Friday, September 14, 2012
4:00 - 6:00 Round Table
Yanni Kotsonis: Director, NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia
Eliot Borenstein: Professor, NYU Russian & Slavic Studies
Barbara Browning: Associate Professor, NYU Performance Studies
Katharine Holt: Ph.D. candidate in Russian literature at Columbia University
Avital Ronell: University Professor; Professor of German, Comparative Literature, English
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Editor and Publisher, The Nation
On August 17, a Russian court sentenced three members of the feminist punk-rock performance collective called "Pussy Riot" to two years in a prison camp for “premeditated hooliganism" motivated by "religious hatred or hostility." Six months earlier, the balaclava-clad band members had performed a "punk prayer" at Moscow‘s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, calling on the Mother of God to remove President Vladimir Putin from office.
Pussy Riot is at the center of domestic controversy in Russia, and their sentence has sparked outrage throughout the world. But what exactly is the significance of the Pussy Riot phenomenon? How does Pussy Riot engage with traditions of dissidence while at the same time frustration traditional expectations about political protest? How can we understand Pussy Riot in the context of performance art? What does this Russian riot girl movement tell us about feminism and gender politics in post-socialist Russia?
To see images from the event click here.
