Necropolitics,“White War,” and Feminism on the Buffer Periphery of Europe: An Interview

Abstract

This dialogue between S. Crawley and Maria Mayerchyk and Olga Plakhotnik, Ukrainian queer feminist scholars, currently based in Germany, addresses the potential of feminisms and LGBT activism in Ukraine in the context of war and militarism. The interviewees offer a nuanced and critical perspective on the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians within an interconnected world marked by multiple wars and overlapping crises. They reflect on broader theoretical and political issues related to whiteness, coloniality, and imperial formations, with particular attention to European peripheries. As scholar-activists, Maria Mayerchyk and Olga Plakhotnik have collaborated for more than two decades on feminist and LGBT organizing in Ukraine; in 2024, they received the Honorary Feminist Sociologist and Global Feminist Partner awards (respectively) from Sociologists for Women in Society.

Keywords

necropolitics Ukraine LGBT militarization feminist activism European periphery

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