Microsoft Word - AEER_Fall2006_ Final.doc


Anthropology of East Europe Review 

Volume 24, No. 2  Page 6 

EDITORS’ PREVIEW 

Julie Hemment & Krista Harper 
University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

 
We would like to extend our thanks to our 

guest editor, Kristen Ghodsee, for assembling such 
a fascinating set of articles for this special issue on 
consumption. Ghodsee’s personal journey as a 
“shopaholic” in Bulgaria leads the collection, and 
a preface by Daphne Berdahl lays out key issues of 
postsocialist bodies, social inequalities, and 
neoliberal ideology explored in the authors’ 
articles.   

In our Open Forum this edition, we 
include four articles that examine modern 
subjectivities and identities in the postsocialist 
world.  Alexander Tymczuk examines the 
continued significance of personal networks in 
post-Soviet Ukraine.  Tymczuk is concerned to 
investigate both the persistence and transformation 
of blat relations; his ethnographic research reveals 
commonalities across quite different locations: 
both rurally-based and urban interlocutors, people 
who work in diverse locations (from the bazaar to 
NGOs) routinely engage in the personalization of 
exchange relations.  Jarrett Zigon explores the 
crafting of ethical subjects in contemporary 
Russia, examining how Muscovites “work on 
themselves” by integrating prayer and secular self-
help practices in their everyday lives.  Andrei 

Simic draws on interviews with Serbian refugees 
to examine the ways the current and future 
prosperity of Serbia is imagined. These narratives 
reveal a pronounced perception of anti-Serbian 
bias on the part of the international community and 
a sense of betrayal and loss.  Finally, Olga Gurova 
examines official discourses on consumption in the 
Soviet period, from the immediate post-
revolutionary period to the 1980s.  Her analysis 
reveals the extent to which clothing, style and 
personal appearance came under the scrutiny of the 
state throughout the Soviet period.   

We would like to extend our warm thanks 
to Robert Rotenberg for his ongoing work 
maintaining the AEER website at De Paul 
University and to Lisa Hilt for her outstanding 
work assisting us with journal correspondence, 
administration, editing, production, and 
distribution throughout the school year.  Special 
thanks go to the Center for Public Policy and 
Administration (CPPA) at the University of 
Massachusetts for providing the resources for 
research and editorial assistance and to the 
Department of Anthropology for providing 
overhead support for the journal.   

 

CALL FOR PAPERS 
 
 

FALL 2007 SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF EAST EUROPE REVIEW 

“Roma and Gadje” 
Deadline: 1 February 2007 

Special issue of AEER on Roma and Gadje, scheduled for Fall 2007.  We are seeking papers that consider the ways 
individuals and communities negotiate, resist and reproduce the places Roma occupy in non-Romani spheres, as well as 
sociological analyses of the lifeworlds and counterpublics of Roma.  Interdisciplinary contributions reflecting sustained 
ethnographic or archival engagement with Romani communities in Eastern Europe are particularly welcome. Yasar Abu 
Ghosh, Krista Hegburg, and Shannon Woodcock, the guest editors, would especially like to encourage activists, scholars 
from the region, and junior scholars, including post-fieldwork graduate students, to contribute to this volume. Interested 
parties should contact Krista Hegburg for further information at: kmh55@columbia.edu. 

Papers should be  3,000-8,000 words (including  all endnotes and references) and be sent as electronic 
submissions as a Microsoft Word .doc (or as an .rtf file) to: kmh55@columbia.edu.