Katherine Verdery ist eine renommierte Anthropologin, deren Werk tief in die politische Ökonomie, ethnische Beziehungen und den Nationalismus eintaucht, mit einem Schwerpunkt auf dem rumänischen Kontext. Ihre Forschung hat sich von der Untersuchung sozialer Ungleichheit hin zur Analyse der Transformationsprozesse nach dem Fall des Sozialismus entwickelt, insbesondere im Hinblick auf Veränderungen der Eigentumsverhältnisse in der Landwirtschaft. Verdery untersucht, wie sich diese Veränderungen in Gemeinschaften manifestieren, und seziert die komplexen Fragen von Eigentum und Wert in einer postsocialistischen Landschaft. Ihre umfangreichen Projekte decken die Dynamik der Bildung von Kollektiv- und Staatsbetrieben und deren tiefgreifende Auswirkungen auf ländliche Bevölkerungen auf.
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 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 Truth offers a rare insider's look into Secret Police's actions in Romania.