Socialist/Postsocialist Studies and the Global Left

A Critical Commentary

Authors

  • Miglena S. Todorova University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18740/ss27336

Keywords:

socialist studies, postsocialism, former socialist states, emotions and knowledge, transnational and global Left

Abstract

This commentary addresses the marginal presense of authors, subjects, and issues focused on former socialist countries in Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union in "socialist studies" produced in Western English-language based academic journals, as well as the so-called "global political Left" these publications support. The commentary suggests that the gap is epistemological, emotional, and serving to protect conversations about "socialsim" from the deep critique and interogation of socialist theories, utopias, and practices generated in the emerging field of "postsocialist studies" originating in former socialist states and societies assocaited with a geopolitical "East."

Author Biography

Miglena S. Todorova, University of Toronto

Miglena S. Todorova is Associate Professor in Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Educaiton, University of Toronto. She is also the director of the Centre for Media, Culture and Educaiton at OISE.Her esearch and teaching focus on critical social and cultural theories related to race, coloniality, power and difference, postsocialist studies, and transnational feminisms.

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Published

2022-12-22

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2022): Socialist Solidarities in Times of Crisis

Section

Critical Commentary

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Miglena S. Todorova

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