Papers by Sunnie Rucker-Chang
Manchester University Press eBooks, May 28, 2024
Categories of race and racial formations define global systems of power and are not bound by hist... more Categories of race and racial formations define global systems of power and are not bound by history or culture. Nevertheless, with few noted exceptions from such scholars as Catherine Baker, Dušan Bjelić, Alaina Lemon, David Rainbow, and Eric Weitz, race as a category of analysis has largely been rejected and rendered inapplicable within the field of Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies. This unwillingness to expand categories of critical analysis has created a void in our area and field of study, shaping a false sense of racelessness. Frameworks that emphasize such ideas as bias or even group conflict often attribute the causes of social and racial injustice to factors that are invisible, natural, or submerged beneath our consciousness. 1 With an explicit focus on race and racism, we aim to transcend these notions of bias, and draw attention to the critical importance of racial analysis in our region and its urgency in this current social landscape. In a recent publication of the ASEEES newsletter, NewsNet, Ani Kokobobo poses key questions about the naming of academic disciplines, particularly drawing attention to the name of our field, that is broadly speaking Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2 Kokobobo's essay forces readers to contemplate those geographies, histories, and groups of people that are included within our disciplinary umbrella and those that have been excluded or receiving little attention. Such considerations are especially keen in the discussion of race in our region; while eastern Europe (broadly defined) is often assumed to occupy a place of racelessness, the region is shaped by global racialized processes that in turn produce varying forms of inequality, differences, and marginalization within the region. In this paper we particularly highlight scholarship from southeastern Europe, but our focus here is applicable for the broader field of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
Cultures of Mobility and Alterity
Slavic Review
Race and racial formations and categories define global systems of power and are not bound by his... more Race and racial formations and categories define global systems of power and are not bound by history or culture. Nevertheless, with few noted exceptions, race as a category of analysis has largely been rejected and rendered inapplicable within Slavic, east European, and Eurasian Studies. This unwillingness to expand categories of critical analysis has created a void in our area and field of study, shaping a false sense of racelessness. Without the inclusion of race critical theories into our classrooms and scholarship, our students are left with minimal tools to address difference and social exclusion. In this article, we turn to critical perspectives to highlight some ways that race is being meaningfully incorporated into scholarship about the region. We illustrate why engagement with race and racialization is helpful for analysis, urgent, and necessary. Finally, we also address how our field can better prepare students as they engage these subjects.
Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies , 2018
Critical Romani Studies, 2018
In this article I explore linkages between the evolution of African-American filmic representati... more In this article I explore linkages between the evolution of African-American filmic representation and the patterns of Romani representation in films from Central and Southeast Europe (CSEE). More specifically, I use the 1970s Blaxploitation movement and subsequent shift of African-American representation into films reliant on a realist aesthetic to contextualize analysis of the shortcomings of the Civil Rights Movement to provide broad integration for African-Americans. Given other similarities between the racialized positionalities of African-Americans and Roma, I argue that Blaxploitation can illuminate trends in the cinematic depictions of CSEE Roma, since the Roma Rights movement has had to contend with similar shortcomings in achieving political, social, and economic inclusion. The films I analyze in this piece include Roming (2007), Just the Wind (2012), Episode of an Iron Picker (2013), and Bravo! (2015).
Journal of Transatlantic Studies
In this piece, I illustrate how a number of the successes of the Civil Rights
movement in the Uni... more In this piece, I illustrate how a number of the successes of the Civil Rights
movement in the United States have travelled to Europe to advance the cause of
Roma Rights, and question if Roma inclusion initiatives in Central and
Southeast Europe can bring forth a more inclusive notion of Europeanism in the
same way that the Civil Rights movement changed the narrative of Americanism
to include marginalised African-Americans. In employing an ethno-symbolist
approach, I interrogate the fluid concepts of Americanism and Europeanism to
analyse myth, memory, symbol, and cultural imaginaries of ‘North’ and ‘South’
in the United States and Europe. Through careful comparisons of similarities
and differences between African-American and Central and Southeast European
Roma communities and their quest for equality, this piece details how dominant
discourses of the nation distance minority populations, rendering inclusion
possible only with great narrative shifts in the ideal of the nation, the passage of
time, and, most importantly, the enforcement of laws to support equality measures.
Keywords: African-Americans; Roma; Americanism; Europeanism; other
The 2008 work Predator by Vladimir Arsenijević introduces a transnational imaginary as a means of... more The 2008 work Predator by Vladimir Arsenijević introduces a transnational imaginary as a means of moving away from collective memory and mourning for the past in order to rebuild identities void of war at the foundation. The transitional work, both in terms of form and content, challenges the position of Serbs and former Yugoslav nationals to position themselves beyond the fixed borders, nations, and even nationalities of the region in exchange for an embrace of the current and future forms of transnationalism. Moving the various settings of the work through the countries of Denmark, England, the US, Germany, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Spain among others the work constructs a "novelesque whole" complete with various pieces and iterations of self. In this article I offer examples of the construct of the transnational imaginary provided in the text, indicating that this work offers a text that (re)engages and (re)imagines Serbian place within the world.
