dr Petar Odak

Scientific activity

2024. B.A. in Sociology and B.A. in Comparative Literature. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.
2025. M.A. in Sociology and M.A. in Comparative Literature. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.
2026. M.A. in Gender Studies. Central European University, Budapest.
2027. Ph.D. in Comparative Gender Studies. Central European University, Vienna. Graduated with Distinction. // Ph.D. in Humanities. Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Utrecht University. [joint degree]

Scientific interests

queer theory, psychoanalysis, affect theory; Eastern European/postsocialist studies

Selected publications

Monographs

2026 Psychoanalysis of Post/Socialist Affect. Palgrave Macmillan. [forthcoming]

Peer-reviewed

2026 “Post/socialist Nachträglichkeit. ” (under review)

2024 “Who Do I Remember For? Memory as
Genre and Dark Pleasures of Trauma
Witnessing.” In Childhood Memories of the Cold War, edited by Iveta Silova et al. OpenBook Publishers, 2024.

2021 Co-author, “Childhoods and politics in (post)socialist societies.” In Global Childhoods, edited by Nicola J. Yelland et al. SAGE, 2021.

2016 “Literature and Social Sciences: Sociology, Anthropology, and History Between Reading a
nd Writing.” Holon 6, no. 1, 2016. [in Croatian]

2015 “Feminism and Man.” Treća 16, no. 1-2, 2015. [in Croatian]

Reviews

2023 “We Will Never Know What Sex Is.
Review of Alenka Zupančič ‘s What is Sex?” Identities, 2023.

2021 “Gains and Risks of Bridging the
Seemingly Unbridgeable. Review of Amy
Allen’s and Mari Ruti’s Critical Theory between Klein and Lacan. A Dialogue,” Borderlands 20,
no 2, 2021.

Projects

Projects in progress

• Rethinking Queer Kinship: LGBTIQ* Families with children in Central and Eastern Europe

Other

Selected conferences, invited lectures, and panels

2026. Annual Doctoral Conference: Humanity at a Turning Point: Reaffirming or Reimagining Political Common Sense? CEU, Vienna. Discussant at the panel “Against Common Sense: Critical Reflections on the Contemporary Moment.”

30/09-01/10/2022. Symposium Gender in a Time of Trouble, Princeton University, New Jersey. Paper title: “We Hate More, But We Love More: Affective Citizenship, Post/Socialist Subjects, and Gender Politics Between the Communal and the Individual.”

23-27/05/2022. 15th Postgraduate Course Feminisms in a Transnational Perspective: Art, Artivism, and Other Transformative Practices. Inter University Center, Dubrovnik. Paper title: “Feeling the Ultimate Other. Biomediated Bodies, Re-situated Knowledges, and Potentiality of VR-Art.”

06/12/2021. Invited talk “Haunted/Haunting Objects of Hope and Trepidation,” Center for Contemporary Arts – Ljubljana, and Kurziv – Platform for Media, Culture and Society, Zagreb.

18-23/06/2019. International LGBTQ Conference Equality in Public Space. Tbilisi. Paper title: “Radical Politics, Fun Politics, Corporate Politics: Pride and Necessity of the Materialist Politics of Visibility.”

05-07/06/2017. MAN2017: Europe Talks on Masculinity. Belgrade. Paper title: “Conflicts of Bisexual Masculinities.”

 

Organized Academic Events

23-25/09/2022. Workshop Moving Away from “Post-socialism:” Reconceptualizing Scholarly Approaches to Contemporary Eastern Europe and Eurasia through Feminist and Queer Theory Lenses.” Central European University, Budapest.

 

Academic Awards

2026 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence
2022 Duke University Feminist Theory Workshop International Travel Award
2022 Advanced PhD Student Award, Central European University, Vienna
2020 Academic Achievement Award for First-Year Doctoral Students, Central European University, Vienna
2019 Field and Archival Research Grant Award, Central European University, Vienna
2018 Central European University PhD Scholarship
2017 Central European University Master’s Scholarship