Feminist Conversations: Women, Trauma, And Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies (Book Review‪)‬

Feminist Conversations: Women, Trauma, and Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies. 2009. Dovile Budryte, Lisa M. Vaughn, and Natalya T. Riegg (eds.). Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 179 pp. Index included. $28.00 (Paperback). Feminist Conversations. Women, Trauma, and Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies, edited by Dovile Budryte, Lisa M. Vaughn, and Natalya T. Riegg, offers a fresh approach to transnational feminist discourse by bringing together voices of scholars and practitioners (and those who combine these roles) from Eastern Europe, the United States, Africa, and Latin America to explore the traumatic and empowering aspects of democratic transitions from women's points of view. The book disrupts traditional frameworks of transnational feminist exchanges, i.e., East/West and North/South, by facilitating a conversation among contributors from all of these geographical areas. As its title suggests, the book is indeed structured as a "conversation" among women and men working on issues of women's trauma and empowerment. It starts and ends with dialogues among the editors, and its three sections serve as a conversation among all contributors, with commentaries following each chapter.