Katherine Verdery analyzes the 2,781 page surveillance file the Romanian secret police compiled on her during her research trips to Transylvania in the 1970s and 1980s. Reading it led her to question her identity and also revealed how deeply the secret police was embedded in everyday life.
Katherine Verdery Libri
Katherine Verdery è un'antropologa di spicco il cui lavoro si addentra profondamente nell'economia politica, nelle relazioni etniche e nel nazionalismo, con un focus sul contesto rumeno. La sua ricerca si è evoluta dall'esame della disuguaglianza sociale all'analisi dei processi trasformativi seguiti alla caduta del socialismo, in particolare per quanto riguarda i cambiamenti nei rapporti di proprietà all'interno dell'agricoltura. Verdery esplora come questi cambiamenti si manifestano all'interno delle comunità, dissezionando le complesse questioni di proprietà e valore in un panorama postsocialista. I suoi ampi progetti svelano le dinamiche della formazione di fattorie collettive e statali e i loro profondi impatti sulle popolazioni rurali.





What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next?
- 316pagine
- 12 ore di lettura
Katherine Verdery offers a unique anthropological perspective on the aftermath of Soviet-style socialism in Eastern Europe through a collection of essays. Drawing from her extensive ethnographic research in Romania and Transylvania, she examines the implications of political transformations, focusing on themes like civil society, market economy creation, privatization, national and ethnic conflicts, and evolving gender relations. Her work synthesizes primary data and broader sources to deepen the understanding of socialism's legacy and its potential replacements.
Since 1989, scores of bodies across Eastern Europe have been exhumed and brought to rest in new gravesites. Verdery investigates why certain corpses have taken on political life in the turbulent times following the end of Communist Party rule. schovat popis
The current transformation of many Eastern European societies is impossible to understand without comprehending the intellectual struggles surrounding nationalism in the region. Anthropologist Katherine Verdery shows how the example of Romania suggests that current ethnic tensions come not from a resurrection of pre-Communist Nationalism but from the strengthening of national ideologies under Communist Party rule.
Secrets and truths
- 63pagine
- 3 ore di lettura
Secrets and Truth offers a rare insider's look into Secret Police's actions in Romania.