The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Geopolitics of Gender

Featuring Cinzia Solari, Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston

When: Thursday, October 19, 2023 | 4-5 PM

Where: Damen Student Center, Sr. Jean MPR North

Presented by: Women's Studies and Gender Studies Program

This seminar will explore how Russia seeks to redefine itself in opposition to its former Soviet state policies that supported women’s liberation by creating an oppositional idea of modernity, placing the focus on men and re-masculinization.  Within the past decade, other nations across the world have followed suit in embracing this oppositional view of gender identity and sexuality:  Belarus, Brazil, India, the Philippines, Turkey, and even factions within the United States.  The invasion of Ukraine and its subsequent violence has allowed Putin to position Russia as the leader of this transnational modernity of manliness ideal by forcefully keeping Ukraine out of Europe and within its repressive control.