Forschung: Schwarze Proteste und Frauenstreiks in Polen 2016-2018

Research Seminar of the Viadrina Institut für Europa-Studien (IFES), Tuesday, January 8 2019, from 4 to 6 pm, European University Viadrina, LH 101/102

Women's mass mobilizations against the populist right in Poland:

The implications for Europe and social movement theory.

Beata Kowalska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow)

Elżbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn University, Stockholm)

This session of the IFES Research Seminar engages with the rise of new social movements opposing the conservative and far right in Poland since the attempts to further ban the right to abortion in 2016. The sociologists Beata Kowalska and Elżbieta Korolczuk, both experts in social movement studies, will present the outcomes of their recent research conducted with participants of some of the largest protests that have taken place in Poland since the change of the political system so far. These results are part of the volume "Bunt Kobiet. Czarne protesty I strajki kobiet 2016-2018” (Women´s Revolt. Black Protests and Women Strikes 2016-2016), to be published in early 2019 by the European Center of Solidarity in Gdansk.

We will discuss these new social mobilizations and their context of illiberal and right wing conservative transformations also in regard to their transnational dimensions, the premises of dominant social movement theory, and the consequences for the perspective of critical European Studies.

Introduction & Moderation: Jennifer Ramme (EUV)

Dr. hab. Beata Kowalska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow). Beata Kowalska’s recent work has focused on Muslim feminism and the situation of women in Middle Eastern countries. This research has allowed her to combine her academic interests with experience working on programs for gender equality in Poland and abroad. Her research has also been reflected in her research, in both development studies and gender studies. Beata Kowalska has been awarded the first prize of the rector of the Jagiellonian University, Pro Arte Docendi, for her teaching. Major scholarships and lectures abroad include the University of Cambridge, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the American Centre for Oriental Research in Amman, the New School for Social Research in New York, the Rutgers University, and the University at Buffalo.

Dr. Elżbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn University, Stockholm) is a sociologist and a women's and human rights activist. She works at Södertörn University in Stockholm and at the American Studies Centre of the Warsaw University. Her research interests include social movements, civil society, and gender. Among her most recent publications are the co-edited volumes Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland" (Berghahn 2017) and Rebellious Parents. Parental Movements in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia (Indiana University Press 2017). She has also published articles on anti-gender mobilization, including "Gender as ‘Ebola from Brussels’: The Anti-colonial Frame and the Rise of Illiberal Populism" with Agnieszka Graff (2018), in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

Jennifer Ramme is a member of the Viadrina Institute for European Studies and a researcher at the Chair for German-Polish Literary and Cultural Relations and Gender Studies, European University Viadrina. She is a co-editor together with Beata Kowalska, Elżbieta Korolczuk and Claudia Snochowska-Gonzalez of the book Bunt Kobiet. Czarne protesty I strajki kobiet 2016-2018, Europejskie Centrum Solidarnosci, Gdansk (forthcoming in 2019).