Superfluous Women tells the unique story of a generation of artists, feminists, and queer activists who emerged in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. With a focus on new media, Zychowicz demonstrates how contemporary artist collectives in Ukraine have contested Soviet and Western connotations of feminism to draw attention to a range of human rights issues with global impact.

 

In the book, Zychowicz summarizes and engages with more recent critical scholarship on the role of digital media and virtual environments in concepts of the public sphere. Mapping out several key changes in newly independent Ukraine, she traces the discursive links between distinct eras, marked by mass gatherings on Kyiv’s main square, in order to investigate the deeper shifts driving feminist protest and politics today.

Jessica Zychowicz is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta in the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program (CUSP) and was recently a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Kyiv-Mohyla University. She earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan.

Jessica Zychowicz's profile page

• Winner, 2022 American Association for Ukrainian Studies Book Prize
• Commended, The Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies awarded by Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
• Commended, Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literature Modern Language Association of America

"Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine is a significant study of the direct links between political context, protest actions, and art practices in this century … Zychowicz does not hesitate to introduce the reader to the complexities and ambiguities of the struggles for rights."

<em>Aspasia</em>

"This book introduces many important urban struggles going on in Ukrainian art and activism to an anglophone audience."

<em>KULT_online</em>

"Jessica Zychowicz’s Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine is a groundbreaking study of feminist protest and how it is mediated in contemporary Ukraine. Examining the decade between 2004’s Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity (2013–14), Zychowicz traverses a dazzling array of media, objects, and methods to reveal the vibrant histories of feminist collectives in Ukraine—from the infamous Femen and its media strategies to Ofenzywa’s engagement with photography to the work of the curatorial collectives HudRada and REP. Zychowicz herself is present throughout, as an interlocutor, archivist, and guide whose bracing prose will make this study an invaluable resource for readers in Slavic studies, feminist studies, and visual and media studies alike."

MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures Committee

"Superfluous Women offers a valuable new contribution to the scarce English-language bibliography on contemporary Ukrainian art activism. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has sparked worldwide interest in Ukrainian history and culture, Zychowicz’s book gains an even more important role."

<em>Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte</em>

“Zychowicz has written a far-ranging and illuminating study that deserves the attention of readers and that provides a nuanced portrait of Ukrainian culture in the decade before the 2022 invasion. Anyone who works on contemporary East European Art or post-Soviet culture will want to own this book.”

<em>Slavic and East European Journal</em>

"Drawing attention to the protest spirit evident in Ukrainian society since the early 2000s as the consequence of the rejection of its bigger neighbor’s imperial ideology and aggression, the book reveals the artistic antecedents of Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion in 2022."

<em>Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte</em>

"[Zychowicz] introduces several important art projects and movements that are indicative of a unique time in Ukraine’s post-independence history. The author’s connection with the artists through interviews enhances the images and descriptions of works of art, manifestos, and political responses—including repressions of artists—that make up much of the book’s content."

<em>H-Ukraine, H-Net Reviews</em>

"[Zychowicz] seeks to examine the way feminism, as a concept and a set of practices, has shaped and continues to shape the political and cultural landscape of Ukraine … it will reach a welcome audience among scholars of feminism, art activism, contemporary art, cultural studies, and Slavic studies."

<em>The Russian Review</em>

"Superfluous Women is remarkable for its blend of erudite theory, close analysis of visual culture, and personal experience. The author’s first-hand engagement with the people and events she discusses facilitates a unique and well-balanced insight that any scholar of contemporary Slavonic studies should welcome."

<em>Slavonic and East European Review</em>

"Superfluous Women is clearly a labor of empathy and solidarity with Ukrainians, and the inter-revolutionary generation in particular. As a path-blazing study on the topic, it should be valued as the result of a decade’s worth of intellectual production, which included numerous research trips and prolonged periods of work in the region, amassing an archive, as well as the work of cultural diplomacy, translating and representing Ukrainian artists and activists in the West."

<em>H-SHERA</em>