Jasmina Tumbas, "I Am Jugoslovenka!: Feminist Performance Politics During and After Yugoslav Socialism" (Manchester UP, 2022)

Jul 1, 2022

I Am Jugoslovenka!

Feminist Performance Politics During and After Yugoslav Socialism

Jasmina Tumbas

Hosted by Iva Glisic

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Summary

With I Am Jugoslovenka!: Feminist Performance Politics During and After Yugoslav Socialism (Manchester UP, 2022), Jasmina Tumbas examines forms of feminist political and artistic engagement in Yugoslavia and its successor nations. By bringing together a wide range of materials—from performance and conceptual art, video works, film and pop music, lesbian activism, and press photos of female snipers in the Yugoslav wars—this study reveals that performative representations of women’s emancipation were crucial for the rise of gender equality in the socialist project. Covering celebrated and lesser-known artists from the 1970s to today, I am Jugoslovenka offers a unique insight into the struggles and ambitions of Yugoslav women through the intersection of feminism, socialism, and nationalism in visual culture.

Jasmina Tumbas is an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History and Performance Studies in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo. Her research interests include feminist histories and theories of performance, body and conceptual art, art and activism, the politics of contemporary visual culture, socialist film, gender and sexuality in Eastern Europe after the Second World War, and contemporary activist art practices by ethnic Roma in the Balkan region.

Iva Glisic is a historian and art historian specialising in modern Russia and the Balkans.