OLGA SHPARAGA. POST-MIGRANT RELATIONSHIPS FROM A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE: A BELARUSIAN CASE

The year 2020 served as a catalyst for the formation of a Belarusian diaspora-community around the world: as a result of the repression that followed the mass protests, between 500,000 and 1 million people left Belarus, many of whom are forced migrants. What I have observed over the past six years is an active Belarusian diaspora-community. It is scattered across various countries and cities and has political representation, supported by online communication channels and various offline events. Various civil society and cultural initiatives are also visible and play an important role in maintaining ties within this community. In my lecture, I would like to focus on the various care practices observed within the Belarusian diasporacommunity, which have already been the subject of literary works and research. My hypothesis is that a significant portion of these practices can be fruitfully examined from a post-migrant perspective.

Olga Shparaga, PhD (b. 1974 in Minsk) is a philosopher, Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Philosophy at the University Hagen. She taught philosophy at the European College of Liberal Arts in Minsk (ECLAB) until 2021, which she co-founded in 2014. She also taught philosophy at the European Humanities University in Minsk (2001-2004) and Vilnius (2005-2014 in exile).

In 2024 Olga Shparaga was awarded with the “Voltaire Prize for Tolerance, International Understanding and Respect for Differences” by the the University of Potsdam. In the winter semester of 2024/25, she was a Käthe Leichter visiting professor at the University of Vienna.

Bild © FernUni in Hagen