About

I am the proud joint holder of this year's ECPR Joni Lovenduski PhD Prize in Gender & Politics and thus particularly looking forward to attending the GC! I am a democracy scholar, interested in the question how gender relates to processes of (de-)democratisation with a methodological focus on interpretive-qualitative methods and a regional focus on post-communist Europe. I take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from gender and area studies. In my current postdoc project at the Institute of Political Science, University of Bern (Switzerland), I look at the rise and use of the trope of "traditional values" in Russia to justify aggressive foreign policy. This builds on my two other research strands. First my PhD from Oxford where I compared Russia and Serbia and how authoritarian regimes use gender and how this affects feminist movements' strategies. My article on how they both conduct authoritarian "Othering back" has just come out in Social Politics. My full book manuscript is currently under review with Oxford University Press. The second research strand pertains to my Horizon Europe Grant, which I acquired last year and allowed me to build my own team in Bern, composed by two postdocs. As Co-Principal Investigator I lead the team in a consortium that involves eight European partners. Together we examine how right-wing populist parties use gender to act as niche parties and what gender equality policies could regain a part of their vote share. Thanks for reading! I would love to learn about your research projects. Please do not hesitate to reach out via this platform.

Research Interests

Europe (Central and Eastern), Civil Society, Comparative Politics, Democratisation, Gender, International Relations, Social Movements, Feminism, Qualitative, Political Regime, Activism

Current/Upcoming Events

Standing Groups and Research Networks

Leandra has not yet joined any established ECPR Standing Groups or Research Networks.