Violent Affections: Queer Sexuality, Techniques of Power, and Law in Russia

Violent Affections: Queer Sexuality, Techniques of Power, and Law in Russia uncovers techniques of power that work to translate emotions into violence against queer people. Based on analysis of over 300 criminal cases of anti-queer violence in Russia before and after the introduction of the ‘gay propaganda’ law, the presentation shows how violent acts are framed in emotional language by perpetrators during their criminal trials. It then utilizes an original methodology of studying ‘legal memes’ and argues that these individual affective states are directly connected to the political violence aimed at queer lives more generally.
Speaker:
Alexander Sasha Kondakov, PhD, is an assistant professor at the School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Ireland. His truly international experience includes holding positions in the University of Helsinki’s major research centre in Russian and Eurasian studies, Aleksanteri Institute, as well as research jobs at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. He pioneered queer and LGBT studies in Russia when teaching at the European University in St. Petersburg. Kondakov’s work is primarily focused on law and sexuality studies, more specifically on queer sexualities. His latest research on violence against LGBT people in Russia has gotten attention in the international and Russian media. Kondakov’s studies were published in such journals as Sexualities, Social & Legal Studies, Feminist Legal Studies, and European Journal of Criminology.
Moderator:
Robert Orttung is a Research Professor at IERES and the Director of Research for Sustainable GW. He is editor of Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Demokratization and co-editor of the Russian Analytical Digest. His research focuses on issues of urban sustainability in the Arctic.