For broader audiences by Katerina Liskova
The Association of Women in Slavic Studies, 2022
In their article, Bělehradová and Lišková take up the important issue of climacteric and post-men... more In their article, Bělehradová and Lišková take up the important issue of climacteric and post-menopausal women and their sexual pleasure under state socialism in Czechoslovakia. This innovative article sits at the crossroads of anthropology, sociology, and medical history and traces the transnational knowledge networks that informed women's health discourses in the mid-twentieth century. The committee was particular impressed by the way the authors used research on women's sexuality from three Central European countries, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, but then also documented how translations of work by American sexologists affected state socialist medical conversations. Giving a thorough background on women's sexual and reproductive health, the authors examine four Czechoslovak medical journals to trace the developing interests of experts in aging women as a new kind of sexual being. The range of sources, the clear organization and writing, and the convincing argument about the need for more such comparative research made this article stand out as superlative.
Pojď blíž / Come closer, 2020
Příspěvek do Antologie textů k bienále Ve věci umění 2020
A contribution to the Biennale Reader... more Příspěvek do Antologie textů k bienále Ve věci umění 2020
A contribution to the Biennale Reader Matter of Art 2020
The text is both in Czech and English.
Předmluva ke knize Kristen Ghodsee "Proč mají ženy za socialismu lepší sex"
Papers by Katerina Liskova
European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health, 2021
Specific developments in reproductive health occurred in Eastern Europe, especially in the second... more Specific developments in reproductive health occurred in Eastern Europe, especially in the second half of the twentieth century. During state socialism, it was experts, not social movements, who furthered the agenda of women’s health and sexuality. New analyses from the region and written mostly by authors who speak the local languages attest to the wealth of histories, highlighting different timelines of reproductive health developments, the unexpected causes behind them, and the social actors and institutions which played decisive roles.
The History of the Family, 2021
The paper examines the changes during state socialism in Czechoslovakia in the understanding of t... more The paper examines the changes during state socialism in Czechoslovakia in the understanding of the post-reproductive sexuality of women, focusing on the network of medical experts and shifts in expertise, which gave rise to a ‘new kind of person’: sexually active climacteric women. Analyzing the medical press, we show how Czechoslovak experts moved from an exclusive focus on women of reproductive age toward seeing climacteric women first in connection with their working capacities and gynecological health, and over time more as sexual beings. We trace the changes in the broader societal discourse and the shifts in (primarily gynecological) expertise that facilitated a gradual rejection of the stereotypical image of ‘fading’ women and made the emergence of sexually active climacteric women possible. Moreover, we highlight the role of transnational knowledge circulation. We demonstrate how expertise was transformed after Czechoslovak experts became acquainted with the work of the US sexologists Masters and Johnson in the second half of the 1960s. As the systems of knowledge realigned, expertise shifted toward emphasizing the existence and importance of sexual pleasure for (post-)climacteric women. Pointing to similar developments in neighboring countries, we highlight the importance of comparative approaches to state-socialist sexualities.
History of the Human Sciences, 2021
Over the course of 40 years of state socialism, the explanation that Czechoslovak criminologists ... more Over the course of 40 years of state socialism, the explanation that Czechoslovak criminologists gave for spousal murder changed significantly. Initially attributing offences to the perpetrator's class origins, remnants of his bourgeois way of life, and the lack of positive influence from the collective in the long 1950s, criminologists then refocused their attention solely on the individual's psychopathology during the period known as ‘Normalization’, which encompassed the last two decades of state socialism. Based on an analysis of archival sources, including scholarly journals and expert reports, and following Ian Hacking's insight that ‘kinds of people come into being’ through the realignment of systems of knowledge, this article shows how new kinds of spousal murderer emerged as a result of shifting criminological expertise. We explain the change as the result of the psychiatrization of criminology that occurred in Czechoslovakia at a time when the regime needed to consolidate after the upheavals of the Prague Spring of 1968. The criminological framing of spousal murder as belonging squarely in the individualized realm of the private sphere reflected the contemporaneous effort of the regime to enclose the private as a sphere of relative state non-interference.
