Format: гибридный (очно и онлайн)
Language: russian, english
Mail: girlhoodstudiesisaspectrum@outlook.com
Organizers:
Diana Gabitova, Graduate, HSE University, Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities

Varvara Shindina, 3rd year Bachelor's Student, Moscow State University, Media Communications, Faculty of Journalism

Anna Gordeeva-Adamchuk, 2nd year Bachelor's Student, HSE University, Philology, Faculty of Humanities

Accomplices:
Sonya Legavina, 4th year Bachelor's Student, HSE University, Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities

Katya Rastrepinina, 1st year Master's Student, HSE University, Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities

Ksenia Shumilova, Graduate, HSE University, Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities

Design:
Alina Akunova, 1st year Master's Student, HSE University, Design and Promotion of Digital Products, School of Design

Sergey Borisov's book The World of Russian Girlhood: 1970-1990s (Mir russkogo devichestva: 70-90 gody XX veka) (2002) is considered to be the first research work on adolescent girls in the Russian context. In this study, the anthropologist collected and classified girls' practices in the town of Shadrinsk in the Kurgan region including games, fortune-tellings, paper-based genres (such as girls' albums and questionnaires), and their language features.

A decade later, the discussion of Russian and Soviet adolescent girls continued, but now within the framework of a distinct interdisciplinary research field—Girlhood Studies. In 2011, Olga Zdravomyslova’s article “Vyiti iz teni: pereosmyslenie zhenstvennosti v issledovaniiakh devichestva” was published in the journal Neprikosnovennyi zapas, followed later by a dedicated thematic section. In 2015, a special issue of Girlhood Studies journal on postsocialist girlhood was published guest-edited by Olga Zdravomyslova and Elena Yarskaia-Smirnova as guest editors.

The research collective Girlhood is a spectrum continued the discussion at the Vectors conference in 2025. In 2026, we aim to more precisely define our own contribution to the field of Girlhood Studies. The guiding questions of the panel are: What does it mean to be a girl in contemporary Russia? And what did it mean to be a girl in the USSR and in pre-revolutionary Russia?

Adolescent girls are socialized within multiple—and at first glance incompatible—normative systems and constantly try on different identities, choosing between various models, values, and roles [Zdravomyslova & Iarskaia-Smirnova, 2015]. Notions of femininity are transmitted by family, school, popular culture, and the media. The contours of the ideal circulate through encyclopedias “For girls only” guides for parents and teachers, glossy magazines, films and cartoons.

We understand girls’ culture not merely as leisure practices, but as a space for reflection, expression, action, and resistance [Zdravomyslova, 2011]. The image of a “proper” girl is not only changing, but is also being interpreted differently by teenagers themselves. For this reason, our focus also includes girls’ own lived experiences, which vary according to regional, class-based and ethnic differences.

We are interested in the culture — or cultures — in which Soviet girls grew up and Russian girls are growing up today: what discourses surround them? How do girls themselves see their future? How has the course of history shaped their coming of age—from the social order of the Russian Empire, through Soviet ideology, to contemporary urbanization, consumerism, the internet, and mass culture? What is the gap between official rhetoric and everyday practices? Are echoes of the Soviet past still felt in post-Soviet girlhood? These questions constitute the core focus of our panel; however, we also welcome contributions that offer new perspectives on girlhood in the Eastern European context.

• Norms of behavior and the image of a “proper” girl:

how school, family, media, and other socialization institutions shape expectations of girls; contradictions and conflicts between official ideology and everyday practices; how girls adapt, interpret, and resist these norms.

• Material and bodily culture of girls:

clothing, toys, beauty rituals, sports, and dance; writing and craft practices as ways of constructing personal and collective identity; rethinking femininity; emulating/not emulating adults in these practices.

• Representations of girlhood in the media:

how the image of an adolescent girl is (or was) created in Russian (Soviet, pre-revolutionary) cinema, media, cartoons, advertising, visual arts, and how young girls produce content about themselves.

• Girls' communities and subcultures:

the place of girls in fan communities; intergenerational differences; mechanisms of solidarity and social adaptation within groups.

• Intersectional approaches to studying girlhood:

how region, class, ethnicity, disability, and other factors influence the experience of growing up.