CRRC, American Councils and ARISC are pleased to announce the 5th talk of the Fall 2024 Tbilisi Works-in-Progress series!
This week’s talk will be in hybrid format in-person at CRRC Georgia and online.
“Swedish Aid, Gender Equity and Sexual Rights Discourses in Development Cooperation with Eastern Europe”
Sofie Bedford, Institute for Russian And Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University
This project will study how Sweden’s generous financial support of feminist and LGBTI+ CSOs abroad facilitates the travel of idealized Swedish narratives about sexual rights and gender equality across national, regional, and geopolitical borders. The researchers are especially interested in how these narratives get reinterpreted, contested and adapted in the traveling process. Informed by theory of translation and actor-centered democratization theory, the project focuses on how the choices and strategies of key actors involved – donors, implementers, recipients and their beneficiaries, as well as the interaction between them, impacts the promotion of gender equality and sexual rights discourses in Armenia and Georgia. This is a 3-year project funded by the Swedish Research Council that is just starting. The speaker will be very happy to discuss and receive input on its content or implementation, especially given that the political situation in Georgia has changed quite a bit since the proposal was originally submitted.
Dr. Sofie Bedford is an associate professor (docent) in Political Science and a researcher at Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES) at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her Ph.D. project focused on processes of Islamic revivalism and community mobilization in Azerbaijan. She has since continued her research on religious, political and civic activism, especially in the Azerbaijani context but also in comparison to other authoritarian states, Belarus in particular. Since 2024 she is part of the editorial board for the academic journal Caucasus Studies.
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Works-in-Progress is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place at the CRRC office at Chavchavadze Ave. 5 and online. It is co-organized by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). All of the talks are free and open to the public.
In observation of the spirit of the Chatham House Rule, the talks will not be recorded, and we courteously request that the other participants refrain from recording and/or distributing recordings as well. The opinions expressed in WiP talks are those of the speakers alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CRRC, ARISC or of American Councils.
