This lecture examines how LGBTQ+ activism in Ukraine has been reshaped by Russia’s full-scale invasion, and how anti-gender movements have simultaneously recalibrated their strategies under conditions of war. Drawing on qualitative research with activists, civil society actors, and policymakers, it explores how questions of gender and sexuality become entangled with nationalism, security, and geopolitical belonging. Rather than framing the war as a simple accelerator of liberalization or repression, the talk argues that wartime conditions produce ambivalent, uneven, and contested transformations in both progressive and anti-gender mobilization.
Maryna Shevtsova is a Senior FWO Postdoctoral Researcher at KU Leuven. Her work focuses on LGBTQ+ politics, anti-gender mobilization, nationalism, and geopolitics in Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet space. She has published widely on sexuality and security, feminist methodologies, and civil society under authoritarian and conflict conditions. Maryna is the author and editor of several books and special issues, including the edited volume Feminist Perspectives on Russia's war in Ukraine: Hear Our Voices (Lexington Books 2024).
Professor Knut Andreas Grimstad will moderate the talk.