RUCARR is organising a roundtable discussion on the current development in Belarus. What are the likely scenarios for further development, how are external actors likely to react, and what are the general implications for politics in Europe and more globally?
Roundtable participants are Dr. Sofie Bedford (Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University); Prof. Aleh Cherp (Central European University & Lund University); PhD Natallia Paulovich (independent researcher, Warsaw); Martin Uggla (Östgruppen).
Moderator: Prof. Bo Petersson (RUCARR, Malmö University)
When : September 15, 15.15–17.00
Where: Zoom – Registration with name and affiliation: rucarr@mau.se
Bios:
Dr. Sofie Bedford is an affiliated researcher at IRES Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She is living in Vienna where she has been teaching East European Studies at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna. For the past 5 years she has been working on a research project problematizing the concept of Opposition in post-Soviet authoritarian states with Azerbaijan and Belarus as the case studies. She has published articles from this project in various academic journals and also recently written a number of commentaries about the situation in Belarus related to the Covid-19 crises, the Presidential Election, and its aftermath.
Aleh Cherp is a professor of Central European University (CEU) in Vienna and Lund University. Prof. Cherp served as the Academic Secretary and as the Research Director of CEU. For over 15 years he has coordinates a multi-university Erasmus Mundus Masters program in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management. His research focuses on global climate and energy. He has served in several leading roles in European science, including most recently as a Panel Chair in the European Research Council. Prof Cherp has also undertaken professional work for the European Environment Agency (EEA), UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, and USAID among others. He is originally from Belarus and has participated several academic and professional projects in the field of energy and environment there. Prior to joining CEU in 2000, he earned his Masters and PhD at Manchester University and worked with NGOs and the United Nations in Central Asia, Russia and Belarus. He also founded an Environmental NGO in Moscow during the political change in the Former Soviet Union. His first degree was in Physics. Member of the Extended Coordination Council for Overcoming the Political Crisis in Belarus.
Natallia Paulovich, Ph.D., is an independent researcher from Belarus located in Warsaw, Poland. In 2018 she received a doctoral degree in sociology with a focus on Georgian women at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Moreover, the experience she gained studying Belarusian history at Belarusian State University in Minsk, and the subsequent studies at the Centre of East European Studies, University of Warsaw, provided Natallia with a broad analytical perspective about various social, national, religious, and political issues in Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Her current research interest is concentrated on gender, post-industrialization and workers’ mobilization in Belarus.
Martin Uggla, human rights defender, chairman of Östgruppen – Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. Has 25 years of experience from working with civil society development in Eastern Europe. Special focus on Belarus, has followed the human rights situation in the country closely during the last 20 years. Author of several articles on Belarus and the book “Bruksanvisning för diktatorer – en berättelse om Belarus och Europas första moderna diktator” (2014)