UKRAINETT, OsloMet 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.”

Location: OsloMet, Pilestredet 48, Eva Balkes hus S141, Gerd Wangs auditorium (P48P48-S141)

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.

Digital attendance is also available.

Eksternt innmeldt arrangement.