Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Q-SEERA (Queer Herstories of struggle and survival in Romania: From Communist criminalization to contemporary anti-gender movements in SEE spaces)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-10-01 bis 2023-09-30
The conclusions of this MSCA project apply to both the scientific and social realms. Firstly, through interviews and archival research, as well as internet archaeology, the project has discovered and recovered important stories of queer women and trans persons during communist Romania and in the decades following it. Secondly, it connected those personal stories with the ongoing activist work made by these persons since the beginning of the 90s, placing itself in a paradigm of reparation against the previous invisibility of many such activist efforts. Efforts often rendered anonymous by mainstream LGBT+ NGOs that were reluctant (at first) to support and promote alternative projects and types of activism. Q-SEERA also began exploring the dynamic between mainstream LGBT+ and grassroots activism, following the line of how respectability politics affected the (soft) incipient policies and strategies for human rights advancements. Having Romania as a central case study offered the possibility of a more nuanced transnational comparative perspective over activism and political shifts concerning human rights in South Eastern Europe. By simultaneously looking at how anti-gender movements were formed in Romania and in the region, Q-SEERA highlighted how women and trans led initiatives did actively work to oppose right-wing initiatives, even though they had access to less resources and visibility than the mainstream organizations and institutional bodies.
1. To discover and record narratives and lived experiences of queer Romanian women during and after communism; Outcome: new knowledge and deeper understanding of minoritized women’s lived experiences under communism and the transition period (late 1990s and early 2000s).
2. To discover informal associations, networks and groups which represented safe spaces for these queer women and compare them with similar groups from the post communist spaces. Outcome: new insights on social groups and collective forms of resistance to populist and anti-gender norms.
3. To analyse and interpret the data obtained through archival research at the seconding institution. Outcome: new comparative knowledge (complementing objectives 1 and 2) of different socio-political aspects of queer women’s lives under the communist and transition periods in Romania.
4. To connect the archival material to the narratives and to the existing literature on queer women in the SEE region and critically analyse this in relation to contemporary anti-gender movements (see the first two objectives). The aim is to develop a broad-based, thorough understanding of the situation of queer women under communism and the “transition” period. Outcomes: a correlation between the narratives and the historical context; a comparative analysis on the SEE spaces in relation to the current developments in anti-gender movements and policies.
IMPACT
The results of this project have been consistently communicated during the two years of the grant; it has produced novel knowledge in its area of research, reinforced networks and established new networks in the field of transnational queer and gender studies. For example, the second edition of QueerFemSEE international conference attracted participants from over 25 countries, both from SEE and beyond. The interest and valuable knowledge shared during the first two editions are important reasons for continuing the work for further editions. Together with the second edition co-organizers, the PI is preparing the conference proceedings to be published in 2024 in a special issue of Feminist Critique: East European Journal of Feminist and Queer Studies. At the same time, the MSCA fellowship opened the PI´s access to academic networks beyond SEE, as she established connections and was invited to speak in different universities in Scandinavia (Gothenburg University, Malmö University, Oslo University). This facilitated the dissemination of Q-SEERA project results.