Sociologický časopis, 2013
269 © Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Praha 2013 Tradice, její rozpad a záchrana skrze sex: Dis... more 269 © Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Praha 2013 Tradice, její rozpad a záchrana skrze sex: Diskurzivní strategie odpůrců sexuální výchovy* LUCIE JARKOVSKÁ, KATEŘINA LIŠKOVÁ** Fakulta sociálních studií, Masarykova univerzita, Brno The Demise of Tradition and Its Salvation through Sex: The Discursive Strategies of Opponents of Sex Education Abstract: In 2010 sex education became a surprising target of criticism in the secular Czech Republic. The voices of social conservatives were raised and were answered by the Minister of Education, who launched a reform of edu- cational curricula to exclude sex education. This article analyses the discursive strategies employed by conservative opponents of sex education and high- lights the interpretive repertoires of sexuality and gender. The authors argue that Czech conservatives deploy both a moral panic strategy and a discursive strategy of empowerment that uses positive sanctions to support ‘good sex’, defi ned exclusively as marital, procr...
Histories of Sexology , 2021
In this chapter, I focus on three moments of innovation brought about by sexological expertise du... more In this chapter, I focus on three moments of innovation brought about by sexological expertise during state socialism in three countries: Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. Drawing upon years of collaborative research and using the examples of the female orgasm in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, abortion in Poland at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, and open marriage in Hungary in the late 1970s, I show both similarities and differences in the ways sexuality was seen in various countries over time. I highlight the role sexologists played in how sexual matters were taken up by people and, importantly, perceived by the state actors and, as a result, incorporated into laws and policies. In effect, I argue that through understanding expertise, we can understand the (changing) emphases of the state. In other words, by studying the most intimate (as it is represented in sexuality), we can understand the most public (as it is represented by the state).
European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health, 2021
Specific developments in reproductive health occurred in Eastern Europe, especially in the second... more Specific developments in reproductive health occurred in Eastern Europe, especially in the second half of the twentieth century. During state socialism, it was experts, not social movements, who furthered the agenda of women’s health and sexuality. New analyses from the region and written mostly by authors who speak the local languages attest to the wealth of histories, highlighting different timelines of reproductive health developments, the unexpected causes behind them, and the social actors and institutions which played decisive roles.
History of Psychology, 2021
First, we argue that sexuality was central to socialist modernization: Sex and gender were reform... more First, we argue that sexuality was central to socialist modernization: Sex and gender were reformulated whenever the socialist project was being revised. Expertise was crucial in these reformulations, which harnessed people's support for the changing regimes. Moreover, the role of the expert in society grew over time, leading to ever expanding and diversified fields of expertise. Second, gender and sexuality stood disjointed in these changes. Whereas in the early 1950s sex was a taboo subject in Hungary, in the last three decades of socialism it was gradually acknowledged and emancipated, along with a discursive push to alter gender roles within marriage. Conversely, Czechoslovak experts paid close attention to sexuality and particularly to female pleasure from the outset of the regime, highlighting the benefits of gender equality for conjugal satisfaction; yet, they changed course with Normalization (1969-1989) when they embraced gender hierarchy as the structure for a good marriage and a fulfilling sex life. It follows that gender and sexuality can develop independently: Change in one is not necessarily bound to similar progress in the other. Thus, third, whereas there was a shared initial push for gender equality, there was no unified socialist drive for the liberalization of sexuality.
The Routledge History Handbook of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century: Volume 1, Challenges of Modernity, 2020
This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of the developments regarding women in South-East-Cen... more This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of the developments regarding women in South-East-Central Europe over the course of the long 20th century. The status of women changed dramatically over the course of the long twentieth century. Women’s social standing improved overall in the public and private spheres, although rather unevenly in the various segments of social life.
Challenges of Modernity offers a broad account of the social and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and asks critical questions about the structure and experience of modernity in different contexts and periods.
