Disciplined Happiness: Girl Drummers and the Spectacle of Social Reproduction in Soviet Kyiv

Full event information may be found here. 

Drawing on archival materials and interviews, Bard College Associate Professor Maria Sonevytsky analyzes how the drum and bugle corps at the postwar Kyiv Palace of Pioneers used gendered musical discipline—training girls as drummers, boys as buglers, and recruiting twins and triplets—to amplify the impression of uniformity. These ritualized ensembles attempted to condition children for a future of "disciplined happiness" tied to compliance, musical competence, and rigidly deterministic gender roles. 

Ultimately, the study demonstrates how musical mastery and gendered performance norms became a spectacle that molded the idealized citizen-girl into an agent of social reproduction for the envisioned Communist future.

This event is organized by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University and co-sponsored by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access should contact HURI Events Coordinator, Kat Ambrus, at least two weeks in advance of the session.

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