Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee (born April 26, 1970) is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is primarily known for her ethnographic work on post-Communist Bulgaria as well as being a contributor to the field of postsocialist gender studies.
She was critical of the role of Western feminist nongovernmental organizations doing work among East European women in the 1990s. She examined the shifting gender relations of Muslim minorities after Communist rule, and the intersections of Islamic beliefs and practices with the ideological remains of Marxism–Leninism.
Books in order of publication:
The Red Riviera : gender, tourism, and postsocialism on the Black Sea – 2005
Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe – 2009
Professor Mommy:Finding Work/Life balance in Academia – 2011
Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life after Communism – 2011
The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe – 2015
From Notes to Narrative: Writing Ethnographies that Everyone Can Read. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism – 2017
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism – 2018
Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women’s Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War, Durham, Duke University Press, 2019
Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021
Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women. New York and London: Verso Books, 2022
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023
Oak Lawn Library Friends 