Reclaiming Homelands

Counter-Hegemonic Identity Narratives of Belarusian and Russian Political Exiles

Public Defence of PhD Thesis by Katrine Stevnhøj.

 

Focusing on the case of contemporary Belarusian and Russian exiles, this PhD dissertation is an in-depth qualitative study of how people in exile resist and react to repression and war in their homelands while navigating challenges of identification and alienation abroad. The two main critical junctures, which set the background for the investigation, are the Belarusian uprising in 2020 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The research draws upon identity theories, studies of collective action, and critical geopolitics, emphasising the fluidity of identity, the role of human agency, and people’s ability to challenge political hegemony from below through activism. The research is empirically underpinned by ethnographic fieldwork, including thirty-three semistructured, in-depth interviews with Belarusian and Russian political exiles and migrants across seven countries (Denmark, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and the Netherlands), field observations, and material gathered online. The study is innovative in that it includes both the Belarusian and Russian cases and considers dynamics of identity amongst both new political exiles and more settled diasporic populations. The dissertation contributes empirically and conceptually to scholarly understandings of the nexus between agency, activism, and displacement. The dissertation shows that the war in Ukraine and escalations in authoritarianism and domestic repressions represent watershed moments for the Belarusian and Russian exiles, prompting not only their forced departure, but also presenting them with a challenge of double alienation, where they are placed under a cross-pressure between hegemonic discourses in the homelands and experiences of alienation abroad. With the aim of reclaiming identity narratives and countering the hegemony of their homelands, the exiles construct counter-hegemonic identity narratives through participation in oppositional activism in exile. The research demonstrates that exile is not merely a position of inactivity, but that activism in exile provides an arena where people can claim agency over identity narratives and perform resistance from marginalised positions. The dissertation makes an argument for the importance of studying dynamics of identity as part of the wider counter-hegemonic struggles of political exiles.

 

 

Med fokus på eksilaktivister fra Belarus and Rusland er denne ph.d.-afhandling en dybdegående kvalitativ undersøgelse af, hvordan mennesker i eksil reagerer på og gør modstand imod undertrykkelse og krig i deres hjemlande, samtidig med at de navigerer i de udfordringer med identifikation og fremmedgørelse, de oplever i eksil. De to primære begivenheder, som sætter rammen for studiet, er den belarusiske opstand i 2020 og Ruslands fuldskala invasion af Ukraine i 2022. Den teoretiske ramme trækker på identitetsteorier, studier i sociale bevægelser og studier i kritisk geopolitik. Den teoretiske ramme understreger, at identitet er flydende, at menneskelig handlekraft spiller en vigtig rolle, og at politisk hegemoni udfordres nedefra igennem aktivisme. Forskningen er empirisk funderet i etnografisk feltarbejde, herunder 33 semistrukturerede, dybdegående interviews med belarusiske og russiske eksilaktivister på tværs af syv opholdslande (Danmark, Georgien, Letland, Litauen, Norge, Polen og Holland), feltobservationer og materiale indsamlet online. Undersøgelsen er innovativ, idet den inddrager både belarusiske og russiske aktivister samt undersøger identitetsdynamikker blandt såvel nye eksilgrupper som migranter fra tidligere emigrationsbølger. Afhandlingen bidrager empirisk og konceptuelt til den videnskabelige forståelse af sammenhængen mellem handlekraft, aktivisme og eksil. Studiet viser, at krigen i Ukraine og eskaleringen af politisk forfølgelse i hjemlandene er skelsættende begivenheder for de belarusiske og russiske aktivister i eksil. Begivenhederne foranlediger ikke blot emigration, men stiller også emigranterne over for en udfordring med dobbelt fremmedgørelse og placerer dem i et krydspres mellem hegemoniske diskurser i hjemlandene og oplevelser af fremmedgørelse i udlandet. Med henblik på at tage ejerskab over deres identitetsfortællinger og yde modstand mod politisk hegemoni, konstruerer eksilaktivisterne nye antihegemoniske identitetsfortællinger gennem deltagelse i aktivisme i eksil. Forskningen viser således, at eksiltilstanden ikke blot er en tilstand af inaktivitet, men at eksilaktivisme udgør en arena, hvor folk kan genforhandle identitetsfortællinger og udøve modstand fra marginaliserede positioner. Afhandlingen argumenterer for væsentligheden i at studere identitetsdynamikker som en del af en bredere antihegemonisk kamp blandt eksilaktivister.

 

Assessment Committee

  • Associate Professor Tea Sindbæk Andersen, Chair (University of Copenhagen)
  • Professor Sanna Turoma (University of Tampere)
  • Associate Professor Helge Blakkisrud (University of Oslo)

Moderator of the defence

  • Head of Department, Annika Hvithamar (University of Copenhagen)

Copies of the thesis will be available for consultation at the following three places:

  • At the Information Desk of the Copenhagen University Library South Campus, Karen Blixens Vej 7
  • In Reading Room East of the Royal Library (the Black Diamond), Søren Kierkegaards Plads 1
  • At the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Karen Blixens Plads 8