This volume focuses on central questions such as: How did the various aspects of modernity manifest themselves in the region, and what were their limits? How was the multifaceted transition from a mainly agrarian to an industrial and post-industrial society experienced and perceived by historical subjects? Did Central and Eastern Europe in fact approximate its dream of modernity in the twentieth century despite all the reversals, detours and third-way visions? Structured chronologically and taking a comparative approach, a range of international contributors combine a focus on the overarching problems of the region with a discussion of individual countries and societies, offering the reader a comprehensive, nuanced survey of the social and economic history of this complex region in the recent past.
The first in a four-volume set on Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, it is the go-to resource for those interested in the ‘challenges of modernity‘ faced by this dynamic region.
The History of the Family, 2019
Was there a state-socialist model of school sex education and if so, what characterized its form ... more Was there a state-socialist model of school sex education and if so, what characterized its form and content? What shaped the specifi-cities and divergent characteristics of each country? The paper explores and compares programs of 'education for family life' as these became part of state-driven reproductive politics in late stages of state socialism in three countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary), with a particular focus on sexuality and gender. We analyze how sexuality was framed in these otherwise broadly understood programs, which aimed not just at discussing sex but also interper-sonal relations within the family, forming the ways in which gender was to be understood, and sexuality was to be practiced. We show that school curricula for education for family life, which included sexual education, were introduced in the early 1970s in all three countries, and these programs displayed many similarities. We identify transnational influences in triggering the interest in such type of education and cross-border exchanges that shaped it further. Nevertheless, when analyzing the content of these curri-cula, national factors and peculiarities become visible, like the heightened focus on 'normal' family life in Czechoslovakia, the importance of ethnicity (Roma minority) in Hungary or religion (Catholicism) in Poland. As a result, we cannot speak of a universal model of state-socialist sex education. Methodologically, we follow the sociology of expertise that focuses on the ways in which expertise forms, links or disjoins, creating new areas of social life in need of expert intervention (Eyal, Rose, Hacking). Changes in expertise thus map onto broader social changes and analyzing the shifts in expertise can help understand societal processes of social reproduction and change. In our paper, we focus on sexological and pedagogical expertise, as these intersected on the issue of school-based sex education.
Medical History, 2019
The Czech Republic holds one of the highest numbers of men labelled as sexual delinquents worldwi... more The Czech Republic holds one of the highest numbers of men labelled as sexual delinquents worldwide who have undergone the irreversible process of surgical castration-a policy that has elicited strong international criticism. Nevertheless, Czech sexology has not changed its attitude towards 'therapeutic castration', which remains widely accepted and practised. In this paper, we analyse the negotiation of expertise supporting castration and demonstrate how the changes in institutional matrices and networks of experts (Eyal 2013) have impacted the categorisation of patients and the methods of treatment. Our research shows the great importance of historical development that tied Czech sexology with the state. Indeed, Czech sexology has been profoundly institutionalised since the early 1970s. In accordance with the state politics of that era, officially named Normalisation, sexology focused on sexual deviants and began creating a treatment programme that included therapeutic castration. This practice, the aim of which is to protect society from sex offenders, has changed little since. We argue that it is the expert-state alliance that enables Czech sexologists to preserve the status quo in the treatment of sexual delinquents despite international pressure. Our research underscores the continuity in medical practice despite the regime change in 1989. With regard to previous scholarship on state-socialist Czechoslovakia, we argue that it was the medical mainstream that developed and sustained disciplining and punitive features.
FILOZOFIJA I DRUŠTVO / Philosophy and Society, 2016
In academic writing, facts about the past generally require the citation of relevant sources unle... more In academic writing, facts about the past generally require the citation of relevant sources unless the fact or idea is considered " common knowledge: " bits of information or dates upon which there is a wide scholarly consensus. This brief article reflects on the use of " common knowledge " claims in contemporary scholarship about women, families, and sexuality as experienced during 20 th century, East European, state socialist regimes. We focus on several key stereotypes about the communist state and the situation of women that are often asserted in the scholarly literature, and argue that many of these ideas uncannily resemble American anti-communist propaganda. When contemporary scholars make claims about communist intrusions into the private sphere to effect social engineering or the inefficacy of state socialist mass organizations or communist efforts to break up the family or indoctrinate the young, they often do so without citation to previous sources or empirical evidence supporting their claims, thereby suggesting that such claims are " common knowledge. " We believe that those wishing to assert such claims should link these assertions to concrete originating sources, lest it turn out the " common knowledge " derives, in fact, from western Cold War rhetoric.
