Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Comparative Studies

Socialist- and postsocialist-era changes in Bulgarian villages disrupted intergenerational cultural transmission as well rural livelihoods. Today, pushing back against rural depopulation, a surprising number of young urbanites are relocating to villages or launching cultural initiatives in them. This dissertation explores the potential of villages for contemporary young Bulgarians unfolding in personal life projects, civic projects, and arts projects. I propose the concept of “rural revitalization” to describe this process of increased interaction with village life, motivated by a village imaginary and pointing to layered, sometimes contradictory understandings of folklore, folklife, and authenticity. Addressing the “folklife project” as a complex genre of cultural production, my ethnographic study considers the slippages between help and harm in depoliticized social initiatives, the challenges of generating new models from the grassroots, and the unexpected role of projects in facilitating mutual aid in times of crisis. The protagonists of these initiatives belong to a generation I call the "children of postsocialism": young urbanites born around or shortly after 1989 and coming of age in postsocialist, European Union Bulgaria. To repair intergenerational and place-based relationships, this generation draws on NGO tactics afforded to them by the very processes contributing to depopulation and cultural change. Indeed, the shift in NGO work from promoting transition in the early years of postsocialism to mitigating the effects of what some see as failed transition in the contemporary moment is intricately tied, I argue, to the renewed interest in village lifeways and cultural programming. The same tactics and opportunities that are enabling young Europeans to build project competencies are also providing the experiences that prompt them to look for homegrown solutions in the face of a disappointing present. Such programs—such as Erasmus study abroad and European you (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Katherine Borland (Advisor); Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member); Gabriella Modan (Committee Member); Theodora Dragostinova (Committee Member) Subjects: East European Studies; European Studies; Folklore

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Mass Communication (Communication)

The people's Republic of China under President Xi Jinping's administration has demonstrated an intense agenda of nation-building, observable through the country's ardent participation in the global economy on the one hand, and domestic propagation of national and cultural pride on the other. While new ideologies such as “Core Socialist Values” and “Chinese Dream” are prevailing in almost every aspect of Chinese people's daily lives, women are largely overlooked as part of the “citizens” in the official discourses even though they undertake more pressure than their male counterparts due to China's enduring patriarchal culture and gender norms. Moreover, the mass media in China, known as the “mouthpiece” of the Communist party-state, play a crucial role in promoting both the authorities' guiding ideologies and sustaining the stereotypes of women in the name of preserving “Chineseness.” With this observation and realization, this dissertation regards China, a country that implements “Socialism with Chinese characteristics,” as in a “postsocialist” stage, and delves into the mass media's representations of women in the political, social, and cultural aspects to find out women's specific positionality in today's China. Through case studies ranging from the media coverage of China's “first lady” and the general working-class women, to the representations of the unmarried female PhDs and women with heightened economic power, this dissertation tries to be as inclusive as possible to address the heterogeneity of Chinese women while probing two questions: first, what is the manifestation and interplay between Chinese women's heightened agency in a postsocialist China and the mass media's hegemonic representations of them? Second, what is the relationship between Chinese women and the Communist party-state's construction of nationalism? It argues that although today's Chinese women have attained a certain degree of empowerment due to the country's development, the media and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eve Ng (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2014, Slavic and East European Studies

Originating in response to Polish partitions of the 18th century, the concept of Polish exceptionalism asserts the cultural uniqueness and superiority of the Polish nation. As the 19th century progressed, this belief in a cultural exceptionalism quickly became gendered with figure of the Matka Polka (Polish Mother). As men went off to battle for national freedom, the Matka Polka became the symbolic protector of the hearth and the reproducer of national culture. Deeply associated with the domestic sphere and essentialized understandings of gender, the Matka Polka proved to be a strong cultural emblem of patriotic motherhood and duty. The deeply entrenched belief in Polish exceptionalism did not end with the partition era, but persevered, from state socialism to membership in the EU. Closely tied to reproduction, the Catholic Church, and cultural conceptions of femininity, exceptionalist appeals to the Matka Polka remain a central component of Polish identity formation. The cultural currency of Polish exceptionalism carried into the abortion debate of the early postsocialist era. Resulting in the revocation of women's reproductive rights just as the nation gained its independence. The push for restrictive abortion legislation continued in the accession toward EU membership, pulling from nostalgic depictions of the national past in the formulation of a uniquely Polish identity within the shifting political environment. In this thesis, I will argue that appeals to exceptionalism and the political mobilization of the Matka Polka in the postsocialist abortion debate drew on invented traditions of the past and ultimately resulted in a limited, restrictive definition of what it means to be a woman citizen in Poland.

Committee: Jennifer Suchland (Advisor); Jessie Labov (Committee Member); Jill Bystydzienski (Committee Member) Subjects: East European Studies; Gender; History; Slavic Studies