Pussy Riot Panel Discussion

Tomorrow afternoon, September 14, from 3:30 to 6 pm, The Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at NYU, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and the The Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK) are co-sponsoring a panel entitled Pussy Riot: Performance, Politics, and Protest. We’re going to live stream the panel here at Vox, and invite you to join us for a Philadelphia watching party! Of course, free and open to the public. On August 17, a Russian court sentenced three members of the feminist punk-rock performance collective called “Pussy Riot” to two years in a prison camp for “premeditated hooliganism” motivated by “religious hatred or hostility.” Six months earlier, the balaclava-clad band members had performed a “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, calling on the Mother of God to remove President Vladimir Putin from office. Pussy Riot is at the center of domestic controversy in Russia, and their sentence has sparked outrage throughout the world. But what exactly is the significance of the Pussy Riot phenomenon? How does Pussy Riot engage with traditions of dissidence while at the same time frustration traditional expectations about political protest? How can we understand Pussy Riot in the context of performance art? What does this Russian riot girl movement tell us about feminism and gender politics in post-socialist Russia? The speakers for the panel are: Yanni Kotsonis, Director, NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia Eliot Borenstein, Professor, NYU Russian & Slavic Studies Barbara Browning, Associate Professor, Performance Studies Katharine Holt, Ph.D. candidate in Russian literature at Columbia University Avital Ronell, University Professor; Professor of German, Comparative Literature, English Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher, The Nation The panel will attempt to answer some of the following questions: Pussy Riot is at the center of domestic controversy in Russia, and their sentence has sparked outrage throughout the world. But what exactly is the significance of the Pussy Riot phenomenon? How does Pussy Riot engage with traditions of dissidence while at the same time frustration traditional expectations about political protest? How can we understand Pussy Riot in the context of performance art? What does this Russian riot girl movement tell us about feminism and gender politics in post-socialist Russia?