Bénédicte Santoire, University of Ottawa, presents new research on the role of women in protracted conflicts in Moldova and Georgia for feedback and discussion.

Bénédicte Santoire is a PhD Candidate and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She researches and teaches in the areas of feminist international relations theories and feminist security studies. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the post-Soviet space, more specifically in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia.

This is the first session in fall 2023 of the Gender and Transformation in Central-Easterrn Europe and Eurasia Workshop. It is unique in the New York City area in providing a venue for the continuing discussion of gender and postcommunism. It started in 1993 and its members have been women activists, academics, journalists, lawyers, and educators concerned about gender inequality in the newly non-Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Members of the Network of East-West Women were some of the earliest participants and speakers. The goal is to provide a venue for those from the region and working in and about it, to be able to provide their most recent work, including on western Europe and Eurasia.

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we continue to provide an avenue for scholars, including young scholars, to present their research to an informed and interested group, as issues of gender still form an important lens through which to view the ongoing changes and transformations.

The workshop is currently moderated  by Janet Elise Johnson (Graduate Center and Brooklyn College, CUNY) and Mara Lazda (Bronx Community College, CUNY).

This meeting will take place on Zoom. Please register to receive a link to the Zoom session. We ask that registered participants read the paper in advance. At the workshop, Santoire will provide a brief (20 min) presentation, after which attendees are invited to share questions and suggestions based on the presentation and paper. The paper will provided one week in advance.