Friday April 25, 2025

2pm to 3pm (New York time)

In-person and on Zoom

Dr. Iuliia Anosova

Human Rights Centre, Ghent University

(In)visible crime: Exploring the changing landscape of policy and justice approaches to conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine

Since the escalation of the Russian war against Ukraine in 2022 the issue of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) gained much more attention compared to initial stages of the war in 2014. The most notable changes include a more active public discourse on CRSV, multiple civil society initiatives, as well as the adoption of an array of laws and policies on CRSV incorporating the cutting edge international standards and introducing gender-sensitive and victim-oriented approaches into Ukrainian criminal justice system. With all this visibility, in practice CRSV remains hugely underreported and with quite a low prosecution level (as of July 2024 in 304 CRSV cases only 5 perpetrators were convicted, mostly in absentia).
The paper is aimed at the exploration, through the gender perspective, of the changing approaches to regulation and prosecution of CRSV crimes in Ukraine. It will rely on the analysis of the domestic laws and policies regulating the issue, as well as interviews with judges, prosecutors and civil society experts working in the field. As a result, it will be shown how the approaches to CRSV evolve under the conditions of the ongoing war, as well as how public (in)visibility of this crime affects gender equality in Ukraine.

Register for Zoom Here

Or join us in person at the CUNY Graduate Center

365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016

5th floor, Room 5203

Workshop format: We ask that participants read the paper in advance. Please email mara.lazda[at]bcc.cuny.edu for the paper. At the workshop, Dr. Anosova will give a brief presentation, after which participants are invited to ask questions based on the presentation and paper.

with Professor Elżbieta Korolczuk

Södertörn University & American Studies Center, Warsaw University

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

11am to 12:15pm

Please join us for a special session of the Gender & Transformation workshop, sponsored by

Brooklyn College, Gender & Women’s Studies Program series, Feminist Futures: Studying Eastern Europe.

On Zoom, Registration Required, Here

Elżbieta Korolczuk is an Associate professor in sociology, working at Södertörn University in Stockholm and at the American Studies Center, Warsaw University. Her research interests involve social movements, civil society and gender. She is currently engaged in a projectfunded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, which focuses on grassroots activism in the context of multiple crises in Central and Eastern Europe and Sweden (SUSTAIN ACTION), and studies feminist responses to anti-gender and anti-democratic forces in Horizon Europe project (CCINDLE). Her most recent publications include a co-authored volume co-edited Women’s Rebellion. Black Protests and Women’s Strikes, published by European Solidarity Centre in 2019 (with Beata Kowalska, Jennifer Ramme and Claudia Snochowska- Gonzalez) and a monograph co-authored with Agnieszka Graff Anti-gender Politics in the Populist Moment (Routledge 2021). Korolczuk is also longtime women’s and human rights activist and a commentator.

Sponsored also by Brooklyn College’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences; Departments of Anthropology, History, Judaic Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology;  and the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, Brooklyn Phi Beta Kappa Chapter, the Women’s Center, and the LGBTQ+ Resource Center

Join us Friday, September 13, 2pm to 3pm (New York Time) for our first meeting of the Fall 2024 semester, on Zoom, when we welcome

Vanja Petrović and Nađa Bobičić (University of Belgrade) on

The Never-ending 90s in Serbia: What Came before the Phantasm of Gender

Abstract: Many of the same conservative politicians, intellectuals and clergy members of the Serbian Orthodox Church have been dominating Serbia’s political landscape for the better part of the past 35 years and have played a central role in the formation of the local anti-gender movement. Here, we seek to contribute to the ongoing efforts of making sense of how and why anti-gender mobilization is making such steady headway in our society. Using archival documents, we map actors and showcase the ideological imaginary held by the conservative elite during the 1990s. We argue that this ideological imaginary serves as the foundation of anti-gender mobilizations today. As right-wing actors did not act in a vacuum, we also highlight the unwavering feminist and pacifist left-wing opposition.

Nađa Bobičić (PhD) is a literary critic, socialist feminist and queer ally who lives and works in the region of the former Yugoslavia. She has been the co-editor of several collective volumes on the topic of gender-based violence, including Non/violence and responsibility: between structure and culture(Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe, 2020). Recently, she was a member of several research projects concerning unpaid housework, the position of women cultural workers in Serbia, and countering gender backlash in Serbia and Montenegro.   

Vanja Petrovic is an organizer, activist, and PhD candidate in social policy and social work at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science. Her research is interdisciplenary, spanning across gender studies, social policy, and ethnography. They are a founder of the Novi Sad Summer School for Abolition Feminism.  

Workshop format: We ask that participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, the presenters will share a brief overview, followed by an open discussion. We invite participants to ask questions based on the paper and the discussion.

To register for the Zoom link and receive the paper use this link