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We are excited to announce that the 2023 Joni Lovenduski PhD Prize in Gender and Politics has been awarded jointly to Leandra Bias of the University of Bern and Cecilia Josefsson of Uppsala University for their two outstanding doctoral dissertations.
Leandra Bias is awarded the prize for The (Im)Possibility of Feminist Critique in Authoritarianism: Revisiting Western Knowledge-Transfer in Russia and Serbia completed at the University of Oxford.
Cecilia Josefsson receives the prize for Adaptive Resistance: Power Struggles over Gender Quotas in Uruguay completed at Uppsala University.
Both theses showcased original thinking and innovative writing, making it impossible for our jury to choose a single winner.
To celebrate the prize we have curated a short video featuring the winners, their supervisors and the member of the Jury from the Standing Group on Gender and Politics.
Leandra's thesis uses historical, archival research and positivist as well as interpretive discourse analysis of the 70 interviews conducted in Russia and Serbia between 2014 and 2017. It makes the case that with the rise of authoritarianism which employs 'Othering back' through an anti-gender discourse, critical feminist scholars need to rethink power relations.
Leandra Bias makes a strong empirical and theoretical contribution with her work [...] The writing is extremely reflexive, and thoughtful regarding the positionality of both Russian and Serbian feminists in relation to both state powers and critical theory on knowledge exchange.
The analysis is extensively theoretically grounded. The manuscript is beautifully written throughout, combining both nuance and passion to an exceptional degree.
Cecilia's thesis seeks to enhance our understanding of gendered institutional continuity and change in general, and gender equality policy failure. It explores and theorises the role of resistance among privileged political elites, drawing attention to the people involved in the power struggles for gender equality reforms – the change agents and the status quo defenders – and their agency and room for manoeuvre.
Cecilia Josefsson’s ‘adaptive resistance stage model’ studying the case of Uruguay is very original. While treating a classic topic her work is very innovative, as the literature focuses on women’s agency and progress and the (institutional) constraints they face, not on resistance from those defending the status quo.
The idea of studying policy failure and the agency of those who resist progressive change is refreshing and sheds new light on political processes. The theoretical justification of the choice of Uruguay is excellent, and the use of time and within-country variation is smart.
Leandra Bias is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science, University of Bern and affiliated with the Centre on East European and international studies (ZOiS). Her work focuses on authoritarianism, anti-gender politics, foreign policy and feminist resistance. Regionally, she specialises in Russia and Serbia.
Read moreThis work has been accompanied by many doubts about whether I am doing justice: to ‘Western’, Russian or Serbian feminists. To hear that the jury considers my writing extremely reflexive and thoughtful and that they could see the relations of trust I established through my research is a very meaningful validation. I am sincerely touched!
Cecilia Josefsson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Uppsala University. Her research focuses on political institutions and representation with a focus on gender, in a wide variation of contexts including sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Scandinavia.
Read moreWinning the Joni Lovenduski PhD Prize is an incredible honour. I am immensely thankful to my supervisors and my research community for their support throughout this journey. I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to the research participants who generously shared their time and insights, as this award would not have been possible without their invaluable contributions.
Keywords: Europe (Central and Eastern), Gender, Feminism, Power, Activism