Russian Marital Migrants in Contemporary Film
In Foucauldian terms, students of Russian culture contribute to and/or destabilize the ‘regimes of knowledge’ governing what is meaningful, adequate and reasonable to know about this culture.1 The position from which these regimes are established is of primary importance: know­ledge positioned outside Russia, within a national framework that has experienced instances of military, religious and/or economic conflict with Russia, is likely to differ significantly from knowledge produced in Russia proper. This was a conspicuous trait of Cold War Soviet studies, which in the West favoured topics such as Stalinist terror and persecuted poets, topics deemed unsuitable by Soviet academia. Since the procla­mation of glasnost and the subsequent political changes, the range of topics researched within the Russian and post-Soviet university commu­nity has expanded significantly. However, the Cold War ceasefire has not diminished the importance of knowledge positioning. When West­ern countries are allowed to set the agenda nowadays, the focus tends to be on issues such as the illegal dissemination of nuclear technology, ecological disaster, poverty, trafficking, mail-order brides and organized crime. This preference is especially obvious in media reporting about Russia, but could also be detected among successful research grant pro­posals and thematic journal issues in the Anglophone academic world. Impregnated with ideology, this discourse is not innocent and eventu­ally turns into practices. While Cold War discourse in the West resulted in legal measures enhancing migration from the Soviet Union,2 post­war discourse often translates into restrictive immigration legislation and discriminating visa procedures.
Gender and Nation
Abstract The article outlines some of the main dimensions in which gender relations are crucial in understanding and analysing the phenomena of nations and nationalism, and the specific boundaries of inclusions and exclusions that they construct. Three major dimensions of nationalist projects that relate to citizenship, culture and origin are differentiated. In each of them gender relations play specific roles and have mobilized specific struggles. The article looks at the dualistic nature of women's citizenship, as both included and excluded from the general body of citizens. Even when there is a formal equality of women in their political rights as citizens, other modes of exclusion in the political, social and civil spheres continue to operate. The particular ways in which the entry of women into the military has been linked to struggles for women's equality as citizens are examined in this context. In relation to national cultures, both secular and religious, the article examines the ways in which wom...
Tethering the Administrative State: The Case Against Chevron Deference for FCC Jurisdictional Claims
Like many other agencies, the Federal Communications Commission has seen significant regulatory growth under President Obama. But unlike health care, financial reform, and other areas, this growth has come without statutory guidance from Congress. The FCC’s assertion of jurisdiction over broadband service is reminiscent of its earlier attempts to regulate cable and to deregulate telephone service, efforts that courts have viewed skeptically in the absence of specific statutory authorization. But this skepticism is in tension with Chevron, which grants agencies substantial deference to interpret ambiguities in the statutes that they administer. This article argues that Chevron deference should not extend to agency jurisdictional claims, such as the FCC’s claim to authority over broadband. For both constitutional and policy reasons, courts should distinguish between agency action that fills a gap in a statutory scheme and action that defines the outer boundary of that scheme. As the Commission’s net neutrality project winds its way through the judicial system, courts should not allow the agency to define the limits of its own authority, and should instead search closely for a grant of authority from Congress.