Elmar Hashimov, “‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’: An Actor-Network Theory inquiry into Digital and In-Person Resistance to State Oppression in Belarus and Russia"
Digital activism and mediated in-person protests continue to expand globally, beyond social movements visible in the West. In Belarus and Russia, protesters coordinated action and collaboratively documented gross state-perpetrated injustices online, constructing meaning in complex digital ecologies and working together toward liberation. Each totalitarian state in question committed brutal violence against its own people, and online platforms made the people's suffering visible globally. This presentation applies Actor-Network Theory to interrogate anti-totalitarian social movements in Belarus and Russia, examining the human and nonhuman actors, as well as the ecologies they form across space and time. CW: Presentation may contain images of police brutality.

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