Behind the Headlines | Women in Resistance In Belarus and Poland

Thursday, 10 December 2020, 7 – 8:30pm The recent anti-government
protests in Belarus and Poland have attracted significant media
attention across the world, with commentators highlighting not only
the remarkable resilience of the protesters in the face of violence
but also the predominance of women at the forefront of the protests
themselves. In this Behind the Headlines discussion, our panel of
experts will address the background to the demonstrations in each
country before considering the key role played by the protestors --
and particularly the women involved -- in mobilising an effective
and enduring opposition. Speakers: 'What went wrong – how women
ended being the losers in Poland’s ‘democratic’ transition?' -Dr
Jacqueline Hayden (TCD) Dr Jacqueline Hayden is director of the
Centre for European Studies at Trinity College Dublin and author of
Poles Apart: Solidarity and the New Poland and The Collapse of
Communist Power in Poland: Strategic Misperceptions and
Unanticipated Outcomes. She will explore how, since the election of
the first PiS government, there has been a sharp resurgence of
Catholic church values in political life. In seeking to
institutionalise an ethnic-Catholic vision of the nation, both
church and state in Poland have launched an attack on modernity.
Women and the LGBT+ community have been the victims of this
assault. Leading protests on and behind the scenes: Lessons from
Belarus - Dr Aliaksandr Herasimenka (Oxford) Dr Herasimenka, is a
postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project at
the Oxford Internet Institute. His work investigates how political
groups and governments use social media to manipulate public
opinion. He also studies how people organise protest movements in
authoritarian countries. In his talk, Dr Herasimenka will offer
perspectives on the role of women in the post-election 2020
protests in Belarus, including their important role as symbolic
leaders of the movement. SIGNS of the (feminist) revolution in
Poland - Dr Aneta Stępień (Maynooth University) Dr Aneta Stępień is
a university tutor in Critical Skills Programme at Maynooth
University. She has taught on Polish language and literature,
cultures of Central and Eastern Europe and gender and her recent
article “Women’s Organizations and Antisemitism: The First
Parliamentary Elections in Independent Poland” (2020) appeared in
Nationalities Papers. Her talk offers a feminist look on
#StrajkKobiet, the Women’s Protest in Poland, a movement that
emerged in September 2016 as a wave of manifestations against the
governmental proposal of restricting the abortion law. The protests
in Belarus and Poland: a comparative overview - Balázs Apor (TCD)
Dr Apor is associate professor in European Studies at Trinity
College Dublin and a historian of Central and Eastern Europe in the
20th Century, with a special focus on the Communist period. His
research interests include the study of propaganda and symbolic
politics under Communist rule, and the Sovietisation of Eastern
Europe after the Second World War. He will discuss the protests in
Belarus and Poland from a comparative angle, highlighting common
patterns as well as differences between the two movements, as well
as reflecting on their the remarkable endurance. About Behind the
Headlines The Trinity Long Room Hub’s ‘Behind the Headlines’
discussion series draws on the expertise of distinguished panel
contributors to explore contemporary issues in the broad contexts
of Arts and Humanities research. Introduced in 2015, the series
provides a forum for public understanding and creates a valuable
space for informed and respectful public discourse. Find out more
about Behind the Headlines series here
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/whats-on/details/behind-the-headlines.php
The Trinity Long Room Hub Behind the Headlines series is supported
by the John Pollard Foundation. Learn more at:
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/