ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the social mechanisms of production and circulation of knowledge repertories dealing with gender in Eastern Europe during the decade that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. This period and space constitute a privileged standpoint for observing globalization processes in progress. After setting out the general framework and the principles of a transnational and prosopographic analysis, trajectories of a few dozens of pioneering feminists, academics and experts are discussed. During the 1990s, these women – who share socialization experiences across borders and whose profiles resonate and resemble each other in terms of age, education, cultural and social resources – established gender studies as a new academic field in their respective countries. The chapter shows that the international dynamics of knowledge circulation display power relations shaping the issues of interest, the actors’ profiles, and the very ideas related to the status of women after socialism.
