Militarized Gender Order and Fragile Knowledge: Researching Russian Anti-Feminism
This talk reflects on my experience of researching Russian anti-feminism between 2020 and 2025 — from inside Russia, and then from the UK. Drawing on three projects spanning state anti-gender politics, women's anti-war protests, and gendered political violence, I discuss what it means to study dissent when political visibility is systematically constrained. I argue that Russia does not merely hide information but produces distorted epistemic environments that look homogenous from outside. I trace a spiral of violence that moves from political actors to organizations to womanhood itself, and show how this spiral shapes what evidence is available and what methods can reach it. Further, I discuss the challenges of anti-extractivist research, working against your own bias, and studying Russia without feeding Russian exceptionalism. The talk is as much about the limits of this knowledge as about its findings.
Anya Kuteleva is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and co-chair of the IPSA Research Committee on Gender Politics and Policy. She works across two empirical domains — energy governance and gender politics — treating both as arenas in which power is constructed, challenged, and sustained through language, ideology, and cultural narratives. Her gender politics research focuses on authoritarianism and anti-feminist politics, with a particular focus on Russia, and on the methodological challenges of studying feminist and anti-feminist politics. She studied in Russia and China, earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of Alberta, Canda, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
The seminar will take place online only on Tuesday 7 April, 16-18:00 CET.
Anya Kuteleva's presentation will be discussed by Anna Colin-Lebedev, lecturer at Paris-Nanterre Université.
If you wish to attend, please fill out this form, and we will send you the link.
This talk reflects on my experience of researching Russian anti-feminism between 2020 and 2025 — from inside Russia, and then from the UK. Drawing on three projects spanning state anti-gender politics, women's anti-war protests, and gendered political violence, I discuss what it means to study dissent when political visibility is systematically constrained. I argue that Russia does not merely hide information but produces distorted epistemic environments that look homogenous from outside. I trace a spiral of violence that moves from political actors to organizations to womanhood itself, and show how this spiral shapes what evidence is available and what methods can reach it. Further, I discuss the challenges of anti-extractivist research, working against your own bias, and studying Russia without feeding Russian exceptionalism. The talk is as much about the limits of this knowledge as about its findings.
Anya Kuteleva is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and co-chair of the IPSA Research Committee on Gender Politics and Policy. She works across two empirical domains — energy governance and gender politics — treating both as arenas in which power is constructed, challenged, and sustained through language, ideology, and cultural narratives. Her gender politics research focuses on authoritarianism and anti-feminist politics, with a particular focus on Russia, and on the methodological challenges of studying feminist and anti-feminist politics. She studied in Russia and China, earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of Alberta, Canda, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
The seminar will take place online only on Tuesday 7 April, 16-18:00 CET.
Anya Kuteleva's presentation will be discussed by Anna Colin-Lebedev, lecturer at Paris-Nanterre Université.
If you wish to attend, please fill out this form, and we will send you the link.
