationalism” supported by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies.
9:20am - 9:40am
Mothers We Care For And Mothers We Care About: Maternal Activism In Lithuania
Ieva Bisigirskaitė
Vilnius University, Lithuania
This paper investigates numerous instances of what might be perceived as localized maternal activism in Lithuania and aims to extrapolate the ideological picture of the mother who is seen as "worthy of care" by the state. The analysis includes grassroots initiatives led by retired mothers with many children, as well as campaigns advocating for home births, elective c-section deliveries, and free infertility treatment for single women. The paper engages with the feminist paradigm of the politics of care as an analytical tool, enabling an in-depth analysis of both the discursive content of these maternalist campaigns and nationalist responses to these initiatives. The paper suggests that institutional and public responses to maternalist initiatives are constructed around the dualistic nature of maternal citizenship and the child-centered initiatives are seen as more deserving of care compared to those focusing on women's "bodily citizenship" (Kulawik 2014).
50-Word Biography of Presenting Author Ieva Bisigirskaitė is currently a research fellow at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania. Her ongoing research project explores nationalist constructions of good-motherhood in contemporary Lithuania in the project “Maternity in the time of “traditional values” and femonationalism” supported by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies. In 2021, she defended her PhD dissertation at the University of Zurich (suma cum laude). Her thesis is titled “Choosing the surname of her own: on(neo)-traditional femininities in contemporary Lithuania”.