History of the Human Sciences, 2016
Despite its historical focus on aberrant behavior, sexology barely dealt with sexual deviants in ... more Despite its historical focus on aberrant behavior, sexology barely dealt with sexual deviants in 1950s Czechoslovakia. Rather, sexologists only treated isolated instances of deviance. The rare cases that went to court appeared mostly because they hindered work or harmed the national economy. Two decades later, however, the situation was markedly different. Hundreds of men were labeled as sexual delinquents and sentenced for treatment in special sexological wards at psychiatric hospitals. They endangered society, so it was claimed, by being unwilling or unable to conform to the family norm. The mode of subjection shifted from work to family. I analyze this change by using the tools of Gil Eyal’s sociology of expertise (2013), which focuses on shifts in institutional matrices that bring forth new groups of agents creating new expert networks. I argue that sexology became profoundly institutionalized in the early 1970s, which brought the discipline closer to psychiatry and forensic science. New inpatient facilities were opened that could admit sentenced sexual deviants. Also, demographic changes accelerated in the 1960s, especially skyrocketing divorce rates and plummeting birth
rates, which made it imperative for the government to focus on cementing the family. After the failed attempts of Prague Spring in 1968, the new pro-Soviet government of communist Czechoslovakia did just that. During the time dubbed as “normalization” by the new elites, anyone who strayed from the family norm was suspected of deviance.
Sexualities, 2016
Sexuality in communist Czechoslovakia was to a large extent informed by an expert discourse of se... more Sexuality in communist Czechoslovakia was to a large extent informed by an expert discourse of sexology. Analyzing sexual advice books published by sexologists for the general public in the 1950s and 1970s, I show that sexual discourses were formed in a
reversed order of liberalization vs. conservatism as compared to the West. While writing on sex in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s stressed gender equality and emancipation of women, the
texts published in the 1970s insisted on the necessity of gender hierarchy for a successful marriage and defended privatized families isolated from larger society. I link these shifts to
the changing character of the regime which moved from accentuating public, work and equality in the 1950s to emphasizing private, family and authority in the 1970s. For my
analysis, I use the concepts of psy-ences (Rose, 1992, 1996) and intimacy at the intersection of the public/private divide (Berlant and Warner, 1998), while also accounting for their blind spots. Where Rose insists that psy-ences have operated exclusively in modern liberal capitalist societies, I argue that a psy-ence of sexology also co-constituted social life under state socialism. My paper analyzes Czechoslovak sexual and gender trajectories and accounts for differences from and convergences with 20th century Western histories of sexuality. I critically examine Czechoslovak sexological discourses in their changing historical settings to
show that there was not one ‘communist period’, even in one country. Rather there existed varying modes of framing sexuality at different times.
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For broader audiences by Katerina Liskova
A contribution to the Biennale Reader Matter of Art 2020
The text is both in Czech and English.
Papers by Katerina Liskova
Challenges of Modernity offers a broad account of the social and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and asks critical questions about the structure and experience of modernity in different contexts and periods.
This volume focuses on central questions such as: How did the various aspects of modernity manifest themselves in the region, and what were their limits? How was the multifaceted transition from a mainly agrarian to an industrial and post-industrial society experienced and perceived by historical subjects? Did Central and Eastern Europe in fact approximate its dream of modernity in the twentieth century despite all the reversals, detours and third-way visions? Structured chronologically and taking a comparative approach, a range of international contributors combine a focus on the overarching problems of the region with a discussion of individual countries and societies, offering the reader a comprehensive, nuanced survey of the social and economic history of this complex region in the recent past.
