UKRAINETT and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee are pleased to invite you to an open breakfast seminar on LGBTQ Rights and Anti-Gender Politics in Wartime Ukraine with Maryna Shevtsova (KU Leuven), Mina Wikshåland Skouen (Norwegian Helsinki Committee), and Maryna Rabinovych (UiT).
Over the past decade, Ukraine has witnessed significant advances in LGBTQ visibility and rights, even as anti-gender movements and conservative actors have mobilized against them. The Russian full-scale invasion has accelerated this tension. This seminar explores how wartime conditions have transformed both LGBTQ activism and anti-gender politics in Ukraine, reshaping public debates on citizenship, family, and “European values.”
Coffee and a light breakfast will be available before the seminar, with doors opening at 08:30.
WHEN: 25 February, 08:30 – 10:00 (CET) – Presentation from 08:45
WHERE: Pilestredet 48, Eva Balkes hus S141, Gerd Wangs auditorium (P48P48-S141)
Digital attendance is available, see Zoom link:
https://oslomet.zoom.us/j/67867308767
Meeting ID: 678 6730 8767
Password: 591180
Programme
08:30: Doors open, light breakfast
08:45: Lecture: “LGBTQ Rights and Anti-Gender Politics in Wartime Ukraine”
By Maryna Shevtsova, Senior post-doctoral FWO Fellow at KU Leuven. Her lecture will elaborate on empirical research conducted before and during the war, situating Ukraine within broader regional dynamics while highlighting its distinct wartime trajectory. The talk discusses what these struggles tell us about democracy, human rights, and geopolitical belonging under conditions of an armed conflict.
09:30: Commentary: “Why do Authoritarian Leaders Keep Talking about LGBTQ people?”
Mina Wikshåland Skouen from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee will provide commentary on how anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric in Europe and Central Asia has moved from a value-based trajectory into a trajectory on safety and security, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
09:50: Short Q&A
Moderated by Maryna Rabinovych.
Registration
For in‑person attendance, please register using this form. For digital participation, no registration is required.
The presentations will be held in English.
Bio
Maryna Shevtsova is a Senior Post-doctoral FWO Fellow at KU Leuven. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Humboldt University, Berlin. Before starting her work at KU Leuven, she was an MSCA EUTOPIA Fellow at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her publications include the book, “LGBTI Politics and Value Change in Ukraine and Turkey: Exporting Europe?” (Routledge, 2021) and an edited volume, “Feminist Perspectives of Russia’s War in Ukraine: Hear Our Voices” (Lexington Books, 2024). Her research interests include LGBTQ+ activism in Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus, queer migration and anti-gender movements.
Mina Wikshåland Skouen is Senior Adviser in the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, responsible for their equal rights work. NHC has been working with LGBTIQ organizations in Europe and Central Asia since 2010 – with a particular focus on Ukraine. She is also regularly giving lectures on intersections on gender and sexuality, war, and security politics at University of Bergen, University of Oslo and Høyskolen Kristiania.
Maryna Rabinovych is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the UiT the Arctic University of Norway. She holds an PhD in Legal Studies from the University of Hamburg and an LL.M in European and European Legal Studies from University of Hamburg and Europa Kolleg Hamburg. Her key focus is on Ukraine’s European integration, most recently reflected in the co-edited volume “Ukraine’s Thorny Path to the EU: From “Integration without Membership” to “Integration through War” (with Anne Pintsch).