Foreword by the coordinators, Special Issue "Connexe", Vol. 9. No. 1 (2023): Gender and materiality in Central and Eastern Europe in the XX century

This special issue grew out of the International Interdisciplinary Conference ‘Gender and Materiality in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century’, held at Sciences Po in Paris in 2021. The aim of the conference as well as the special issue is to contribute to gender research in the Central and East European contexts from the perspective of material culture studies. Although not all contributions use objects as their “primary data”, all explore the complex interplay between materiality and gender. Some articles focus more directly on the gendered body, examining the body as a particular kind of “material object” (Sidorevich). Several articles in the issue focus on (post)socialist and Soviet objects –whether they be underwear, typewriters, or domestic appliances– as they examine gender regimes and social relations in East-Central European societies during a chosen period (Mead, Miernecka, Žimbrek and Horvat, Chmielewska). What links all the articles of this issue together is their shared gender-sensitive focus on the materiality of individual as well as collective practices and experiences of state socialism and communism in 20th century Eastern and Central Europe. While contemplating various kinds of objects, the authors make novel contributions to the histories of everyday life and gender relations under state socialism and communism.