Vira Sachenko
Doctoral Fellow
Campus Am Neuen Palais
Am Neuen Palais 10
Building 1, Room 0.15
14469 Potsdam
Germany
Sprechzeiten
by appointment only
Dissertation Project
Between “postsoviet” and “East European”: transnational cartographies of power in feminist scholarly journals in Ukraine (1998-2022).
My project examines how the terms "postsoviet" and "East European" have served as anchors for transnational, intersectional, and decolonial feminist imaginaries. It explores both regional narratives focused on shared histories and discrepancies, as well as strategies for navigating ambivalent positions within the global distribution of power. The dissertation traces the role these terms play in field-forming, countercultural feminist journals published in Ukraine*.
Feminist theory in these journals reveals significant communicative challenges— between the “former East” and “the West,” and within the intersections of postcolonial, decolonial, and postsocialist feminisms. By following practices of localization and translation, the dissertation conceptualizes “postsoviet” and “East European” feminist theory within a relational, multi-level framework. Rather than merely critiquing state and imperial powers or highlighting tensions between mainstream and marginalized feminisms, this theory is read for its engagement with the global systems, including power asymmetries in feminist knowledge production.
*only partially localized in Ukraine
Biography
I was born in Ukraine and moved along the route of Bulgaria, U.S.A., and Germany to follow educational opportunities. I studied journalism, theater, philosophy, art, and culture, obtaining a BA in Value Studies from ECLA/Bard Berlin, and an MA in Anglophone Modernities from the University of Potsdam. For two years before joining Minor Cosmopolitanisms in 2022 I was a PhD Fellow at the Graduate Center for the Study of Culture at the University of Giessen where I was a speaker of the working group Europe’s East. My academic research and teaching are informed by psychoanalytic, queer feminist, and creative practices.
Research Interests
- East Europe and coloniality
- political translation
- feminist and queer theory
- psychoanalysis