Event Date
This talk examines the role of the female sex worker in Russia during the volatile 1980s and 1990s, a period marked by glasnost, perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. As citizens navigated social, economic and political transformation, prostitutes and their fictional counterparts emerged as symbols of the rapidly changing Soviet landscape. The talk will explore the ways in which, during this period, the female prostitute occupies a deeply ambivalent position, simultaneously stigmatized and fetishized, used by writers, filmmakers, journalists and everyday citizens to explore issues of gender, morality, capitalism and the fate of the nation itself.
Emily Schuckman Matthews is Professor of Comparative International Studies and Director of the European Studies Program at San Diego State University. Her research focuses on representations of sex work and prostitution in Russian literature, film, and culture.
Date: Thursday, May 19
Time: Noon-1:30 pm
Place: Olson 18A
Lunch will be served.
