Wednesday 3 June 2026, 13.30-14.30 (CET)

As a generalised trend, national executives and legislatures remain both male-dominated and characterised by a masculinised culture, that is: a tendency to associate leadership skills with supposedly masculine traits of competitiveness, ambition and aggression, while treating caring and caring responsibilities as a liability rather than an asset for politicians.  

In this webinar, we ask the questions: What, if any, link is there between gender dynamics in formal political institutions and current trends of political violence and democratic backsliding? Are some democracies more prone to violent behaviour due to their power-concentrating institutional design? What lessons can politicians and (feminist) peacebuilders learn from the interplay between institutions, gender and the risk of violence?  

Moderator:

Dr. Ulrike Theuerkauf

Ulrike is an Associate Professor in Politics and Global Development at the University of East Anglia (UK). With a background in Political Science, she specialises in the causes and possible solutions of large-scale political violence. Her main research interests include the effects of differential access to power, especially along ethnic and gender lines; institutional design for conflict management; the relationship between direct, structural and cultural violence; and the social construction of political identities during times of peace and war.

Speakers:

Stacie Uitti

Stacie Uitti is a Doctoral Researcher in Peace and Conflict Research at Tampere University, Finland. Her work lies at the intersection of feminist peace research and diaspora studies. She collaborates with NGOs in Somalia and Kenya, engaging in community-led feminist peacebuilding and feminist approaches to local and regional security. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked for six years in transportation security, countering hybrid threats, and background investigations with the U.S. federal government, including assignments at the Executive Office of the President, the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Capitol.

Dr. Felix Schulte

Felix Schulte is Senior Researcher and head of the cluster “Conflict & Security” at the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) in Flensburg, Germany. His research interests are situated at the intersection of empirical conflict studies, ethnopolitics, and comparative politics and focus on three areas: the emergence of conflictive mass behaviour in divided societies, institutional options for regulating such conflicts in a peaceful and sustainable way, as well as conflictual relationships between majorities and minorities in modern societies.

Dr. Justina Pinkeviciute

Justina’s research critically engages with Transitional Justice, Human Rights, and Peacebuilding, with a focus on power dynamics between the state, the private sector, and civil society, and how these shape justice and development outcomes in conflict-affected contexts. As a researcher-activist, she works in solidarity with local communities to support transformative change. Previously, she worked in human rights advocacy with organisations including Amnesty International and the Council of Europe, as well as grassroots civil society groups. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from Coventry University and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Warwick.

To attend the webinar use the following Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/331110415438318?p=KrcP4czPP9Wc5khtPS