Slow memory and historical storytelling: Gender politics in state socialist and post-war Kosovo

This article examines the memory of state socialism in Kosovo through a gender and slow memory lens. It revisits the ‘archive’ of a woman’s scholarship from the socialist era to shed light on gender and power dynamics in memory frameworks and storytelling. The focus is on three points: First, an attempt is made to uncover patterns of gendered remembrance and how they have influenced Kosovo’s dominant memory and historical narratives. Second, it is shown how neglect and nostalgia for the socialist era shape contemporary memory politics. And third, through attention to gendered temporalities, it is argued that the slow memory approach renders visible the interplay between silence and remembrance of the distant and recent past. It empowers the gendering of knowledge and storytelling to recentre memory and envision alternative futures.