The first in a four-volume set on Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, it is the go-to resource for those interested in the ‘challenges of modernity‘ faced by this dynamic region.
rates, which made it imperative for the government to focus on cementing the family. After the failed attempts of Prague Spring in 1968, the new pro-Soviet government of communist Czechoslovakia did just that. During the time dubbed as “normalization” by the new elites, anyone who strayed from the family norm was suspected of deviance.
reversed order of liberalization vs. conservatism as compared to the West. While writing on sex in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s stressed gender equality and emancipation of women, the
texts published in the 1970s insisted on the necessity of gender hierarchy for a successful marriage and defended privatized families isolated from larger society. I link these shifts to
the changing character of the regime which moved from accentuating public, work and equality in the 1950s to emphasizing private, family and authority in the 1970s. For my
analysis, I use the concepts of psy-ences (Rose, 1992, 1996) and intimacy at the intersection of the public/private divide (Berlant and Warner, 1998), while also accounting for their blind spots. Where Rose insists that psy-ences have operated exclusively in modern liberal capitalist societies, I argue that a psy-ence of sexology also co-constituted social life under state socialism. My paper analyzes Czechoslovak sexual and gender trajectories and accounts for differences from and convergences with 20th century Western histories of sexuality. I critically examine Czechoslovak sexological discourses in their changing historical settings to
show that there was not one ‘communist period’, even in one country. Rather there existed varying modes of framing sexuality at different times.
A contribution to the Biennale Reader Matter of Art 2020
The text is both in Czech and English.
Challenges of Modernity offers a broad account of the social and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and asks critical questions about the structure and experience of modernity in different contexts and periods.
This volume focuses on central questions such as: How did the various aspects of modernity manifest themselves in the region, and what were their limits? How was the multifaceted transition from a mainly agrarian to an industrial and post-industrial society experienced and perceived by historical subjects? Did Central and Eastern Europe in fact approximate its dream of modernity in the twentieth century despite all the reversals, detours and third-way visions? Structured chronologically and taking a comparative approach, a range of international contributors combine a focus on the overarching problems of the region with a discussion of individual countries and societies, offering the reader a comprehensive, nuanced survey of the social and economic history of this complex region in the recent past.
The first in a four-volume set on Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, it is the go-to resource for those interested in the ‘challenges of modernity‘ faced by this dynamic region.
rates, which made it imperative for the government to focus on cementing the family. After the failed attempts of Prague Spring in 1968, the new pro-Soviet government of communist Czechoslovakia did just that. During the time dubbed as “normalization” by the new elites, anyone who strayed from the family norm was suspected of deviance.
reversed order of liberalization vs. conservatism as compared to the West. While writing on sex in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s stressed gender equality and emancipation of women, the
texts published in the 1970s insisted on the necessity of gender hierarchy for a successful marriage and defended privatized families isolated from larger society. I link these shifts to
the changing character of the regime which moved from accentuating public, work and equality in the 1950s to emphasizing private, family and authority in the 1970s. For my
analysis, I use the concepts of psy-ences (Rose, 1992, 1996) and intimacy at the intersection of the public/private divide (Berlant and Warner, 1998), while also accounting for their blind spots. Where Rose insists that psy-ences have operated exclusively in modern liberal capitalist societies, I argue that a psy-ence of sexology also co-constituted social life under state socialism. My paper analyzes Czechoslovak sexual and gender trajectories and accounts for differences from and convergences with 20th century Western histories of sexuality. I critically examine Czechoslovak sexological discourses in their changing historical settings to
show that there was not one ‘communist period’, even in one country. Rather there existed varying modes of framing sexuality at different times.
diversity. This article is grounded in the historical context of migration to and from the Czech Republic and based on ethnographic research in several ethnically-mixed classrooms. We analyze the ways in which teachers talk about their pupils. We show that in the case of migrant children, teachers tend not to see their differences and hence, their potentially structural disadvantages. On the other hand, the Roma ethnicity is perceived as insurmountable. Teachers mobilize lists of cultural
and even genetic differences to legitimize their different treatment of Roma pupils. Furthermore, we analyze policy documents regarding the education of non-Czech pupils and their reception by teachers. All these strategies result in the continuing perception of Czech classrooms as ethnically homogeneous while disregarding any social inequalities.