Interviews

Alexandra Talaver, coordinator of Feminist Anti-War Resistance: “War represents a culmination in the continuum of patriarchal violence” A conversation based on an e-mail interview with Alexandra Talaver conducted by Yulia Gradskova

Alexandra Talaver is one of the coordinators of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR), that was promptly launched on February 25, 2022, with a manifesto that was later translated into dozens of languages. The manifesto called for peaceful resistance to the war and Putin’s regime, support for Ukraine, and solidarity with feminists in Russia resisting the invasion (see next page). Together with the manifesto, social media accounts were launched on Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter as the main means of mobilization. FAR immediately gained dozens of thousands of subscribers due to the number of feminist media activists joining FAR, and due to a strong and clear anti-war stance, while many political forces and organizations in Russia failed to articulate it that fast.

By Alexandra Talaver and Yulia Gradskova June 20, 2023

“Vegetarianism was part of social reformism”

Corinna Treitel, Department Chair and Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis, in conversation with Julia Malitska on dreams about and attempts at dietary reform in the 19th and 20th centuries, and on German life reformers and their long lasting, but forgotten, impacts on the ways we think today about eating naturally and environmentally consciously.

By Julia Malitska June 22, 2022

The post-communist legacy in the shadow of the Empire

Professor Andrzej Leder, psychoanalyst and professor of philosophy, in a conversation with Aleksandra Reczuch about the history and social transformations in the region, the threat of Russia, and the historical memory embodied in buildings, symbols, commemorations, and family albums.

By Aleksandra Reczuch June 22, 2022

“I was fascinated by the extent of occulture in a communist country like Yugoslavia of the 1970s”

A conversation with Nemanja Radulović on esotericism and New Age in communist Yugoslavia, and alternative and occult expressions and thinking.

By Anna Tessmann January 24, 2022

“My goal is to break the narrative that Lithuania had nothing to do with the Holocaust”

Silvia Kučėnaitė Foti it the author of the book The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I discovered my Grandfather was a War Criminal. After going through major trauma when discovering her grandfather was not the war hero she heard about but a Nazi collaborator, she started to investigate her grandfather’s past. Considering Jewish sources along with the Lithuanian sources Foti questions the Lithuanian official narrative denying any involvement in the Holocaust.

By Martina Urbinati October 25, 2021

Nuclear Superpowers Art, culture, and heritage in the Nuclear Age

Eglė Rindzevičiūtė talks to Ele Carpenter about the strong correlation between the experience of imperialism and colonial power, high technology and cultural responsibility.

By Egle Rindzevičiūtė April 22, 2021

A language to heal

The documentary film Liebe Oma, Guten Tag! What we leave behind (2017) by sisters Jūratė and Vilma Samulionytė tackles persistent silences within one family in Lithuania in a telling way for how sensitive the past is in the Baltic and East European context.

By Margaret Tali February 12, 2021

“The war has become a serious challenge for religious actors in Ukraine”

Viktor Yelensky, professor of religion, in a conversation with Yuliya Yurchuk on the position of religions in Ukraine, and different religious actors in the ongoing military conflict in a broader perspective.

By Yuliya Yurchuk October 8, 2020

“The role of religion in peacebuilding is undervalued”

Tetiana Kalenychenko, an expert in religion and conflict resolution, in conversation with Yuliya Yurchuk on how religion can be an instrument in conflict transformation.

By Yuliya Yurchuk October 8, 2020

“At the very core of the Belarusian uprising is a moral trauma”

Tatiana Shchyttsova, is professor of Philosophy at the Department of Social Sciences and Academic Director of Center for Philosophical Anthropology, at the European Humanities University, Vilnius. Here in an interview on the present situation in Belarus, on the role of philosophy in times of revolution and change.

By Eva Schwarz October 1, 2020