News

First EFID course about biographical approaches and methods

5th -10th of February 2007, Berlin
More information HERE!

Telling the Untold: Representations of Ethnic and Regional Identities in Ukrainian Women's Autobiographies

Whole article of Oksana Kis, the Ukrainian coordinator of Women`s Memory Project, is available HERE - (download .doc file)

Abstract: Women's oral history is in its infancy in Ukraine. The project "20th century Ukraine in Women's Memories" utilizes the narrative autobiographical interview for the first time in the country. The advantage of the oral autobiography over the written one lies in the range of indirect, non-verbal ways an interviewee can express (and a researcher can read) her unconscious, latent, unarticulated opinions. This is crucial for a study of post-totalitarian Ukrainian society. For decades, the soviet regime deprived people - especially women - of their individual voices and memories. As a result, women today find it difficult to state clearly and openly their sense of the past. This article is based on the case study of two in-depth autobiographical interviews of women representing two special regions of Ukraine - East and West. It reveals the ways in which women with similar life stories, but different attitudes towards the Soviet regime, construct their own and the other's ethnicities reflect upon Ukrainian-Russian relations, interpret regional differences of Ukraine's population, and make sense of their individual experiences of Ukrainian history. Key words: women's oral history, autobiography, ethnic identity, Ukraine

:: The radio cycle War through the Women`s Eyes, that came out from the concept of Women`s Memory project, has come to its end. The cycle has been published by Czech Radio 6 within the programme Hovory na Bělidle and it has been supported by The Fund for Future CR. The cycle is available online on www.feminismus.cz

:: The interviews from the Women`s Memory project were basis for the documentary War in the Memory of Women. This documentary was shooted by the Czech TV in cooperation with Gender Studies. Lifestories of 6 women were broadcasted on 22.5.2005. This documentary is considered to be a first summary of women`s war experience in the Czech Republik.

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News 2006

:: First EFID courses about biographical approaches and methods take place in Berlin, 5th -10th of February 2007, in german, more information HERE!, in Prague 26th of November-1st of December 2007, in english, more information HERE

:: The new book Ženám patří půlka nebe (Half of the sky belongs to women) is presented on 16th of May 2007.

:: The book Ženská vydrží víc než člověk (A Woman can survive more than a Man) was presented on 17th of May 2006. This book is based on Womens Memory Project and was published by Lidové noviny and Gender Studies.

:: Whole article of Oksana Kis, the Ukrainian coordinator of Women`s Memory Project, on
Representations of Ethnic and Regional Identities in Ukrainian Women's Autobiographies

:: More about project Women's Memory in Ukraine "20th century Ukraine in Women's Memories"
Read HERE

:: The documentary film "War in Women's Memory" reflects specific experience of women during the World War II. Six women who used to live in the then Czechoslovakia talk of their life stories that were to large extent influenced by war.
More about documentary

Through knihkupectvi.feminismus.cz you can buy:

book of memories of Kateřina Pošová Jsem, protože musím/I Am Because I Have to, 249 CZK
last samples of czech-english book Paměti romských žen/Memories of Romany Women, 120 CZK
Všechny naše včerejšky/All Our Yesterdays -
12 interviews from the project Women's Memory
Všechny naše včerejšky II/All Our Yesterdays II -
12 interviews with women born 1919-1949
Both just for 50 CZK!

Example of interview

HERE you can find transcribtion of one interview that was taken in the first period of the interviews collection.

Showcases of the additional materials

Here you can find examples of protocol, biogramme, resumé and list of entries (index for the archives).

Project is supported by:

Big thanks to women's weekly VLASTA for usage of their photo archive (1950-1960).

Texts of this website were formulated mainly by the Czech, German and the Slovak team. For more information see Organizations and teams.