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2014
Bosnia has been defined by its perpetual state of transition-politically, culturally, and sociall... more Bosnia has been defined by its perpetual state of transition-politically, culturally, and socially-since it seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992. The country's Balkan geography renders it both East and West, and its cultural affinities straddle the two poles as well. Hence, the country is in perpetual liminality, tugged by the influences of both Western and Eastern nations and organizations. This has particularly been true for the Bosniak population, a group that has received support from various Muslim-majority nations and organizations. Prominent among those influences is Turkey, which resonates with Bosniaks because their history and identity are intertwined with the Turkish Ottoman past. The emergence of Neo-Ottomanism links Bosnia to Turkey's past and future; this phenomenon is paving the way for a Bosnia that is increasingly being defined by its slight Muslim-majority population and culture. In "The Turkish Connection: Neo-Ottoman Influence in Post-Dayton Bosnia," I situate contemporary Bosnian cultural products, including film and literature, as responses or interactions with Neo-Ottoman modes that seek to (re)imagine the Balkans and specifically Bosnia, through the lens of the "golden age" of sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire. of how to simultaneously link an identity to national and religious determiners without committing the nation to a particular religious destiny.
Books by Sunnie Rucker-Chang
Roma Rights and Civil Rights: A Transatlantic Comparison, 2020
Roma Rights and Civil Rights tackles the movements for - and expressions of - equality for Roma i... more Roma Rights and Civil Rights tackles the movements for - and expressions of - equality for Roma in Central and Southeast Europe and African Americans from two complementary perspectives: law and cultural studies. Interdisciplinary in approach, the book engages with comparative law, European studies, cultural studies, and critical race theory. Its central contribution is to compare the experiences of Roma and African Americans regarding racialization, marginalization, and mobilization for equality. Deploying a novel approach, the book challenges conventional notions of civil rights and paradigms in Romani studies.
Shows the limits of civil rights, strategic litigation, and government mandates
Makes the case for comparative minority studies while fostering ties among cutting-edge scholarship from a variety of disciplines
Engages with the key question of whether legal change anticipates or follows cultural change
2015 Papers by Sunnie Rucker-Chang
Following the demise of Yugoslavia and the subsequent wars and that followed in 1990s, Serbia was... more Following the demise of Yugoslavia and the subsequent wars and that followed in 1990s, Serbia was ostracized and unable to participate in the normalization process occurring in the region. Serbian cultural products responded to this dislocation and film was particularly useful in this expression as it provided a visual referent that could be consumed by large numbers of citizens. In these films, Serbian filmmakers continue a dialogue with the West that had effectively been silenced in other meaningful ways. In this article I analyze the films Wounds (Srdjan Dragojević, 1998), Bear Earth (Ljubiša Samardzić, 2003), One on One (Mladen Matičević, 2002), Absolute 100 (Srdan Golubović, 2001), and compare them to African- American films of the 1980s and 1990s Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) He Got Game (Spike Lee, 1998) Straight out of Brooklyn (Mattie Rich, 1991) and Boyz in the Hood (John Singleton, 1991) as a source of origination. While superficially unlikely points for comparison, both African-American and Serbian films evoke the failure of democratic aspirations to include marginal groups. Simultaneously, their directors convey the need for said groups to reconfigure their hopes and identities from the dominant culture to their own paradigms and realities.
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Papers by Sunnie Rucker-Chang
movement in the United States have travelled to Europe to advance the cause of
Roma Rights, and question if Roma inclusion initiatives in Central and
Southeast Europe can bring forth a more inclusive notion of Europeanism in the
same way that the Civil Rights movement changed the narrative of Americanism
to include marginalised African-Americans. In employing an ethno-symbolist
approach, I interrogate the fluid concepts of Americanism and Europeanism to
analyse myth, memory, symbol, and cultural imaginaries of ‘North’ and ‘South’
in the United States and Europe. Through careful comparisons of similarities
and differences between African-American and Central and Southeast European
Roma communities and their quest for equality, this piece details how dominant
discourses of the nation distance minority populations, rendering inclusion
possible only with great narrative shifts in the ideal of the nation, the passage of
time, and, most importantly, the enforcement of laws to support equality measures.
Keywords: African-Americans; Roma; Americanism; Europeanism; other
Books by Sunnie Rucker-Chang
Shows the limits of civil rights, strategic litigation, and government mandates
Makes the case for comparative minority studies while fostering ties among cutting-edge scholarship from a variety of disciplines
Engages with the key question of whether legal change anticipates or follows cultural change
2015 Papers by Sunnie Rucker-Chang
movement in the United States have travelled to Europe to advance the cause of
Roma Rights, and question if Roma inclusion initiatives in Central and
Southeast Europe can bring forth a more inclusive notion of Europeanism in the
same way that the Civil Rights movement changed the narrative of Americanism
to include marginalised African-Americans. In employing an ethno-symbolist
approach, I interrogate the fluid concepts of Americanism and Europeanism to
analyse myth, memory, symbol, and cultural imaginaries of ‘North’ and ‘South’
in the United States and Europe. Through careful comparisons of similarities
and differences between African-American and Central and Southeast European
Roma communities and their quest for equality, this piece details how dominant
discourses of the nation distance minority populations, rendering inclusion
possible only with great narrative shifts in the ideal of the nation, the passage of
time, and, most importantly, the enforcement of laws to support equality measures.
Keywords: African-Americans; Roma; Americanism; Europeanism; other
Shows the limits of civil rights, strategic litigation, and government mandates
Makes the case for comparative minority studies while fostering ties among cutting-edge scholarship from a variety of disciplines
Engages with the key question of whether legal change anticipates or follows cultural change