At the invitation of John Smith Trust, Professor Elena Korosteleva and Dr Tatsiana Chulitskaya (WUB-hub) were invited to train the first cohort of the Future Leaders from Belarus in Oxford. This was a great opportunity to establish professional connections, and to offer feedback to the Action Plans of the JST Fellows. They are invited to be part of the WUB-hub conference on 28 June 2024, held in Europe House, with high-level policy, academic & practitioner stakeholders. The JST & IGSD will work together on developing a bespoke training programme for the future JST fellows at Warwick.

IGSD Research Fellow Dr. Aijan SharshenovaLink opens in a new window has successfully applied to be a part of the School of Advanced Gender EqualityLink opens in a new window (SAGE) organised by the University of Central Asia with support from the Government of Canada-funded Regional Programme, Foundations for Health and Empowerment Education (F4HE), and Advancing Gender Equity through Civil Society (AGECS). SAGE aims to assist gender advocacy organisations, women led organisations, as well as activists, journalists, bloggers working on gender issues, strengthen their capacity in the areas of gender equality and gender advocacy, provide a platform for peer-support, knowledge sharing and learning, and pilot innovative projects through the Small Grants component. In the course of the next nine months, Aijan will learn theoretical approaches to gender equality and practical aspects of gender advocacy.

Dr Paul Hansbury joined the WUB-hub project (and the IGSD team) as a lead researcher on Belarus and Ukraine examining the issues of democracy-building, conflict and war, geopolitics and EU strategies towards these countries and the wider neighbourhood. Welcome, Paul!

On 19 Feb 2024 Dr Aijan Sharshenova joined our SHAPEDEM project (and IGSD team) as a lead Research Fellow. Prior to this Aijan was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. Dr Sharshenova holds a PhD in Politics awarded at the University of Leeds, UK. Prior to joining the OSCE Academy, Dr Sharshenova worked at the UN and UNDP country offices in the Middle East, and taught courses in International Politics and Academic Writing. Aijan’s research interests include public diplomacy, the EU and Russian policies towards Central Asia, EU policies towards the eastern neighbourhood, and international development. Recently, Dr Sharshenova published her book ‘The European Union’s Democracy Promotion in Central Asia’ available here.

Aijan replaced Dr Asya Kudlenko, who is currently on maternity leave.

Especially delighted to announce this news: IGSD is very happy to announce that Dr Hita Unnikrishnan will be joining IGSD on 3 June 2024 as our new Assistant Professor. Presently Hita is Newton International Fellow at the University of Sheffield, and prior that she worked as Assistant Professor at the Trans-Disciplinary University, and as a post-doctoral research associate at Azim Premji University, both based in Bengaluru, India. She obtained her Ph.D from Manipal University, India; ATREE, Bengaluru. Hita was also a recipient of the Prof. Elinor Ostrom Fellowship on Practice and Policy on the Commons in 2013.

WELCOME, Hita!