"Abortion will deprive you of happiness!": Soviet reproductive politics in the post-Stalin era

This article examines Soviet reproductive politics after the Communist regime legalized abortion in 1955. The regime's new abortion policy did not result in an end to the condemnation of abortion in official discourse. The government instead launched an extensive campaign against abortion. Why did authorities bother legalizing the procedure if they still disapproved of it so strongly? Using archival sources, public health materials, and medical as well as popular journals to investigate the antiabortion campaign, this article argues that the Soviet government sought to regulate gender and sexuality through medical intervention and health "education" rather than prohibition and force in the post-Stalin era. It also explores how the antiabortion public health campaign produced "knowledge" not only about the procedure and its effects, but also about gender and sexuality, subjecting both women and men to new pressures and regulatory norms.     

Foucault and the politics of our selves

Exploring the apparent tension between Foucault's analyses of technologies of domination -- the ways in which the subject is constituted by power-knowledge relations -- and of technologies of the self -- the ways in which individuals constitute themselves through practices of freedom -- this article endeavors to make two points: first, the interpretive claim that Foucault's own attempts to analyse both aspects of the politics of our selves are neither contradictory nor incoherent; and second, the constructive claim that Foucault's analysis of the politics of our selves, though not entirely satisfactory as it stands, provides important resources for the project of critical social theory.     

Heritage Beyond Borders: Australian Approaches to Extra-National Built Heritage

The rights of the state to protect heritage within its borders, to ratify international conventions and to cooperate in bilateral engagements have been foundational concepts of heritage governance. Extreme circumstances may result in an intervention by non-state parties, but in times of peace it is typically the state that prevails. Drawing from recent efforts (2000s) of the Australian Federal Government to create a ‘List of Overseas Places of Historic Significance to Australia’, this paper explores the complications that can arise from the privileging of state authority in current approaches to heritage. This serves as a point of departure for considering the more widely applicable contradictions, limitations and loopholes of a global approach that favours the ‘state’ and the ramifications this might have for heritage diplomacy.     

Empathy at Knifepoint: The Dangers of Research and Lite Pedagogies for Social Justice Movements

In this paper, I discuss the ways I have fallen short as a participatory geographer and activist both in my teaching and research practices. I use three critical moments in the development of our PAR collective in Colombia to push debates in geography on participatory research and pedagogy further through reflection on my struggles in the streets and in the university. Additionally, I connect these experiences and previous discussions in participatory geographies with Orlando Fals Borda's discussion of sentipensar (a concept that engages feeling and thinking simultaneously). I draw attention to the Latin American origins of PAR philosophy by placing Fals Borda into dialogue with the protagonists of our social movement in Colombia including human rights activists, homeless drug users and sex workers. In a general sense, this paper is an examination of the challenges I have faced in the contact zones of PAR inside and outside the classroom.     

Building Community Self-Esteem: Advocating for Culture

Abstract

This published version of the 2019 David Buchan Lecture draws on personal lived experiences and public folklore work to explore the folklorist’s role in creating the conditions for cultures to thrive. Understanding those conditions to include community self-esteem nurtured by a sense of belonging, I ask what is our responsibility when we witness disruptions and inequities? Can we create change when we amplify the voices of a community? Reflecting on my work with refugee and immigrant women over four decades, this article offers a glimpse into the collaborative work of a folklorist who found her bearings in the opportunity, even the responsibility, to advocate for cultural equity in her community.     

Shattered Minds: Madmen on the Railways, 1860–80

Scholars have long pointed to stories of death and disaster on the railways as proof of profound Victorian anxieties about technology. And yet the traumatic crash was not the only anxiety revealed by sensational railway stories. In the 1860s, a surprising number of newspaper accounts emerged telling tales of ordinary men losing their minds on the railways. These stories were told and retold across the periodical press, exaggerating both the extent of the problem and the severity of the danger for the everyday traveller. Analysing a broad range of press accounts and government policy, this article traces a moral panic in the making. These stories reveal a great concern about the seeming fragility of the male mind when exposed to the modern, industrial world. As this article demonstrates, fears of madness were not limited to Lunacy Commissioners and alienists; they were in fact a staple of popular culture. If a railway journey was all it took to drive a seemingly sane man to madness, what did that say about the health of British manhood?